Surfacing

Twenty-three years old Anna Mackenzie looks like a normal young woman in the city of New York, but beneath her surface is a scared broken girl with a dreadful past she must keep hidden; even as the smell of chaos and doom tries to drown her. One night in her sorry attempt to get away from it, she bumps into Caden Gallagher, playboy and the blunt heir to Gallagher's gallery who has his skeleton hidden in his closets, and who eventually becomes her boss. Their hatred and inability to stand each other don't create a barrier to work. An inconvenient event leads to a temporary alliance that blooms into friendship and later love. But the past comes knocking on both their doors and it doesn't take them long to realize that was coming to knock them down.

When they strapped me to the operating table, I heard my wife comforting Leo Ferdinand outside the door. “Leo, don’t worry. In a little while, I’ll perform the surgery and swap your face with Carter’s. Once we hand him over to the police, you won’t have to worry about the hit-and-run case anymore.” A smile immediately spread across Leo’s face. “Riley, you’re the only one who’s ever been good to me, but... won’t Carter be angry? After all…” Riley let out a soft sigh. “Carter loves me so much, and your sister once saved my life. The least he can do is help you. I’ll make it up to him in the future.” Before I could even process what I had heard, the anesthesia took effect, and everything went black. When I woke up, my face was already wrapped in thick layers of bandages. To stop me from damaging this new face, Riley brought up our son. “Carter, please try to understand. If not for me, do it for our son.” In the end, I stopped resisting. With her own hands, she sent me to prison, and five years later, I was finally released.

We have differences, we are born not to impress anyone but to show them what and who we are. What if one day you'll end up losing your confidence? what if one day you'll never know who you are? what if because of one person you'll be lost your smile, lost everything including your happiness. Are you willing to trust again? to love again? Are you willing to be fooled and played again? lies... heartbreaks. betrayal..... played. fooled... pained... We all experience this, it's up to us to handle it properly. smile... laugh... mingle... meddle. Words that we can use to ease those pain words to enlightened our mood words that help us to go through and make our day complete. MASK the only thing we can use to hide what we feel inside. mask it hides the pain the heartaches and betrayal We often use a mask to simply smile to show the world that we are strong. strong enough to face the reality.

"My life was ash. Burned to the ground. Razed with no chance of rebuilding.Empty.Alone.Just as I had to be.No one else was going to get hurt because of me. No more deaths.For years I’ve secluded myself, stayed in the darkness, and tried to melt into the background. Hiding in plain sight.Taking a new job, working in close confines with a new partner, is risky, and I thought I was up to the task. So I hide behind a mask of my own making, a façade for the world.The problem is, I can’t stop thinking about my new partner. I hate her, but I crave her like she’s the most intoxicating thing I’ve ever encountered.It’s maddening, but I need to stay away. I have to stay away.I can’t love anyone ever again."

When nineteen-year-old engineering student Sky is scouted by Dream Entertainment, he thinks it’s a scam—until life throws him into financial uncertainty and he decides to take the leap. What starts as a desperate attempt to help his family quickly evolves into something far more complicated: a chance to star in a reality show where contestants pair up and compete for a coveted lead role in a new Boys’ Love (BL) series. Night, a successful but emotionally guarded model, isn’t the type to sign on for flashy reality shows—until he sees Sky’s casting photo and feels something he can’t explain. Against his manager’s advice and his own better judgment, he joins the project, drawn to the boy with the shy smile and uncertain eyes. Thrown into a house with six striking and wildly different contestants, Sky and Night are assigned roommates—others, not each other—and must navigate awkward first impressions, lip-sync battles, late-night conversations, and the growing tension between competition and connection. As the cameras roll and emotions blur, the question that hanging in the air: Is this just a path to fame in the entertainment industry—or is it something real? Is it all just for show?

'Since when did so much hate become affection, no, NEED' Callum Reyes has spent his entire life earning his place. A scholarship wide receiver at Crestfield University — one of the most elite football programs in the country — he knows exactly what he is to the people here: a charity case with fast legs and a GPA they didn't expect. He keeps his head down, his grades up, and his heart locked behind something no one has ever bothered to pick. Then there's Jaxon Whitfield. Quarterback. Team captain. Golden boy of Crestfield's football dynasty. Jaxon is everything Callum isn't — legacy money, a famous last name, and a jaw that could cut glass. He's also, by every measurable standard, the most infuriating human being Callum has ever been forced to share oxygen with. From the first day Callum stepped onto that field, Jaxon decided he was a problem. Too fast. Too good. Too'there.' He rides Callum harder than any other player, gets under his skin in ways that shouldn't be possible, and looks at him with those dark green eyes like Callum is something he can't figure out — and hates himself for trying. But when a career-threatening injury, a locker room secret, a rivalry that's starting to feel like something else entirely, and one night neither of them planned for collide — Callum and Jaxon have to reckon with something they were never supposed to feel. 'Offside' is a slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers MM sports romance about two young men learning that the person who makes your blood boil might just be the person setting you on fire. It's about class and legacy, found family and loneliness, the weight of expectation, and what happens when the one person you want to hate is the only one who actually'sees' you.