A New Young Adult Romance Story With No Spice

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Sometimes when I’m writing a story, I like to get lost in the emotional aspects of it. And that can be easier when I don’t include spice. While I will readily admit that there are times when I like to go all-in with spice, there are other times when I really just want to focus on the emotional connection between the characters.

(When I go spicy, I write under a different name.)

I wrote a young adult romance called “What Happens After You Confess Your Feelings to Someone?” It’s a story about a high school sophomore named Chloe who’s deeply in love with a junior at her school named Mordecai.

Mordecai says he would date Chloe if she were allowed to date, but she won’t be allowed to until her senior year. And even though Mordecai already knows she likes him, he hasn’t told her how he feels about her. Instead, they share a complicated friendship. And Chloe gets to experience the heartbreak that inevitably comes when you love someone who knows you love them but doesn’t seem to return your feelings.

But then there’s Chloe’s good friend Simon, also a sophomore. He’s in love with Chloe, but he struggles to tell her how he feels. That leaves him in the friend zone, picking up the pieces every time Mordecai breaks her heart. Simon does his best to be a friend to Chloe, but he often finds himself frustrated by how she keeps crushing on Mordecai even after all the stuff he puts her through.

The thing is, Mordecai has secrets—secrets that help explain some of his erratic behavior. And he can only share them with Chloe. And whenever he needs help, she’s always the first one he turns to.

This is the story you’ll be walking into when you read “What Happens After You Confess Your Feelings to Someone?”

YA Romance With No Spice But Lots of Emotion

This is a high school love story without spice, meaning there are no explicit scenes of sensuality. But the characters do sometimes discuss the topic of sex. And Chloe sometimes thinks about the concept of it. Even so, when characters become romantically involved, their intimacy is limited to kissing and being physically close.

What you will get, though, is a lot of emotion. This teen romance will take you on a roller coaster ride of emotions. Since Chloe’s feelings for Mordecai are strong and since he can be moody and unpredictable—and often completely indifferent to her feelings, or so it seems—you’re going to get a lot of emotional highs and lows throughout this tale of high school love.

To give you a taste of the ride, here’s an excerpt from Chapter 23 where Mordecai tells Chloe about his college plans. (Chloe is the one narrating.)

[Chloe] “Well, learn a lot there. And have fun.”

[Mordecai] “I’ll try. But it would be even more awesome if you went there, too.”

“Why? So I could compete with all the college girls who’ll be vying for your attention? I’ll pass.”

“I don’t know. By then, you’ll be able to date. So…”

“So…what?”

“So, you never know what will happen.”

I so want to hear Mordecai say what I’ve been yearning to hear for so long…that he wants to be with me and only me. Sometimes it seems like he’s close to saying it, but he can’t get the words out. And I don’t know why.

Why can’t he just wait? Is he that desperate to be in a relationship? And if so, why does he have such a hard time making them stick? Does he ever really intend to date me? Why can’t he make up his mind? And why do I keep letting him play with mine?

Oh, Mordecai. I’d cross an ocean to be with you. But you have to ask first.

Proximity vs. Distance

Something else you should know is that, while Simon and Chloe’s friendship is very public, Mordecai and Chloe’s friendship isn’t. For Mordecai and Chloe, they rely mostly on phone conversations and instant messaging or IM to keep in touch—at least at the beginning of the story. As Chloe puts it in Chapter 2, “I don’t ever talk to Mordecai at school. We’re not officially school friends. We’re talk-on-the-phone-and-IM friends.”

This means that some of the highs and lows Chloe experiences are the result of interactions with Mordecai from a distance. I think this adds a unique spin to the story. Chloe is more attached to the person she doesn’t interact with in public often than the person she interacts with almost every day—Simon. Although she has a hard time explaining her attachment to Mordecai, here’s how she tries to do it in the first chapter:

But still, it would be nice if I could forget about him. It would be nice if I could just let him go, at least until I’m allowed to date. But I can’t let go. I can’t forget. And why not? Because Mordecai…is the love of my life.

A Different Kind of Romance

This isn’t a typical YA romance, though. I’m not going to tell you who Chloe ends up with. Instead, I leave that decision to you, the reader. When you reach a certain chapter, you’ll get to decide whether you want Chloe to choose constant and reliable Simon or complex and unpredictable Mordecai. And then you can read the ending based on your choice.

Because this is an atypical way to read a young adult romance, I’ve designed it so that you’ll need to join the What Happens After You Confess membership to read it. If this sounds exciting to you, feel free to click here to learn more about the story and the membership.

I hope to see you there!

~ Ashley C.

P.S. If you would like to sample more of my story-writing style, you can click here to read some short stories that are currently available.

Last updated: April 20, 2025