“Hey,” Paige grumbles as I plop down beside her at the kitchen table. “Rough morning?” I keep the chuckle in check when I see how wrecked my little sister looks. “My head hurts,” she says, hunched over a steaming mug of coffee. “Also, I’m pretty sure I caught you necking with my best friend of fifteen years in your car last night.” That’s it. I’m done for. I don’t breathe, don’t move, waiting for the fallout. But Paige ju...

“Jesus, Chris…AGAIN? Do we need to go get a Men’s ball?” Chris Weathers grimaced. “Shut up, Jacqueline!” Jacqueline Sullivan turned to Pam Warren. “Can we go back to the beginning, Pam? Can we recut the whole segment, and make it about how much Chris sucks at throwing a Women’s football?” Warren, the famous College Football television sideline reporter, let out a warm chuckle. “Don’t worry, Jacqueline!” Warren assured. “W...

I’m not surprised to find Paige and Maddie sprawled on the lakehouse’s living room couch as I leave the bathroom. They’re munching on cereals, watching cartoons, still in their PJs. “Going for a run?” Paige asks as soon as she notices my clothes. She barely finishes the sentence before half-chewed Cheerios escape her mouth. She claps a hand over her lips, eyes wide, and then bursts into laughter. “Yup,” I smirk and head f...

“Hey, Rom!” Dad’s voice booms as he waves me over from the grill all the way to the back of the garden. “Mind taking over for a while?” “Sure,” I say, wiping my hands on my shorts. Not like I have anything better to do. He hands me the tongs, but more importantly, his old apron, scarred with grease stains and burn marks from years of cookouts. “The Johnsons should be here any minute,” he explains. “I’d like to clean up an...

Damn it, Alexia, stop looking up there! Alexia Ramos lowered her curvaceous body, pumped her arms and legs, shifted her powerful hips, and turned her body 90 degrees to the right. The Chris Weathers pass arrived just as she emerged from her break–on target, but wobbly as hell. Alexia reached out her bronze arms and pulled the football in. Jacqueline Sullivan had been right: Kelsie’s man, famously, had a cannon for an arm,...

It’s nice to enjoy a minute of calm. The water is fresh, not too fresh. The lake is peaceful and lonely. I’m in no hurry to swim back to the shore. My parents’ lakehouse, right above the beach, is obscured by a thin line of trees. Drying myself under the early morning sun, I’m winded but still manage to hear people approaching along the small path to the Johnsons’ cabin. I’ve not seen Diane and Kevin in years. She looks g...

Kelsie McCollum’s physical well-being was now sacrificed, daily, at the altar of carnal desire. She was lucky if she could get a few hours of sleep per night. During the day, Kelsie nodded off in most of her classes–when she made it to class at all. When Kelsie was actually conscious during her lectures, she simply sat and counted the minutes until she could get back to Howard Hall. Once she was back in her room, she coun...

Naomi’s familiar touch stirs me from sleep, her fresh hand sliding under the waistband of my shorts. “Mimi,” I murmur with a lazy grin as she wraps her fingers around my rapidly hardening cock. “Trying to get me in the mood?” Blinking away the haze, reality hits me like a punch to the gut. This isn’t my bed. This isn’t Naomi. She dumped me a month ago. I’m on the lumpy old sofa in my parents’ summer lakehouse. And the blo...

If Kelsie McCollum was astonished by everything that had occurred in the past 30 seconds, Chris Weathers was even more astonished. The oak tree of a boy bolted up from the study desk in his room, where he had been hunched over a thick, laminated binder that clearly belonged to the Perion Football Team. His blue eyes wide, his mouth hanging open, Weathers seemed unable to get a word out. They both stood frozen: The massive...

“It’s definitely one of these…” As she studied Kelsie’s McCollum’s face, Jacqueline Sullivan held up three tubes of lipstick. Each one projected a slightly different shade of the same rich tone. Ruby. Cherry. Apple. “Are you sure?” Kelsie worrily queried. “They’re all so…red?” For as long as she could remember, Kelsie had been conscious of her pale skin. When it came to fashion, she had always gravitated away from strong...

“How’d you even manage to make it here so fast?” Dad asks bluntly. “That motel you spent the night at is supposed to be a three-hour drive.” We’re having lunch on the lake house’s terrace, surrounded by the sounds of nature and the smell of grilled fish. Mom and Dad share one bench, and my sister Paige and her best friend Maddie huddle on the other. I’m sitting in my own creaky chair. “We followed Mr Johnson on some count...

The following Friday night, Kelsie briskly made her way, alone, back to Howard Hall from the Perion University Library. Ostensibly, she had been working on a paper for her Introduction to Psychology course that was due the following week. In truth, though, Kelsie had just found a quiet cubby in the massive library and simply hid out. On Fridays, Howard could become a rowdy place. Every hallway flooded with people; even if...

“Hop in!” I call out, leaning over to push the passenger door open. The girl on the bench startles, her blonde hair catching the late afternoon sun. But her surprise washes away, replaced by a delighted grin. She springs to her feet and slings her bag onto my backseat in one swift motion. “Roman!” she chirps, sliding beside me. It is my turn to get flustered when she plants a breezy kiss on my cheeks. “Thanks for picking...