A Pathetic Door Left Open
A downloadable short story
Imagine: someone breaks into your apartment, insults you repeatedly, and then proceeds to eat your food and sleep in your bed. You may or may not allow this to happen (because what's the alternative, asking the big scary stranger to leave?), and you may or may not be a bit of a spineless coward. There also might be some unexpected sexual tension.
This wouldn't apply to most people, but for Aaron—a 22-year old pushover working at a poorly managed domestic violence shelter—this is unfortunately how life goes.
(When a story focuses on the relationship between two people, usually it's about how they open up to each other, tear down the walls between them, let the other in.
But that would require boundaries existing in the first place, wouldn't it?)
Details:
- ~14,000 words
- A mix of comedy and character study
- Queer
- Focuses on themes of:
- Boundaries
- Work/Life balance
- Romanticizing some asshole
Download
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Comments
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Finally got round to finishing reading this and I really liked it! You've managed to hit the right balance with adding some humour to a grim situation without detracting from what's interesting about the story. Definitely made me reflect on my own people-pleasing ways while sympathising with Aaron—longing for Dulce with him, and then cheering for him to move on. I look forward to what you do next!
P.S. have you ever read Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval? The setup and atmosphere reminded me a lot of that book. I'd definitely recommend it if you haven't.
wow, that's everything I intended for the piece to do! 💚 thank you so much for the feedback and kindness
And oooo, I haven't heard of that 👀 sounds right up my alley, I appreciate the recommendation