To professors and students unseen since graduation, he writes novels and plays, film treatments with moments for experimental work before sighing and hitting the commercial again. You know, to pay the bills.

He tells his parents he waits tables. They already know everything.

On good days, both stories are right.

Jason Peck’s work has appeared in more than two dozen newspapers and magazines across Pennsylvania and Virginia, with fiction either published or forthcoming in Seven Eleven Stories, Bloom Aluminum and Third Wednesday. He also serves as one of the founding editors for The Hour After Happy Hour, which recently celebrated its inaugural issue.