Rainbow Snippets: Impending Illness

Happy Saturday! Don’t know what everyone else is up to, but we’re settling in for a long snowstorm. We’ve made cocoa, and my kids are planning a D&D campaign. I see Netflix and layers of blankets in my future.

Today’s snippet is another one from Leaps of Faith, from a novella called “Hope of All the Earth.” It’s a holiday story, but since we’re having a snowstorm, I’m sure I can be forgiven for being technically out of season. The story is roughly the same events from multiple points of view.

Here, Cooper is stranded after a terrible breakup. His moms have come to rescue him and get him somewhere he can warm up and recover.

Cooper flopped on the bed with one arm flung over his eyes. Zayne wished there were something she could do to ease the pain. She would never tell Cooper, but she’d sensed before that he’d felt obligated in some way to Terry and like it would make him a terrible person for initiating a break-up. The two of them had shared a lot of firsts and a lot of secrets together. Cooper may not have wanted to be the one to end things, but he hadn’t necessarily been an enthusiastic participant, either. There were little things he’d said over the last year and the slow, steady decline in their affection for each other. It wasn’t like the comfort of a long-term relationship, more like the symptoms of impending illness. Cooper’s distress now was likely as much about feeling guilty for his relief it was over as it was about grieving the loss.

Rainbow Snippets is a safe and welcoming space for LGBTQIA+ authors, readers, and bloggers to share 6 sentences each week from a work of fiction—published or in-progress—or a book recommendation. Feel free to join in!