Sometimes all you really need is a place to call home. *** Claire is lost and scared and utterly alone. Her family is in shambles after the death of her older sister Ina, and she's left to pick up the broken pieces of herself as her life heads into a downwards spiral of loneliness. Her heart leads her to 5:48, a little cafe by 33rd street, where she finds her new home. With a broken heart and a speech disability, Jasper has his heart and mouth sewn shut by the winding threads of hurt and fear. Painting and serving coffee in cafe 5:48 are one of his last few saving graces, but the smile he's been painting on himself will soon fade away as everything he's ever held dear slips away from his grasp. Ezra is out-of-sync and oddly cold by the way life has treated his young self. Abandoned by his single mother at an early age, he has grown up thinking that he is a mistake. His constant shaking hands are a reflection of what he often thinks of himself, but the delightful pastries he bakes for 5:48's customers are a reflection of what others see of him. Drew is a quirky rarity. He is a dash of loud, a pinch of exuberant, and a cup of eccentric - just like the meals he serves in the cafe as the only chef there. Behind his playful grins and outlandish clothes, however, are his jutting ribs, hollowed cheeks, and too-thin arms. Sometimes he cannot stomach being in his own skin as much as he cannot stomach food. This family has gone a long way from finding each other, and they'll be going a long way together too as reality comes catching up to them, threatening the newfound happiness they've found with each other. Secrets are revealed, pasts become presents, and lives are changed. Slowly but surely, they find their way back home. *** NOTE AS OF 08/2026: This is the old version of the story from 2012, posted in FULL. Another story that will be considered a reprise of this old version is in the works, and will be posted under the name "Hiraya House."

Ella was beautiful. Ella was fast. Ella was gone. Ella was never coming back.

can u tell i'm an environmentalist.

you've left me; constellations left unstrung within my veins. highest ranking; #2 in poetry november 2018

something's missing within these walls. january 2019

the untold truths hidden between the spoils of war

It's an endless search for something that even the sharpest eyes cannot see. [Beautiful cover made by rigor_samsa.]

Janie Greene shot her father seven times with a silver pistol, and doesn't regret it, even when she's sent to an institution for mental issues. Janie is smart, though, and finds a way to escape the institution without anyone knowing. While out, she runs into Noah Waters, who's only interest is in how deep her blue eyes are, and who has no idea what she's done - and she becomes dead set on never letting him find out. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀• • • ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ When the court charged Janie Green guilty of murder, and had her hauled to a hospital where she would stay until deemed mentally stable, she knew she wouldn't really be staying. So that's why Janie finds a way to escape, out to the sun and sky where no one in her hospital's small town will recognize her or know what she's done. It's perfect until she meets Noah Waters - a boy with dirty brown-blond hair and green eyes that smiles crookedly and wants to know why her eyes are blue if her last name is Greene. He's aloof, interested, and determined to know who Janie Green is and how he can make her his. Meanwhile, she's just determined to not let him find out that she shot her father... and more than once.

running through the hallways of my heart ･:*:･ﾟ2020