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“No.” I waved a hand, shaking my head. “It’s fine. I didn’t do it for any kind of recompense.”
“Well, that just makes me want to do something for you even more now,” she insisted before motioning to me. “Hey. I remember a year or so ago, I saw you eating a taco pizza at Murphy’s. I love their taco pizzas. How about we go get one now? My treat.”
Her eyes were huge and pleading. It made my stomach burn with the need to please her.
Taco pizzas were something I ate only on very special occasions.
This definitely called for one.
“You’d be doing me a favor,” she added, hooking her arm through mine and urging me along. “Because I really need a distraction right now.”
I nodded. “In that case, I’d love to.”
And that is the night Avery’s and my story truly began.
&
nbsp; Farewell from Alice:
I apologize for the rushed ending and making this the last time you’ll ever hear about Henry and Avery. The problem is, this story wasn’t fiction. It was about real people who truly exist on campus.
Sure, I changed some details, like names, timelines, dialogue, hair color. In fact, Henry—or whatever his actual name is—isn’t even in the marching band. If you translate band into football and the trumpet position into the quarterback, then you’ll be a lot closer to the truth of the matter than you ever were before.
But in the case of “Hopeless Henry,” I altered details in order to protect the innocent parties involved. Except some of those parties discovered the correlation of their true lives to their characters in the story and were therefore able to track me down, in which case, I’ve been persuasively asked to cease and desist writing any more issues of their story.
In respect to them, I am kindly granting them their wish, but I didn’t want to disappear forever before at least giving the rest of you readers a bit of closure to explain why we must now part ways but also to reassure you that Henry’s doing fine. He and Avery are indeed finally together and better than ever. As for the real-life Reuben… Well, I say it’s past time for karma to swing back around and head in his direction. I hope the rest of his senior year is pure hell.
Oh, and, Reuben, thanks a lot for causing us to lose in the playoffs, you asshole.
Wishing you all the fates you deserve,
That person writing as Alice Bennet.
49
Haven
“Hey, look,” Wick announced proudly as he appeared in the opening of the hallway that led into the front room where I was kicked back on the couch, browsing through Netflix and searching for something new to watch. “I was finally able to pop the centers out without breaking the outer chocolate rings.”
He held up two Reese’s cups to his eyes so he could peer at me through the holes where the peanut butter centers usually went.
“Hey, yay! Good job.” I began to clap, only to narrow my eyes when he moved close enough for me to see the cups better as he sat on the couch next to me. “Wait. You cut them out with a knife, didn’t you?”
He laughed, dropping the Reese’s from his eyes and confessed, “Yeah. But it was the only way I could do it without breaking the outer ring.”
“God, you’re adorable,” I answered, shaking my head and grabbing the front of his shirt so I could pull him in for a kiss.
He met my mouth eagerly, tasting like chocolate and peanut butter, which had me humming in delight and licking my lips when I pulled back. “Mmm. Yum.”
He held up a chocolate ring and silently offered it to me. With a grin, I accepted and popped it into my mouth. As he ate the second ring, we watched each other chew, our eyes twinkling with glee as we shared such a simple but meaningful moment together.
Swallowing my snack, I wiped a smudge of chocolate from my bottom lip and finally told him, “Want to know a secret? Using a knife is exactly how I get the peanut butter out first, too, without upsetting the outer ring.”
Wick’s mouth dropped open as he gasped. “But you said you popped it out with your thumbs.”
“I do.” Grinning mischievously, I winked. “After I cut it with a knife.”
“Why you little sneak,” he accused, reaching out to tickle me. “All this time I thought you were a badass Reese’s cup eater.”
