SHIVER: 13 Sexy Tales of Humor and Horror by C.C. Wood, N.M. Silber, Liv Morris, Belle Aurora, R.S. Grey, Daisy Prescott, Jodie Beau, Z.B. Heller, Penny Reid, Ruth Clampett, Ashley Pullo, L.H. Cosway, Jennie Marts Page A
Authors: C.C. Wood, N.M. Silber, Liv Morris, Belle Aurora, R.S. Grey, Daisy Prescott, Jodie Beau, Z.B. Heller, Penny Reid, Ruth Clampett, Ashley Pullo, L.H. Cosway, Jennie Marts
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basement steps, when I heard someone coming up. Too embarrassed to face anyone in the harsh lights of the kitchen, I drank my Kool-Aid right there at the counter without turning around.
I heard the footsteps, slow and deliberate, come up behind me, and then a hand on my ass encouraged me to turn around and face my mystery make-out man. So I did.
Ben. Ben Ogea stood before me. I was too afraid to look up at his face, but I knew it was him from the Jim Morrison quote on his t-shirt. “This is the strangest life I’ve ever known.”
I looked down at his black Chuck Taylor shoes. Someone had used an ink pen to draw chemical symbols on the white part of the shoes. Ben was the smartest guy in our class. He was a year younger than us because he’d skipped the second grade. But he wasn’t one of those geeky pocket protector carrying kind of smart people who made everyone else around him feel stupid. He made getting a 4.0 look cool.
Ben didn’t usually hang out with us and I couldn’t remember us ever having had a conversation in the past. But I knew who he was. Everybody did.
I glanced up at him shyly while still keeping my head down. He smiled. Jim Morrison had a strange life, and Ben Ogea had a wicked smile, wicked sexy . I returned his smile with a shy one of my own. Then he put his finger up to his mouth and… and he licked it. Uhhh… what?
With a hand on each one of my hips, he leaned down and kissed me one last time. Then he walked backwards away from me until he reached the stairs, before he turned and walked out the back door.
We never spoke to each other that night. And we never spoke after it. But I’d wanted to finish what we’d started ever since.
***
Friday, October 31, 2014
7:47 A.M.
“I guess we have two Elsas in first grade today,” Ben said when they arrived at our corner. Lucie and Olive were both wearing the exact same turquoise store-bought costume.
I knew there would be a whole lot more than two Elsas in the first grade, and in every other grade, but I didn’t correct him.
“I like your braid,” Olive said to Lucie. Her own dark hair was in a high ponytail. “My daddy doesn’t know how to braid.”
I looked up at Ben and he shrugged ruefully.
I looked at my watch. We had a few minutes to spare. “Do you want a braid like Lucie’s?” I asked Olive.
She nodded shyly.
I knelt down on the sidewalk and pulled a brush from my purse. She stood still as I quickly braided her hair over to the side like Lucie’s.
A few minutes earlier I’d felt like I failure when I couldn’t get Lucie’s crown braid to look red-carpet-ready. The way Olive looked at me when I finished with her braid, it made me feel like a hero instead.
Ben looked at me the same way and I’d be a liar if I said it didn’t give my belly the squirmies.
“Thanks,” he muttered when we continued walking. “I watched some videos online, but my fingers just don’t coordinate right.”
He had actually tried to learn how to braid? I didn’t personally know any other single fathers with young daughters, but I didn’t imagine most of them braided hair.
I didn’t reply. I just smiled and nodded and hoped he had no idea how I’d woken up this morning.
I wasn’t sure if Ben remembered Lights Out, but I suspected he didn’t. He’d never called me by my name, which made me believe he didn’t know it. I wasn’t sure he knew we went to high school together at all. I seriously doubted he remembered a twenty-minute make-out session from fifteen years ago. You could bet your ass I wouldn’t ever ask him either.
“You guys going to the Hurrah tonight?” he asked.
The Merriam Elementary School’s annual Halloween Hurrah was a fundraising event held every Halloween evening after trick-or-treating. It was a night of games and food and costume contests. Last year’s Hurrah had been tons of fun, and I’d been looking forward to going again. I’d be a lying shit if I said I hadn’t wondered if Ben and Olive would
I heard the footsteps, slow and deliberate, come up behind me, and then a hand on my ass encouraged me to turn around and face my mystery make-out man. So I did.
Ben. Ben Ogea stood before me. I was too afraid to look up at his face, but I knew it was him from the Jim Morrison quote on his t-shirt. “This is the strangest life I’ve ever known.”
I looked down at his black Chuck Taylor shoes. Someone had used an ink pen to draw chemical symbols on the white part of the shoes. Ben was the smartest guy in our class. He was a year younger than us because he’d skipped the second grade. But he wasn’t one of those geeky pocket protector carrying kind of smart people who made everyone else around him feel stupid. He made getting a 4.0 look cool.
Ben didn’t usually hang out with us and I couldn’t remember us ever having had a conversation in the past. But I knew who he was. Everybody did.
I glanced up at him shyly while still keeping my head down. He smiled. Jim Morrison had a strange life, and Ben Ogea had a wicked smile, wicked sexy . I returned his smile with a shy one of my own. Then he put his finger up to his mouth and… and he licked it. Uhhh… what?
With a hand on each one of my hips, he leaned down and kissed me one last time. Then he walked backwards away from me until he reached the stairs, before he turned and walked out the back door.
We never spoke to each other that night. And we never spoke after it. But I’d wanted to finish what we’d started ever since.
***
Friday, October 31, 2014
7:47 A.M.
“I guess we have two Elsas in first grade today,” Ben said when they arrived at our corner. Lucie and Olive were both wearing the exact same turquoise store-bought costume.
I knew there would be a whole lot more than two Elsas in the first grade, and in every other grade, but I didn’t correct him.
“I like your braid,” Olive said to Lucie. Her own dark hair was in a high ponytail. “My daddy doesn’t know how to braid.”
I looked up at Ben and he shrugged ruefully.
I looked at my watch. We had a few minutes to spare. “Do you want a braid like Lucie’s?” I asked Olive.
She nodded shyly.
I knelt down on the sidewalk and pulled a brush from my purse. She stood still as I quickly braided her hair over to the side like Lucie’s.
A few minutes earlier I’d felt like I failure when I couldn’t get Lucie’s crown braid to look red-carpet-ready. The way Olive looked at me when I finished with her braid, it made me feel like a hero instead.
Ben looked at me the same way and I’d be a liar if I said it didn’t give my belly the squirmies.
“Thanks,” he muttered when we continued walking. “I watched some videos online, but my fingers just don’t coordinate right.”
He had actually tried to learn how to braid? I didn’t personally know any other single fathers with young daughters, but I didn’t imagine most of them braided hair.
I didn’t reply. I just smiled and nodded and hoped he had no idea how I’d woken up this morning.
I wasn’t sure if Ben remembered Lights Out, but I suspected he didn’t. He’d never called me by my name, which made me believe he didn’t know it. I wasn’t sure he knew we went to high school together at all. I seriously doubted he remembered a twenty-minute make-out session from fifteen years ago. You could bet your ass I wouldn’t ever ask him either.
“You guys going to the Hurrah tonight?” he asked.
The Merriam Elementary School’s annual Halloween Hurrah was a fundraising event held every Halloween evening after trick-or-treating. It was a night of games and food and costume contests. Last year’s Hurrah had been tons of fun, and I’d been looking forward to going again. I’d be a lying shit if I said I hadn’t wondered if Ben and Olive would
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