It was a late night and Raine was tired. She looked down at the expensive flower arrangement in her hand and pressed the apartment's doorbell for the fifth time. No answer. Only when she turned to walk away did the door finally open. “Hey,” The man was tall, wearing a t-shirt over boxers. His dark hair looked damp. “Sorry for the wait.” He smelled like soap. Raine didn’t quite look at him, distracted by the brightly-lit a...

Jenna got there first and it shouldn’t have been that way. For our entire lives she’d always been later than me but the one time I arrived after her became the day I’d regret forever, because those four minutes could have changed my entire life.If only I’d met him first. If only I’d walked faster. If only I’d ignored the road signals and run through the static traffic and not stopped at the newsagent for chewing gum. If o...

School started in September and with it came relief. The summer had been too long – hot, stifling and overflowing with emotion. It had been almost two months since Dad’s funeral and talking to the same people had become as torturous as retreating to the four stark walls of my bedroom. Nobody knew what to say and I didn’t know what to say to them. I thought school could be an escape. New and different. The first year of si...

The woman sat on a foldable chair on the corner of Drew’s street, a stack of magazines in her lap and a cardboard sign propped up beside her.The Weekly2-50A laminated card pinned to her clothes read:Arta OrsosLicensed vendor #415Ms Orsos was old and draped in a mass of shawls and blankets. She looked up warily as Kaia halted in front of her and then looked away, apparently satisfied that there was no way she’d be able to...

It would be an overstatement to say India Cole had the best tits in the world but she definitely had the best tits in London and nobody knew this more than renowned plastic surgeon Simon Ryder.Simon worked out of Harley Street. He’d started his business with liposuction and Botox but beauty salons run by minimally qualified entrepreneurs had bitten hard into the market and the non-surgical part of his business had now bec...

Our lives runLike a movie on repeatReels whirringDays blurringInto one anotherIt’s all the sameThe same ideasThe same sick fearsI cling to everyday thingsThe weight of his armOn my shoulderUntil it's goneAnd everything's calmBut everything's colderJust another suffocating dayA box office bombDelivered without aplombI don’t remember the premiereAll I know is the grey airCloaking each conversationHow did we get here?Clouds...

It was dark by the time Violet made it to the car. Just another Friday evening. She’d already said goodnight to her father. He hadn’t seemed to suspect a thing. Didn’t he see it? Didn’t he hear the mad, racing beat of her heart? It felt like a newly caged bird, trying to burst its way out of her chest. Thump. Thump. Thump. Did he know? It felt as though the world revolved around her deceit. Just another Friday evening.“Wh...

The warning bell breaks the silence, and my concentration. The soft, supposedly unobtrusive note chills my overheated body to the bone. Only ten seconds left.I’m okay. There’s plenty of time. I just have to block everything out and focus.I can’t block him out though.Knowing he’s watching me makes my body ache. It’s way worse than the burning exertion of my muscles. It chases away the chill. I feel heat prickling my face a...

I felt weightless. Beautiful. A hushed silence had fallen over the audience at the 90th Academy Awards as the nominations for Best Actress in a Leading Role were announced. I knew I would win. Everybody knew I would win. The critics had been raving about my performance since the star-studded premiere of Desiccated Coconut.I glanced to my left at my date and co-star Daniel Carlton. Daniel fucking Carlton. Actor, writer, di...

Everything seemsOut of my reachLikeWater spiralling down a drainAn empty promise of rainConversations from yesterdayMusic playing too far awayHalf awake, half asleepIt doesn't take muchFor him to seepEasily into my mindThoughts spin and driftAnd effortlessly liftAnd I turn, intending toFill the cavernous riftWith a snowdrift of sugarOnly to feel emptinessHelplessnessEverything's there but nothing comesDistant revs of a mo...

She could feel him watching her but every time her eyes flicked to catch his, he’d be looking down at the tattered day-worn Metro in his hand. Even from ten metres away, the paper looked scuffed and dirty, and it’d been folded in half since the man had first picked it up.They’d both boarded the train at Liverpool Street with the late-commute crowd. 18:27. Two strangers in a crowd of dozens more. A wet night. The air outsi...

The door slams shut behind him. The same way as ever. The same click of the Yale safety lock, so secure and formal amidst the anger. His shoes pound down the corrugated metal staircase, fading and fading and fading. I imagine his arm in his jacket as he struggles to pull it on over his sweater, yanking and swearing, his brow creased, his face all messed up with curses and snarls.It begins as it always begins and somehow I...

If it hadn’t been for Hanson, I would have fallen onto the train tracks that Thursday morning. The crowd at platform three of the station had become impatient; services were delayed due to debris on the tracks after a storm the previous night. People shoved and jostled and glared at their phones and when someone pushed, the whole buzzing crowd pushed, moving as one angry wasps nest.I can’t give a sensible explanation for...

Knees bent and legs wide open, Daphne Blake stared up at the white spotlights on the ceiling of VELMA’S BEAUTY SALON. The radio in the corner played an unsettling rock song but it had been turned down low enough to seem almost satirical.“Ready?” Velma asked.Daphne squirmed. “No!”She closed her eyes tight and sucked in a breath as the dark-haired beautician deftly pulled off the first wax strip.“Fuck!” Daphne gasped, bitin...

Nobody knew what to do. The wide streets were filled with chaos. Cars on the pavements. Fire engines roaring past. Ambulances whining endlessly like babies crying. Babies were crying. And people were crying too, screaming and sobbing into phones. I walked against the torrent running down the underpass steps and emerged into dust-filled air.It had been coming but nobody had felt it. Nobody can ever feel it. We’re too busy...