By Gina Frangello Her senses were different now, since the baby.  Things jolted her.  She heard crying that was not there.  Sometimes, she felt the baby’s weight on her chest, heavy against her heart and breasts, and woke up gasping only to find the baby asleep in her own dresser drawer across the bedroom. Rebecca’s [...]

By Amber Dermont After busting the Andro Boys for scoring an ounce off of Downtown Homeless Pete, we retreated to the roof of the Octagon to smoke the evidence. Sammy Chatterjee — Business and Economics — packed the bowl while Regina Racela — Video and Film Production — described how the buffest offender had offered [...]

By Lauren Grodstein
Natalie Beacham was the hottest girl on campus, and a little too perfect. She was beautiful, smart, and very Catholic. Marc Bernstein was a lazy, inexperienced freshman. Could he get his act together — and wipe the drool from his chin — quickly enough to get the girl? And say he got her. Then what?

By Ryan Boudinot
Imagine you lived in a town where everyone shared the same heart, and lived reliant on a vast system of valves and pipes. If you were a teenager in love, with big dreams, you might wish for a way out — for a heart of your own.

By Padma Viswanathan I flew out of Edmonton and didn’t see Matt at the gate when I changed planes in Toronto. I boarded, wondering briefly if he might not be coming. The thought made me angry even though I had just been wishing we could postpone our reunion, maybe indefinitely. But then he got on [...]

By Leah Stewart The last weekend of every month, Marisa took a vacation day and flew from L.A. to Cincinnati to see Noah, her boyfriend of seven years. She’d been doing this for a year — June to June — and still every month her boss, Anita, acted surprised when Marisa reminded her that she’d [...]

By Joseph M. Schuster The woman was taking her time to answer his knock. Through the sheers covering the living room windows, Felix could see her short, slight silhouette studying him, as if she were determining whether he was someone who might do her harm or good. He could sense she wouldn’t be interested in [...]

By Lewis Robinson
Steven was harboring a big secret from his girlfriend, Alice — he’d decided to be a surrogate father with a colleague. But the secret made him jittery and defensive, prone to rash acts and wild emotional swings in his real relationship. And then there was the toothache.

By Shann Ray In each family a story is playing itself out, and each family’s story embodies its hope and despair. —Augustus Napier Part One: The Family At dawn it was a clear day, no wind, but by the time Hank picked the boy up from school a grey stroke of cloud met the horizon [...]

By Emily St. John Mandel In the darkness of a hotel room in a small town in Kenya, I awake to the sound of a ringing phone. There’s only one telephone in the entire establishment, on the reception desk a few feet from the door to my room. It takes a long time for someone [...]

By Pia Z. Ehrhardt

By Katie Arnold-Ratliff Surprise! my Mom says from the passenger seat, and she tells me Okay, open your eyes (slight movement of my jaw to the LEFT), and I do, seeing many looped freeways and parking lots and the sign of Oakland Airport (cough, move wrist).  And on a building, like a warehouse sort of [...]

By Marcus Sakey
It’s the eve of the 21st century, and the dot-com boom is still something to believe in. Tech companies will transform the world! While handing out stock options! To us all! Roger is planning a Y2K party for his firm, but his single-mindedness might cost him his relationship. And then, there are the monkeys.

By Peyton Marshall For Christmas Mom was getting her face done. She sent me computer printouts of different noses, different eye shapes. She wanted know which ones I liked best. “They’re all nice,” I said, “but it’s about context.” Each week she sent more and they became bookmarks and scratch paper. They fell out of [...]

By Arthur Phillips

Leslie had only recently been discharged from the hospital. Baking helped her work through some of her obsessive issues — until, that is, one particularly pushy baguette revealed a small face, and begged her not so slice him open and stuff him in the oven.

By Patrick Somerville
Join the universe’s most bumbling but oddly endearing space travelers on their mission to Belvetron IV. And hope that they don’t destroy the planet and their own spacecraft along the way.

By Taylor Antrim
Max wanted to write and never imagined he’d land on Wall Street. Sarah, however, was ticketed for finance from the crib. When she lost her job amidst an even bigger change, their relationship was bound to change. But how?

By Evie Wyld While visiting your loved one, we encourage you to remain calm and supportive to the patient. Make eye contact and provide encouragement. Don’t be afraid to touch the patient. Coming out of the anaesthetic was like coming out of the sea. I bobbed to the surface and wanted a drink. I could [...]

By Glen David Gold
The men of the 339th Infantry Regiment were ready for battle. But the young men from Detroit weren’t expecting to invade Russia. Or for a very wild train ride.

By J. Robert Lennon
It was Amy’s senior year of high school, and she was ready to move on from her friends, the boys, her parents. But while her hometown bored her, there was something interesting and mysterious about her neighbor, an artist who lost his wife in a tragic accident.

By Jami Attenberg The man upstairs is jerking off again. I can hear the porn through the ceiling. No one watches that stuff just for fun. Little kids, maybe, sneaking a peek at their daddy’s collection. But eventually it all ends in the same way. I can’t do anything about it. I can’t knock on his door and ask him [...]