Pitch:

PROJECT RUNWAY meets WHAT IF IT’S US in this queer, friends-to-lovers rom-com. When wannabe designer Milton’s idol returns to host a fashion show competition, he’ll do anything to win. But with ambition leading him toward reckless decisions, he’ll have to decide which matters most: winning or his heart.

Excerpt:

There are two fundamental truths of existence—adults will always lecture teenagers on how youth is wasted on the young, and anyone who visits their grocery store wearing fleece pajama pants has seriously given up on life.

“Remind me again why I agreed to come here?” Elijah stares up at the old brick building. Not a Corner Store is as original as its ‘clever’ name. It’s situated in a parking lot, filled with rusty shelves of overpriced goods and an elderly cashier snoozing at the register.

Pretty unremarkable.

Except for the backroom, where prophecies are told for a flat rate of twenty dollars.

“I’ve been coming to The Three Witches for years. They’re the best,” I say, leading Elijah towards a purple curtain separating the two stores. A tiny bell hangs beside the curtain. I ring it forcefully.

I’ll die if I have to spend the rest of my days in Lewiston, surrounded by adults groaning on about waking up with a receding hairline, stuck in an office cubicle thinking back on the ‘good old days’. As if I’m not painfully aware of my youth and the short time I have to achieve my dreams. That’s why I have a plan to escape this town where people have no problem buying all their clothes from the same store that sells cat food.

I’ve studied the greats—Gianni Versace, Halston, Christian Dior. They all decided early on they would be something someday, and I intend to follow in their suede leather footsteps.