When Charlie Miller loses her job the week before both her roommates move to California, she decides it's time to get out of Texas. But with her bank account embarrassingly empty and her newly divorced parents living thousands of miles apart, she doesn't know where to go. And then she remembers Fisher. The small lakeside town in Idaho where she spent every summer until she was eighteen at her uncle's cabin. It's the last place she was truly happy, so the day Gaby and Tay move out, Charlie packs up her car and embarks on the 1,800-mile drive. She has no idea what to expect when she gets there: her uncle sold the cabin six years ago, after all, and the last time she was there she was surrounded by her cousins. This time around she is alone, and she is lonely. When she revisits the old cabin, it's pure nostalgia. Until she is caught by the neighbor. Who just happens to be the most beautiful woman Charlie has ever seen. She is smitten, instantly, and all of a sudden her trip to Fisher has a purpose. The only problem: Lou is almost twenty years older, she has a teenage daughter, and Charlie's pretty sure she's straight. But the more time they spend together, the less sure Charlie is, and when a freak event throws them together, there's only one way to find out. After all, she's only here for two weeks and then she has to figure her life out. She has nothing left to lose. © Elle Carrigan 2023

[Completed] Sometimes, exes come back, and so do forgotten feelings. And if the universe hates you enough, it's your girlfriend's first love who shows up. And as much as you try not to, you end up screwing up. Then your once guarded and secure 2-year relationship ceases to feel that way anymore. It's always been about chasing the girl who's taken. This time, it's about the one who's losing the girl, and the journey of trying to win her back. (Copyright © 2016 by vanillaVDE; I do not own any of the photos used for the story. Message me if they are yours so I can take them down or give you credit. ❤️)

What would you trade your soul for? The answer is simple for Jessa: nothing. Life isn't perfect, but it's pretty good with her best friend Taylor at her side. But everything changes when the Devil--disguised as an attractive high school girl--comes to town. Soon Jessa--the girl with absolutely no experience with love--finds herself doing the unthinkable: trying to set up the fallen angel with heartthrob Billy Stevens. It's easier said than done, and in the resulting chaos, the lines between friend and foe, good and evil, begin to blur. Jessa starts to wonder: Is the Devil truly her friend? Who is worthy of love? And what, exactly, does Jessa want? All is fair in love and war. - - - A genre-bending tale that's one part teen fiction, one part paranormal/fantasy, and one part slow burn romance! A Wattys 2018 Shortlister! LGBTQ+! Cover made by @bdicocco in Canva.

limerence - an involuntary state of intense romantic desire. short story | completed 5 july 2020

Talia Decker is sixteen, starting her junior year of high school. Popular, outgoing, and seemingly confident, she is wholly unprepared for the wildfire that is the new girl: Monroe Kingston. Dark, mysterious, and cocky, Monroe is everything Talia hates about the bad girl cliché. Determined to stay far, far away from this alluring, motorcycle-riding senior, Talia does everything she can to avoid her. But when sparks fly, can Talia really resist the temptation that is Monroe Kingston?

[Completed] "I swear I'm not into you, but can you pretend to be my girlfriend every Monday?" Because meeting at a coffee shop isn't cliché and fake dating usually leads to feelings and Monday mornings don't have to be the worst. The Monday Morning Theory: another essentially plotless compilation of conversations and text messages between two girls who just want to get through life amidst creeping exes, college, and a love-hate relationship. (Copyright © 2016 by vanillaVDE)

'"If she's somehow convinced you that she doesn't control you then she's exercised the greatest control of all," she says so tiredly it makes me immediately conscious of how naive I've been. "She decides your every move."' When the adult population of the Herel Plain, a small country known equally for its film industry and repressive government, is decimated by a civil war, the state sets up an auction system to distribute the newly orphaned youth into American foster homes. The so-called "Pageant" separates Savannah from the brother she has raised and places her in the hands of a violent, brooding entrepreneur and his wife, a callous and alluring college professor, who enlist her - along with their thirteen year old daughter Laurencia and their irreverent, young assistant, Nasrine - as a dealer in the high-end American drug trade. When Nas comes to her with an unthinkable scheme to take off with the money, Savannah sees her opportunity to be reunited with her brother and give him the life they never had. To run away is all she ever wanted, but when the moment finally strikes, something about her new employer makes her want to stay. COVER ART by the wonderful @celaestial; thank you thank you thank you from the bottom of my heart, friend!

Eden Maillard never felt important. She grew up on the upper end of the poverty line in southside Chicago to two mundane parents who couldn't bother to keep her under their roof when she came out to them at 17. Now 19 years old, life has seemed under-saturated for as long as she could remember. When Cecilia Belfiore walks into her life, a rich lawyer from the other side of town, the colors of life begin to bloom before her eyes. But Cecilia has a dark habit, one involving chains and leather. And Eden has a dark past, one involving love and loss. ☾ [tw: graphic sex, language, addiction, mentions of abuse]

Buggy Gills isn't who anyone thinks she is. Some say she's a snotty popular girl. Others say she's a geek who spends her time playing video games. Some say she's a blonde, others say wavy black-haired. Some have seen her as a kind nurse, and the rest comment her as an off-duty conductor at the train station. Who is Buggy, really? She's a chameleon, a 'mistress of disguises' as people on the news call her (although 'girl master' suits her better). And she's an anti-hero. Buggy does her own thing that just happens to save people's lives. Now that a well-known celebrity is kidnapped, Buggy has to find him before it's too late. The problem with that is, who's that girl Buggy's always seeing throughout her mission? Cover by @himayalin (ROUGH DRAFT) If you're interested in reading more of Buggy, you can find her story in my collection of shorts, Looking Forward.

Getting chased by the Japanese Mafia with a hot girl probably isn't on your top ten of romantic first dates. The morning after Halloween, Kaya wakes up handcuffed to a beautiful stranger. Forced together on the run, it quickly becomes obvious that the lethal, terrifying girl chained to her, who can take out ten armed men with one hand, isn't who she says she is. With an enemy at every turn, Kaya has no choice but to trust her instincts━and a runaway Mafia boss. "Weather report: chance of rain. Sunny skies. A gruesome and terrible death. Beautiful day outside!"