This is a tale of an eighteen-year-old guy named Jim. One day, Jim sat on the examination table at White Palms Hospital, waiting for his follow-up to the monthly check-up he’d had last week. He was to return because Nurse Emma had phoned him just two days ago. “Hi, Jim,” she had said brightly over the phone. “How are you doing?” “Um, I’m fine, Nurse Emma. Is everything okay?” “Oh, yes, Jim. I know this is a great inconven...

(This is a completely true story. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.) Tessa didn’t know what to do. She was in a truly terrible position at the moment. She was in a hospital room with her best friend Abby. Abby had just had her gallbladder removed, and was sleeping soundly. It was about 2 am, and except for the steady, rhythmic beeping of the heart monitor, all was quiet. Tessa had promised Abby she...

“Brian! Look I need help, okay?!" an annoying female voice rang through the air. God, Brian thought to himself. She was really starting to piss him off. Brian Johnson was twenty-four years old. He'd finally graduated college with a degree in computer science. It had taken him a little bit longer than he'd thought he'd need, but he'd eventually done it. He had been so happy because his dad Mike had offered to let him stay...

Jason slammed the door more vehemently than he'd intended. It was so quiet inside the house from no one being in it that the force of the slam shook the walls and seemed to ricochet off every surface, ringing and echoing hollowly in his ears. Jason had been counting on the sleepover all week. It had buoyed him up every day, he'd told himself he could make it through what had proven to be a really shitty time in his life i...

“For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.” –Carl Sagan Dim, gray light shines through the window. The sky is ashen, with pregnant, swollen clouds. There's a slight chill in the air. It’s going to rain any moment. Spring is definitely here. I grab my sweater from the chair next to mine and drape it across my shoulders, wrapping my hands around the large mug of steaming Cafe Vienna I have i...

I liked my new place. Maybe it was a little small, but it was an expensive luxury condo, and what made me really happy about it was the walls were painted blue--that soft, tranquil kind of blue that makes you forget everything you knew before. Also, my neighbors seemed nice enough. I had met two of them, a couple, in the elevator briefly while bringing up my endless boxes of books. The woman was very warm and friendly and...

God, she was horny that night. She knew her period would be coming the following day. For some reason, always the day before she began her monthly cycle, she would get ragingly, violently horny. Her body would just ache and burn everywhere. Maybe it was nature's last attempt at impregnation before the fact of menstruation, she thought. Tiffany Stevens lay in her bed, prepared to watch a video on her phone and fuck herself...

(for J. with so much love) "There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion." —Sir Francis Bacon I'd like to start this story by telling you a little about myself. My name is Tori, and I'm forty-eight. I'm a mom. My daughter is twenty-three, and she's my angel, my everything, and my support system. I live alone in a small apartment in Bay City, Texas. It's hard living alone. I'm not your aver...

All she knew was that it was all a complete blur in her mind. She knew a little more than eighteen years ago she'd had a son. She'd given birth to a huge, healthy boy, and they'd brought him to her in the hospital, fresh and scrubbed and the most beautiful, delicious-smelling thing she'd ever known. He'd been crying as they wheeled him into her room from within the little transparent perambulator, and the sound had pierce...