You know what I never got? I never understood how someone could just keep going after they fucked up so badly that not only they knew what they’d done wrong but the entire freaking universe they lived in knew it, too.Like now, for instance. I didn’t want to be here, exposing my stupidity to these four amazing women I’d grown up admiring and wishing I could be like. I didn’t want them to see how awful I was at picking guys. Heck, I wanted to call it quits on this whole being alive business altogether. Because I failed at living.Like hard-core failure.That’s honestly how it felt at the moment, that nothing I’d ever tried in my entire life had been worth the effort. I had to be the most clueless idiot on the planet for not realizing what Topher had been doing throughout our entire relationship.I glanced around the kitchen, realizing all my cousins knew exactly how lame I was too.It made me feel gross, embarrassed, ashamed. Stupid.Because, seriously, how could I not know? All t

Issue 4 of “Hopeless Henry”By Alice BennetTaken from the University Gazette“Her name’s Avery.”Jumping when those words rang out behind me, I turned slowly, recognizing the voice.Reuben smirked as he shrugged. “Just thought you’d like to know.”I glared at him. And the bastard had the nerve to laugh.“What?” he taunted. “Hey, I can’t help it if the girl wanted me instead of you.”Anger bubbled. My fists clenched at my sides. And for a moment, the only thing I could see was him across that bar, pulling my dream girl into his arms and kissing her.And now he knew her name. Avery. Fuck. Her name was Avery. I hadn’t even been able to learn her name for myself.Red fringed my vision.“Get the fuck away from me,” I growled, flashing my teeth.Reuben had the gall to act offended. “Whoa, whoa.” He lifted his hands and backed away, but that glint in his eyes—that pompous, I-got-the-best-of-you gleam—kept me seething and frothing. “You need to chill. So the girl wanted me, not yo

I’d barely fallen asleep when someone touched my shoulder. With a gasp, I woke, jumping half out of my skin.And then, realizing only one person could logically be nudging me awake, I shot upright into a sitting position and blinked into the dark room—my brain muzzy and still half out of it—until she finally came into focus.“Haven? What’s—”“Shh.” She pressed her fingers to my mouth. “Don’t say a word. This isn’t real. Okay? Just… Please. Don’t make it real. I need this. I just need…”She clutched my covers and ripped them away before climbing on top of me and straddling my waist, where she sat down directly on my dick.Holy shit!“But—”I have no idea what I wanted to say but about; there was absolutely nothing she’d done so far that I objected to.She must’ve thought I did, though. Her hand slapped against my chest as she pushed me back down onto the mattress. “I’m serious. One word and I’m gone. You want me to leave, then talk. You want me to stay, then shut up. This isn’t

“So where’s the roommate tonight?”Concentrating on the screen in front of me and the levers I was shifting on the control unit I held, I waited a moment to answer until I was able to eliminate the enemy in the game that I was facing off with. Then I shot Cannon a harsh glance. “Do you really have to say it like that?”He shrugged. “So where is she?”I shrugged too as his character and mine approached another building, side by side with our weapons drawn. “I’m not her keeper.”With a snort, he kicked in the metal door of the abandoned warehouse we’d just reached and disappeared inside. “You’re seriously trying to tell me you have no idea where she is?”I went in after him, tempted to just shoot his character in the head because he was beginning to annoy me. “She said she was going out for drinks with some friends.”Cannon sent me a get-real glance. “And you believed that?”I shook my head because he was too damn distracted with staring at me to notice that someone had taken aim

Not gonna lie; I woke up extra early the next morning, straining under Haven and beyond ready for her to open her eyes, smile at me, and commence to fucking me any and every way she so pleased. I even arched up my hips, pressing my morning wood against her insistently, trying to remind her that, hey, here it was, ready and waiting for action.But all she did was grumble out a groan, roll off me, and turn onto her side, facing away from me.Rejected.Suffice to say, she didn’t wake up refreshed and hangover-free, seeking me out for that crazy, awesome sex she’d been so intent on getting the night before.Ignoring the disappointment, I sighed—because what the hell else had I really been expecting—and I crawled from her bed, leaving some water and ibuprofen on her nightstand for her before I took care of myself with a steamy, very soapy and lonely, thirty-minute shower.Before I left the apartment, I checked in on her to find her still asleep, but the cap had been removed on the ibup