“Her sandwich – mine now – is sloppily assembled, the melted cheddar thick with oil like a handsome man’s mucus. I eat without chewing much.”

Sascha Belle Nastasi is an actor who writes short fiction. She dislikes tomatoes, and almost attended New York University.

ANOTHER CUSTOMER originally appeared on the XRAY website: https://xraylitmag.com/another-customer-by-sascha-belle-nastasi/fiction/⁠https://xraylitmag.com/another-customer-by-sascha-belle-nastasi/fiction/⁠

Music by ponyboy: https://soundcloud.com/ponyboyict⁠https://soundcloud.com/ponyboyict⁠

"She has a scar that trails down her left eye, back to her left ear. The scar looks like one tear crying. Sometimes, lightning strikes twice."

Ian Crutcher Castillo is a writer living in Brooklyn and sometimes Madrid. He can be found online @_ian_castillo.

I AM MARKED SAFE originally appeared on the XRAY website: https://xraylitmag.com/i-am-marked-safe-by-ian-crutcher-castillo/fiction/

Music by ponyboy: https://soundcloud.com/ponyboyict

“In movies, the end of the world makes everyone care about the right things, right when the right things are about to be gone. Not me. I want my money.”

THE LIST by Annie Delmedico originally appeared on the XRAY website: ⁠https://xraylitmag.com/the-list-by-annie-delmedico/fiction/⁠

Annie Delmedico is a writer from North Carolina. She is currently an MFA candidate at The University of California at Davis, where she also teaches creative writing and enjoys the bike lanes.

Music by ponyboy: ⁠https://soundcloud.com/ponyboyict⁠

“My 7th grade English teacher was just three toddlers stacked on top of each other. The middle toddler googled every question we asked on an iPhone. You could see it through his shirt, star-bright.”

MJ McGinn received his MFA from Adelphi University and was a VCCA resident in 2019. His work has been named to the Wigleaf 50 best very short stories and has previously appeared in the Guernica/PEN flash series, New Flash Fiction Review, Firewords, Bridge Eight, and elsewhere. He lives and teaches in Philadelphia.

WEIRD ENOUGH TO BE DANGEROUS by MJ McGinn first appeared on the XRAY website: ⁠https://xraylitmag.com/weird-enough-to-be-dangerous-by-mj-mcginn/fiction/⁠

Music by ponyboy: https://soundcloud.com/ponyboyict⁠https://soundcloud.com/ponyboyict⁠

“The world felt like something awful impending. June gloom had set in early; Mercury was back in retrograde. Everyone was jittery, uncertain, a little gun shy.”

Nick Plett lives and writes in Los Angeles, CA. His work has appeared in Forever Magazine as well in several defunct or much harder to find online publications.

LOVE LETTER by Nick Plett originally appeared on the XRAY website: https://xraylitmag.com/love-letter-by-nick-plett/fiction/

Music by ponyboy: https://soundcloud.com/ponyboyict

“A rainbow is feeling down, suicidal even. It takes some pills and a bottle of gin to a park, ready to end it all.”

Tim Frank's short stories have been published in Wrongdoing Magazine, Eunoia Review, Rejection Letters, Brilliant Flash Fiction, Maudlin House and elsewhere. He was runner-up in The Forge Literary Flash Fiction competition '22. He has been nominated for Best Small Fictions '22. He is the associate fiction editor for Able Muse Literary Journal and lives with his wife in North London, England.

RAINBOWS by Tim Frank originally appeared on the XRAY website: https://xraylitmag.com/rainbows-by-tim-frank/fiction

Music by ponyboy: https://soundcloud.com/ponyboyict

"It's 5:34 am and John Wayne is singing to his horse. The shoot is behind schedule; they've gone all night. Wayne's singing voice will be dubbed over."

Will VanDenBerg's short fiction has been published in Threadcount, Denver Quarterly, New South, and elsewhere. He is a graduate of the Literary Arts MFA program at Brown University. He volunteers as a clinic escort at PPGNY and lives with his wife in Sunnyside, NY.

"A PORTRAIT OF JOHN WAYNE'S COLLARBONE, SELMA BRAUN, 1992" by Will VanDenBerg first appeared on the X-R-A-Y website: https://xraylitmag.com/john-wayne-collarbone-by-will-vandenberg/fiction

Music by ponyboy: ⁠https://soundcloud.com/ponyboyict

Marc Tweed's short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in the 2022 and 2023 editions of NOON Annual and he has also published fiction in New World Writing, Juked, The Normal School, Cleaver, and many other literary journals. His story Mean World was longlisted for the Wigleaf Top 50 of 2022. He lives in Seattle, where he works as a technology writer.

"Anchorage" by Marc Tweed originally appeared on the X-R-A-Y website: https://xraylitmag.com/anchorage-by-marc-tweed/fiction/

Music by ponyboy: https://soundcloud.com/ponyboyict

"You can tell yourself anything you want about yourself, even if it’s not true yet, and eventually it will be. Maybe."

Rhea Ramakrishnan is from Baltimore. Her essays and poems have previously been published in swamp pink (formerly Crazyhorse), Ploughshares, and Hayden's Ferry Review, among others.

"Our Story," by Rhea Ramakrishnan first appeared on the X-R-A-Y website: https://xraylitmag.com/our-story-by-rhea-ramakrishnan/fiction/

Music by ponyboy: https://soundcloud.com/ponyboyict

"I liked existing in peripheries. I imagined myself stuck deeply in mud and drowned and decaying but still there, still part of the river."

Abby Feden is a fiction writer living in Stillwater, Oklahoma. She is the winner of The 2020 SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction. Her work appears or is forthcoming in SmokeLong Quarterly, JMWW, Third Coast, Best Small Fictions 2021, and elsewhere. Feden received her MFA from Western Washington University and is in her third year of Oklahoma State University's PhD in Creative Writing.

"Leave It" by Abby Feden first appeared on the X-R-A-Y website: https://xraylitmag.com/leave-it-by-abby-feden/fiction/

Music by ponyboy: https://soundcloud.com/ponyboyict