Carly silently slid into her seat in her English class. She noticed Rebecca was still seated next to her despite their previous, extremely awkward, interaction. Her mind was racing and she could feel beads of sweat forming at her temples. Did anyone notice? I haven't seen anyone staring, or making comments… Just before leaving her apartment, with deep breaths and plenty of self pep talk, Carly had allowed herself to go up...

Jase’s eyes widened in utter astonishment, enough that Carly could see his bright blue irises from across the living room. “Get out! What do you- stop!” Carly spluttered, covering her bare chest with her hands since the door was no longer an option for privacy. Blood rushed to Jase's pale cheeks and he quickly strode across the living area towards his room, covering the side of his face with his hand, as if to shield hims...

It had been a long night for Jase. The look of Carly's shocked face after getting soaked kept playing over and over again in his mind. Warranted or not, he felt a strong sense of responsibility for what happened. He had invited Carly, but then thoughtlessly ignored her for an unacceptable amount of time. The cold air struck his face as he stepped out the door for his early morning run. As was his daily ritual, he stretche...

Carly was bitterly unhappy. In fact, at the moment she was close to tears, which in recent months really did not take much prompting. In spite of everything she did, all her hard work and diligence, it seemed the Universe simply did not want her to succeed. She was smart, organized, and motivated, but to her it seemed the Universe continually conspired against her. The primary example of this, in her opinion, was simply t...