Shuffling Everyday Novels & Stories

Sherri's P.O.V. Sitting behind the counter of my brother's auto shop, I'm beginning to think this is the quickest way to die of boredom. I usually love helping out, but when I work in the evenings just to answer the phones and hand over the keys to someone picking up their car, time seems to drag. It doesn't help that we just had to turn the clocks back an hour for daylight saving, so now it’s already dark at five o’clock in the evening.

However, I just kept going, swiping to the app's 'History' tab with everyone watching. I angled my phone toward the camera, showing off the screen. There it was, a tidy list of zeros. June 1st: Shake for Allowance: $0 July 1st: Shake for Allowance: $0 ... "And my little bro's account? Why does he hit the jackpot every month?" I smirked, ready to drop the mic: "Let's let the tech do the talking." I dove back into my phone, my voice calm and collected as I explained to the crowd.

The days were beginning to blur into a new kind of rhythm. By Night , the pattern wasn’t just locked it had become their entire world. Kai arrived at Eclipse early that evening, already buzzing with anticipation. He’d spent the day in his tiny apartment with Lila, who kept shooting him knowing looks every time he checked his phone or touched the fresh bruise on his hip. “You’re glowing like a man getting railed every single night,” she’d teased. Kai had flipped her off, but he couldn’t deny the truth.

Access I have never used up until today. I board one of the bump cars and bump into as many of the others as I can. They’re all empty, and all bearing dents in them after I am done. Bumping into empty cars seems to scratch an itch in my brain that I cannot deny and I smile widely while doing it. I go off into the woods next. Shifting is something I haven't done in a long time. Modern women don’t shift so much nowadays. They prefer to be in their human forms.

The cards are laid bare, a tableau of the shared joy and camaraderie that define this impromptu game night. "Win or lose, it's moments like these that make everything worthwhile." Jim giggles "Couldn't have said it better. What's next on the agenda?" Joel agrees. As the cards are shuffled for the next round, the room remains a sanctuary of shared laughter and connection, a testament to the extraordinary joy found in the ordinary moments of life. Amidst the friendly banter and the shuffle of cards, a sense of camaraderie deepens within the confines of the room. Each hand dealt becomes a chapter in an unwritten book of memories, where the ebb and flow of the game mirrors the rhythm of our shar

“Fuck it.” Next thing I know, I’m on the dance floor, heels sliding across the polished wood as we launch into the Cupid Shuffle. The room is alive, bodies moving, hands clapping, voices shouting the count. And for a moment, just a small, shining moment, I let myself forget everything else.

Alice “Are you really okay?” Shirley asked carefully as she slowly stirred her iced coffee. It was the university's foundation week, so our schedule was unusually light—no classes, no deadlines. That was why we were here now, hanging out at a café near campus, pretending to be chill even though we clearly weren’t. “I’m fine,” I answered, forcing a smile. Forcing—because no matter how many times I said it, I wasn’t convinced myself.

Really close. It is tempting... it's certainly one way to deal with stress, a way that the adults take advantage of on a regular basis. It's not uncommon to be moving through the building, open a door to a room, and have to back out quickly, pretending that the two naked bodies desperately entwined in each other never happened.

Osisiakalaka was standing barefooted in the verandah of his shrine when he began to feel dizzy. He drained half of the gourd of palm wine in one gulp, grimacing at whatever special flavour the woman in his shrine had filled it with. There was a deadening clunk of wood on wood, and the woman inside the shrine vibrated as the gourd fell from his grip and hit the table. A pulse ran through his skull. Osisiakalaka turned his head, eyes drawn to the palm wine, spattered on the floor. The woman inside his shrine brought a rag and asked for his permission to clean the spilled contents, he allowed her with a stretch of his hand.

Darwin called out, smiling. "Those girls are like a cash vacuum. What exactly do they buy? Dresses?" Drake complained which made all of us laugh. "No. The latest thing now is pumps!" Darwin said. "No not pumps. Jessie said pumps are 'so last year'." Drake mimicked in a high pitched imitation of Jessie's voice. "Welcome to the shopping part of having a mate!" Drake places his hand on both Rodrick's and my shoulders dramatically. "Let's go before Penny will have my head."