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Issue 6 of “Hopeless Henry”
By Alice Bennet
Taken from the University Gazette
My 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 too. She was funny and sweet and easy to talk to. The fact that I could actually talk to her without stuttering or feeling like I was going to pass out was a huge reason why I finally asked her on a date. That, and I’d never gotten the achy, breathless feeling for her that I’d always felt for Avery.
I had learned the achy, breathless feeling could not be trusted. It only turned me stupid and cowardly and left me crushed. If I never felt that way again, I’d be happy.
Kerri was safe, though. She didn’t stir crazy, wild, uncontrollable, obsessive things inside me. She just made things...chill. When she actually got me to laugh on our date, I felt on top of the world. It’d been so long since I’d last really laughed. Laughing was nice. I started to feel as if I could actually do this. I could move on and forget all about Reuben, the asshole, and his girlfriend, what’s-her-name.
That was until the next week when I was warming up on the practice field, waiting for th
e other tuba players to arrive when Reuben went whistling by, only to pause and call, “Hey, Henry.”
I should’ve ignored him.
Why the fuck didn’t I just ignore him?
Straightening from the mouthpiece of my tuba, I shot him a glare for even talking to me.
“Heard you went out with Tuba Kerri. You nail that down yet?”
Rolling my eyes, I lifted the mouthpiece back to my lips, intent to carry on as if he wasn’t there. But before I could play a note to drown him out, he snickered. “Just curious if you thought she sounded like a dying cat when she came too. Oh well.” Then he shrugged and strolled away, whistling again. “I doubt you’d make her come, anyway.”
Heat rippled down my scalp, then along my spine until I became just one scalding ball of rage.
“He didn’t,” I said aloud after he was gone. “He wouldn’t.” Except I knew he totally would. He would sleep with Kerri just because I’d gone out with her.
Motherfucker.
“Hey, Henry,” Kerri’s voice called suddenly, making me jump and spin her way to watch her bound over, the brass of her tuba glinting in the sunlight. Cheeks flushed from hurrying as she caught up to me, she pushed her hair from her face, repositioned her tuba around her and said, “I had a really great time last week. And I’m so looking forward to this weekend.”
“That’s great,” I said, smiling, though I really didn’t feel like smiling at all. Not sure what came over me, I conversationally added, “I did too. But, um, hey, though. I have a strange, random question. Did you have sex with Reuben?”
“I…” Her eyes went wide with guilt. She licked her lips and pulled all her hair up into her hand to keep the wind from blowing it into her face again. Then she winced. “I mean, is that a problem for you? I didn’t think we were exclusive or anything, and he was so—”
Exclusive? That meant she’s slept with him recently, like, since our date recently.
Dammit.
Unwilling to hear what Reuben was so good at, I waved a hand cutting her off. “No. I mean, yeah, no problem. It’s fine.” Like hell, it was fine. “We weren’t… That is, you’re right. You and I weren’t exclusive. Not at all.”
We’d just gone out and had a nice time together, were planning on going out again, and I’d assumed she wouldn’t go off and sleep with anyone else, especially my archenemy, until maybe we had first.
“So, it was like, recently, then?” I pushed to know, even though I already knew. “That you two hooked up?” I don’t know why I needed to hear her say the words aloud. Maybe I was a fan of self-torture. “Like more recently than our date?”
“It was last night,” she answered uneasily.
I nodded and drew out a long breath.
