Shoelaces

[ SHOELACES: A NON-LINEAR LOVE STORY ]

[ COMPLETED - 81K WORDS ]

[ 2021 WATTYS SHORTLIST ]

Darrion Gubart thinks he's a loser, a loner, a musical theatre nerd, a math addict, and almost anything else except for the main character. As a high school senior, he can hardly hold in his excitement to move off to a prestigious college and start a new life for himself. That is if he gets in, of course, with the constant swirl of doubt and anxiety swirling in his mind. Luckily, he has his one friend, Jazmine Lockart, who cares for him along the way. The only issue is Jazmine would rather party with her soccer team than spend a night with Darrion watching Dance Mom Compilations (though, she loves him enough to do just that).

Darrion has a relatively supportive family too. Emphasis on the "relatively," for almost everybody except his family knows that Darrion likes boys. But Darrion loves them, so he decides to ignore that small piece of information and focus on the good aspects, like their weekly board games nights.

Truthfully, Darrion has almost made the fact he likes boys a side note in his own life, mainly because of the lack of first-hand experience to which he can refer. Well, that's until he meets Santiago de Rosa, the man of Darrion's dreams (to put it simply). And, for the first time in Darrion's life, things seem to be looking up.

Well, that's until somebody dies.