🏳️‍🌈ONC2023 Shortlister [A queer retelling of Romeo and Juliet set in modern day California.] Tate Parker and Alex Benitez are sworn enemies, but it's not a battle line they've drawn. As the sons of warring co-workers, the pair are destined to be at odds by association. With this comes inherited rumors and social stigmas that each is desperate to break. But when the opportunity arises, their newfound kinship threatens one's redemption by putting them in a situation where the rumor about them might become true. And for the other, he must choose which to sacrifice in the court of public opinion, his father or friend? Both come at the risk of driving their families to the brink of war. PS - Nobody has to die at the end. Yay.

🏆Featured on Wattpad ×4 ************** "She's weird." "She isn't the same person she was years ago." "She's probably faking it to get clout." She is me. I am she. Want a guide to failing to live up to your family's high standards for you? A guide to being a "misunderstood piece of shit"? A guide to being the most "not straight" student at school? A guide to being a social outcast? A guide to pissing off your overly Christian parents? A guide to failing to get together with your long time crush? Well hop right in! I have the exact guide you're looking for. Ladies and gentlemen, this is How To NOT Be Straight.

𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐘 𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐑 𝐘𝐀 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟏 For bipolar fifteen-year-old Aaron, growing up in '90s Dublin, being gay is a choice. It is a choice between risking alienation from his conservative Catholic family and close-minded friends or drowning under the weight of his secrets. So discovering he is falling in love with his witty, bi-racial best friend, Robbie, an aspiring actor, plunges Aaron into a sea of confusion. Swimming against the tide of expectations, the young men set a course through sex, drugs and Bowie concerts, an outlet from a world that doesn't understand them. But weighted under the pressure of maintaining a double life, Aaron sinks into a deep depression. When a shocking incident puts his life in perspective, Aaron must decide whether staying silent and invisible is worth losing the only love he has ever known for. 𝗙𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗪𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗽𝗮𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗲𝘀: @nonfiction (Memoirs/Sex, love and relationships/ Mental Health and Awareness/ Self-discovery) @DangerousLove (Hot Nerds, Rockstars & Musicians) @AmbassadorsUK (Very British Teens) @Romance (Young Love) @YA (Love, Actually) @beauty (Feel Good Stories) @GeneralFiction (Freestyle Fiction-Miscellaneous/ Finding Love-Romance) @PsychologicalNovel (Triggering Romance) @ProfileMentalHealth (Self Love) @NA (Let Me Share The Truth) @YARomance (A Diary of Everything) @TeenFiction (Teen Featured) @HistoricalFiction (Decade Fiction) @BullyingPrevention (LGBTQIAP+ Pride) @ComeSitWithUs (LGBTQIAP+ I Am Who I Am) @wattpadfriendsandfamily (Always with you) @FreeTheLGBT (Coming of Age)

Noah Riley didn't mean to drown, or did he? But waking up in another boy's hoodie entices him not only to live a little longer but also to solve the mystery. *** Nineteen-year-old Noah Riley wakes up disoriented, soaked to the bone, and alone on the shores of Rockaway Beach, Brooklyn, NY. After a night of wallowing in self-loathing, a Jägermeister, and drunken, dumb choices, he has no clue who pulled him out of the water except for a Polaroid and this unfamiliar black hoodie he is now wearing. Searching for answers as his life unravels and past secrets ravage his sanity, he finds a love that challenges his self-identity and drives him to find meaning in his life. Now, at the turn of the tide, he'd better learn how to make friends with his worst fear: living. Think of second chances, new beginnings, and gay romance. Content warning: This story contains mature sexual content and themes of mental health, suicide, and drug abuse. ✨|Featured| @StoriesUndiscovered, @Romance, @WattpadMulticultural-LGBTQ+, @LY, @WattpadSpiritual, @AbleWorld, @adventure, @talkthepoc, and @NA Editors' Pick feature 2020 - 2021

When May Alana's wish on a star brings a stranger to her remote island home, the pair must survive a deadly magical conflict in order to be together. ***** When May Alana, a scorned and anxiety-ridden young woman, finds a stranger on the beach of her remote island home, she wonders if this is the adventurous, accepting, and loving answer to her otherwise cloistered life. But as the pair grow closer, the stranger entrusts May with her brilliant secret: that she is half-Star in possession of otherworldly powers, and that a violent group of Star worshippers are out to destroy her. So if they want any chance of being together, they'll have to survive a deadly conflict between humans and mythological creatures first. THE STAR AND THE OCEAN is Book 1 in the Starborn Series Book 2: THE WIND AND THE HORIZON Book 3: THE FIRE AND THE SKY Cover illustration by Brittany Willows (@BrittanyMWillows) [[Watty Winner]] [[Wattpad LGBT Book of the Month]] [[word count: 70,000-80,000 words]]

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to kiss a cloud? It was everything he could've dreamt of. ***** Short story about Matthew Benway and his undying love for Ramon Marelli. [#1 in Bringthediversity/ September 6th, 2019] [#1 in youngwritershortstory/ September 7th/ 2019]