AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yes,” I answered, growing more and more certain I was right. “Except I don’t think it’s a fictional story, anymore. I think it’s all true, and you’re Henry, and instead of the marching band, you joined the football team. And in real life, trumpets and tubas are actually quarterbacks and safeties. And Reuben is Topher, and I… Oh… Oh my God. That makes me Avery. Jesus. Oh hell. I’m Avery? How can I be Avery? I didn’t even like Avery. I mean, she was okay. But I thought she was an idiot for never figuring out how awful Reuben truly was. Oh my God.” I pressed my hands to my head and moaned. “I am an idiot.”
“You’re not an idiot,” Wick growled, beginning to crawl toward me. “Haven—”
I held up a hand, halting him. My breaths were coming hard. My pulse was bouncing around like crazy in my veins. Trying to calm myself down, I blew out a lungful.
“So the night I met Reuben—I mean, Topher—I mean…” I squinted thoughtfully before my eyes popped open wide. “Oh my God. Reuben. Pumpernickel.” I turned to Wick in amazement when he reached me and stopped at my side. “I just realized who Alice is.”
His brows furrowed. “I’m confused. Who’s Alice?” When I just stared at him, he said, “Haven, you’re not making any sense.”
I scanned his room frantically before spotting his laptop on the floor, propped on its side against his nightstand. Diving forward, I scrambled toward it and jerked it open as I plopped it into my lap. “Izzy’s a journalism major, right?” I asked, my fingers trembling like crazy as I logged online and did a search to find the digital version of the school’s University Gazette.
“Yes,” he answered, scooting over to sit directly beside me. “Why?”
I paused typing to glance at him. “Does she work on the school paper’s staff? For the University Gazette?”
His jaw tightened, but he said, “Yes.”
I found the first edition of “Hopeless Henry,” and breathed out a groan, closing my eyes. “Of course,” I said, feeling like a fool. “Look how Bennet’s spelled.”
When I turned the screen on my lap to face him, he set Bingley aside and leaned in to focus on the screen. “With one T.” He lifted his face to me. “Like the Bennets in Pride and Prejudice.”
“Exactly. And Alice Bennet is definitely not this author’s real name. I tried to get in touch with her once to tell her how much I enjoyed reading ‘Hopeless Henry’ and, you know, maybe ask questions and try to figure out how it all ends, but… It’s like she doesn’t exist anywhere except right here in this story.”
“So you think…You think Izzy—my sister, Izzy—is this Alice Bennet person, and she’s been, what, writing my story? Our story?”
“You tell me,” I said seriously, nudging the laptop his way.
He looked hesitant as he slowly pulled the laptop onto his thighs. Then he started to read.
“Holy shit,” he murmured not too awfully long later, his eyes wide and head shifting back and forth in stunned confusion.
I glanced over his shoulder, skimming along with him as he began to scroll faster through the story. “Rush must be Cannon,” I said, motioning toward his name.
Wick nodded numbly as he set his fist against his mouth. “Holy shit,” he repeated. He pointed at the screen before looking at me. “That actually… But how would she know… Holy shit.”
He read some more until suddenly, he snorted and quoted a piece of text. “‘Oh, to be the wind or the sun just now.’ Really?” Glancing at me, he rolled his eyes. “It definitely has Iz’s flair for drama all over it.”
He returned to skimming until he reached the night that Reuben stole Henry’s girl right out from under him. Shaking his head, he cursed softly under his breath.
“Son of a bitch. How is this possible? It’s all wrong, and yet… It’s freakishly right. But Izzy wouldn’t even know half this shit. She couldn’t. There’s no way.”
I bit my lip, realizing exactly how Izzy would know everything. “You never wiped out your email and message accounts from your tablet when you went to college,” I confessed, knowing Izzy was going to get into so much trouble for this, but then figuring… She probably needed to. She’d published his story for the world to see.
My story.
Oh God. My story, my stupidity, was now out the
re for everyone to see and know.
My stomach swirled and nausea mounted.
Wick frowned at me. “What?”
“Your tablet,” I reminded him, breathing deeply through my nose. “When you graduated from high school, you got a new one and gave the old one to Izzy, right?”
“Yeah.” He frowned. “How did you know that?”
“She told me so. Or rather Charlie spilled the secret. The night we went spook housing. After you fell asleep, we girls gossiped like crazy. All your sisters knew about it. They said you never cleared out your old stuff from that tablet, so Izzy can still see every message you get and send out. Way back since your freshman year of college.”
