REMOVED April 9, 2024
One notorious gay heartbreaker. One homophobic ex-best friend and his kleptomaniac brother. Mix in a sex tape, commitment issues, and some explosive chemistry. The illusion of Dreyden's perfect life can't survive this disaster.
*****
Dreyden is very good at being who others wants him to be. He's an obedient, church-going son, a perfect student, the life of every party. Maintaining the equilibrium means staying in the closet at home, so it's lucky his parents don't suspect a thing when he lies. When others are happy, it's easy to forget that he isn't.
After one drunk night gets out of control, Dreyden dumps his loving boyfriend rather than admit to what he did. Adrift and increasingly alienated from his friends, he finds himself sucked into Orion's dysfunctional orbit. Orion has a habit of taking things that don't belong to him, but what's worse is his angry, homophobic brother, who used to be Dreyden's best friend.
Bad habits might be harder to escape than the gravity of unwanted feelings, but maybe Dreyden's equilibrium isn't as stable as he pretends. And maybe Orion is about to disrupt it all, whether Dreyden is ready or not. It's just a shame that bad people don't get happy endings.
*****
Contains sexual content, profanity, underage substance use, and themes of consent, mental health, homophobia, and coming out.
*featured on Wattpad's "Stories to Read OUT Loud" list*
Complete at 137k words.
....two firemen in a burning building...they might kiss...
Beau Decker is everything Shepherd hates about the new wave. Entitled, headstrong, self-important, all ego and little forethought. He walks into a room and expects everyone to be wowed by him. Did he intubate without a scope last week and save that man's life? Absolutely, he did. But that shit did not impress Shepherd, not the way it seemed to impress everyone else. Showing up and doing your job doesn't make you special. Which he can't even fully do.
And that's the real problem, that Beau Decker appears to be wholly incapable of following the chain of command, that every time they show up on a call together, Beau Decker is insubordinate. Maybe if he showed his Captain a little respect, Shepherd wouldn't dislike him quite so much. But as it stands, he really can't stomach the guy, which poses a certain issue when he gets reassigned to his station.