As Charlie read off the directions to the spook house we were going to, Darcy plugged her phone into the console and typed in the address, making a map pop up on Wick’s navigation screen.All the while, Izzy leaned in toward me and commentated.“Watch this,” she murmured discreetly. “Next, Darcy will bring up a whole playlist of songs she picked out just for this trip.”A second later, Darcy announced, “And… Now for the playlist,” as she tapped buttons on the screen of her phone. “Exactly two hours of eclectic awesomeness.”Izzy and I exchanged secret grins before the song “Shotgun” began to play. On the other side of me, Charlie nodded her head to the beat, tapped her fingers against her knee, and sang along with George Ezra.While Wick concentrated on getting out of the town and onto a stretch of nothing but highway, Darcy twisted in her seat to talk to me. “So, you dated Topher Nicholl, huh? What was that like?”“Darce,” Wick warned, shooting her a hard glance.“What?” his si
Issue 6 of “Hopeless Henry”By Alice BennetTaken from the University GazetteMy freshman year moved into sophomore. With the dawn of a new semester, I was determined to get my shit together.So I followed Rush’s advice; I put everything I had into learning the tuba. My talent grew to the point that when I’d earned enough money to buy a new instrument, I found myself wandering toward the tuba section instead of the trumpets when I entered the music store.I’d lost my taste for trumpets, I guess. Since the ordeal with Reuben, I didn’t want to play anything he played. Hell, I didn’t really even want to be in the same marching band as him, much less the same brass section. But I’d become fond of my tuba, so I decided to put up with that bit of distance.I also set myself up with the goal to stop thinking about Avery. She continued to date Reuben, anyway, which helped me lose some taste for her. Not all of it, but enough to help me turn my attention to Kerri.Kerri played the tuba t
We hit two more spook houses before the night was over. On the trip back to the apartment, the interior of Wick’s truck grew quiet, making me think everyone was getting tired and were ready to drop off.But as soon as he found a parking spot a block from our place, the sisters perked back to life.“Can we drink?” Charlie begged Darcy as we piled out of the truck. “Please, please, please. You let us last year.”“Last year,” Darcy started with a wince. “Was a mistake.”“Oh, come on,” Izzy started in too. “This is the only time Charlie and I get to have a little alcohol.”Their oldest sister sent them a pleasant smirk. “Not true. You can have as much as you please when you both turn twenty-one.”Abandoning her, they turned to their brother. “Wick,” they pleaded, tugging on his arm as we approached the complex.He held up a finger. “One drink.”“Wick,” Darcy cried as the other two cheered and raced on ahead of us.He shrugged. “What’s the harm? They’re going to be inside the rest
I woke to Wick stretching and mumbling out a groan under me.Burrowing deeper into his chest, I yawned and said, “Morning,” before I lifted my face to look up at him.His facial hair looked thicker and more rugged this morning, and his eyes were rimmed in red, telling me just how tired he was.“Good morning,” he offered, blinking sleepily and probably wondering how I’d ended up on top of him. Again.“I hope you don’t mind,” I added. “After getting kicked I-don’t-know-how-many times down there in the dogpile, I crawled up here where it was safer.”“It’s fine,” he answered, cupping my hair affectionately in his hand even as he lifted his face to glance around the living room and orient himself. When he found the pile of blankets and pillows on the floor next to us empty, he frowned and glanced around again until we both heard his sisters talking in the kitchen, pots and pans clanging in the background.“What time is it?” he asked, plopping his head back on the armrest of the couch
“So, let me get this straight,” Cannon said next to me, switching his stretch by alternating his bent leg to straight, then reaching for the opposite toe. “The girl doesn’t even kiss you, but almost kisses you, and you run out to buy her a damn kitten?”I scowled at him. Practice was about to start any minute, and we were doing warm-up exercises on the sidelines of the football field before it did.“I didn’t buy it,” I muttered. “They were just giving them away. She’d always wanted a kitten, and this is honestly the first place she’s ever lived where she could get one. Her mom’s allergic, so she couldn’t have one growing up, then there was no way they would’ve allowed one in the dorms when she moved to college. So…” I shrugged. “It just made sense.”“It just made sense,” Cannon repeated, nodding as if he totally agreed, only to sniff a moment later, and say, “Shit. What’re you going to give her when she actually does kiss you? A damn car?”Jesus. I was going to strangle him. And no
I paced the hall outside Wick’s bedroom, carrying Bingley against my chest and biting away at my nails as I waited for him to finish.This was so bizarre. He was in there, right now, jacking off. For me. I’d never asked a guy to do that before.Honestly, I had to wonder if anyone had ever asked a guy to do that before.Picturing him how he’d been in the shower, pumping himself with water sluicing down his muscled back and buttocks, my womb tightened and thighs tingled. Maybe I should’ve asked if I could watch—wait, no. That would be totally crossing the line.And this wasn’t? the logical part of my brain screamed. The entire plan had a healthy level of line-crossing to it, as well as insanity and outright stupidity. But strangely, I felt committed, as if it were already too late to back out.My pulse raced with anxiety as I—The door to Wick’s room cracked open, and he poked only his head out, flinching when he found me loitering.“Oh.” He flushed. “You’re…right there.”“What’s
Gripping my knees for dear life, I sat in the corner chair in the front room of Wick’s and my apartment with a snoozing Bingley on my lap—her heat soaking through my jeans with a comfort I didn’t deserve—and watched the door fly open, admitting yet another one of Wick’s friends.“I just heard,” J.J. McCannon announced, going straight to Wick, who was pacing the floor in front of me. “What the fuck happened? Why didn’t anyone call me sooner?”Wick held up a hand to get him to back off. J.J. paused, frowned in confusion, and then glanced at his other friends, silently asking for an explanation. But they just shook their heads, not even sure how to start. So his attention veered back to Wick, who hadn’t stopped walking around the room since another one of his friends had dragged him home.I guess Zack Polansky—the other friend who’d dragged him home—had been at Topher’s party when everything had gone down. He’d been the only person able to pull Wick off Topher after Wick had attacked h
Issue 7 of “Hopeless Henry”By Alice BennetTaken from the University GazetteSo, I finally lost my virginity.Near the end of sophomore year, Beth Anne, a girl from my speech class, asked me out, saying she was into the strong, silent type. I had no idea that was the impression I gave. After Reuben had stolen Avery and fucked Kerri out from under me, I’d just kind of shut down and stopped showing my emotions.Letting them hang out there on my sleeve for the world to see hadn’t done me any good. I’d only ended up with my heart ripped to shreds.So, no more.As a result, I had closed up shop, stopped interacting as much with people, usually stayed quiet in a crowd unless spoken to directly, and I basically avoided women altogether.Jacking off was so much simpler than aching and wanting something I couldn’t have, or making the attempt, only for some weaselly jackass to sleep with her first. But apparently, that made me come across as hard-to-get. It drove bolder girls crazy, and