Nocticadia

by Keri Lake

Just as I was on the verge of unzipping my skin and crawling away,

“Got it. I just … spend the couple hours I’m here reading?” “Yes, exactly.” I couldn’t have picked a more perfect job. Except maybe one that required sleeping.

For real

A wiser man would’ve kicked her out of his class and avoided the inevitable headache that was sure to follow. I’d certainly never professed to be the wisest.

was almost criminal how at ease I felt flirting over science, and worse, I didn’t even feel like I was pretending.

Love

idea.” She loosed what sounded like a cross between a laugh and a scoff. “That is the tragedy of women, isn’t it? We deny ourselves beauty for the sake of misleading men.”

“The human body is a magnificent puzzle.”

“You’re delving into toddlerhood with all of these questions.”

“She’ll be thoroughly disappointed, I’m sure.” At that point, I didn’t even know if I was talking about the girl anymore. “Under different circumstances, she might’ve been the perfect match.” “Under different circumstances …” The pause in his words carried a laborious heartbeat that smothered my own, as I watched the slightest smile play on his lips. A beat of hesitation. “I might’ve pursued you.”

“And because I’m a selfish prick who has to live with the fact that I cannot have you to myself, I’m going to ruin you so that any boy who comes after me will leave you deeply unsatisfied, and you’ll be left fucking your own fingers, desperate to remember the time you had your professor’s face between your legs.”

Baby? He never called me baby. What the hell was this?

ITS HIS BROTHER