The Mary Shelley Club by Goldy Moldavsky (ebook reader for manga TXT) 📕

minute. Saundra’s parents had instilled a sense of charity and hospitality in her, and when Saundra had seen Rachel she felt it was her duty to fill the poor girl in on how the school operated. Then she surprised herself by actually really liking the weirdo. Saundra knew that she (sometimes) talked a lot, and some people never wanted to stay and listen. But Rachel always did.

Still, sometimes a girl had to strike out on her own. And tonight was one of those nights. With Rachel gone, Saundra had the bedroom to herself, at least for a little while. Which meant the clock was ticking. As soon as Rachel left the cabin, Saundra had downed the rest of her mixed drink and set her sights on Aldie Kirkba. She walked over to him, tapped him on the shoulder, and without saying a word, led him away from one of his dumb board games and up the stairs.

As random hookups went, this was Saundra’s best. Also her first, but that was a minor detail. She and Aldie lay in bed together, on top of the covers (for now), fully dressed (reluctantly), and making out (sloppily). But Saundra didn’t mind the slobberiness. It meant Aldie was excited, which reinforced how much he was into her. He wasn’t the coolest guy in school (hi, they were staying in Pinsky’s cabin), or the smartest (3.1 GPA—he’d have to work on that), or even one of the richest (his parents, Alicia and Baz Kirkba, owned their own party supply company, but Middletons they were not). Aldie, though, was a good’un. And cute.

The thing was, Saundra was having trouble focusing on his parents’ jobs, or his GPA, or anything about the boy because the only thing that was consuming her thoughts right now was his hair. As she ran her fingers through it, she could feel every single strand pricking her skin. “Did you just get a haircut?” she breathed.

“What?” came Aldie’s muffled response.

“Your hair feels … alive.”

“What?” he said again. Aldie was having his own trouble focusing, trying to both swirl his tongue around in Saundra’s mouth and unhook her bra at the same time.

“It keeps poking me,” Saundra said.

“What’s poking you? Your bra?” Aldie asked, his tongue still in her mouth. Then he stopped, took his tongue out of Saundra’s mouth, and looked her in the eye. “My dick?”

“Your hair.”

She couldn’t help the marvel in her voice. Hair—a boy’s hair—had never felt this glorious before.

“That’s not gonna be the only thing poking you tonight,” Aldie said.

“What?”

Aldie stopped fiddling with Saundra’s bra and unglued himself from her lips. “Was that stupid? Am I making too many references to my dick?” He waited for Saundra’s answer, but only for a split second before cursing under his breath. “That was so stupid. I’m so stupid.”

“Noooo,” Saundra cooed, trying to sound as soothing as possible. As soothing as his hair felt as she rubbed it like a genie’s lamp. “Yes to poking. I love your hair.”

Maybe it was the endorphins of making out with a cute, super-heavy guy, but his hair actually looked like it shimmered. Like someone had spilled glitter all over it.

Aldie smiled and went back to kissing Saundra with verve. His lips felt kind of rubbery, but, Saundra thought, maybe that’s what lips feel like when you’re falling in love. As they kissed, Saundra decided that from this moment on she’d call him by his given name. Aldous. If he was going to be her boyfriend, he’d have to upgrade to his proper government name.

As he returned to swirling his tongue in Saundra’s mouth, there came a crash from downstairs.

“What was that?” Aldous asked.

“Jenga,” Saundra said, pulling him back to her mouth. Even though she was sure it sounded like something shattering and not a pile of tiny wooden bricks toppling over. But, details! This counterclockwise tongue thing was interesting and she wanted more of it. She held her hand to the back of Aldous’s neck, both to make this makeout sexier and also to keep him in place. But Aldous pulled his head back, distracted.

“I don’t think that was Jenga,” he said. “Someone would’ve come to get me if they were playing Jenga. Avery and Donavan know Jenga’s my jam.”

“Forget Avery and Donavan!”

“Yeah. Okay. But they’re my best friends—”

“You’re lying on top of a girl here!” Saundra said. “In a bed. Alone. And there are stars everywhere!”

Stars and hearts and butterflies. Saundra definitely saw butterflies.

Aldous’s tongue twister of a mouth quirked up into a sly smile. “Right.”

This time when Saundra put her hand on the back of his neck and pulled, he obliged.

Except there was more noise then. Loud, terrible sounds from the first floor, rising up the stairs. She knew Aldous heard it too, because his lips stiffened and paused against hers.

“So much Jenga,” Saundra mumbled about the definitely-not-Jenga noises. The sounds only grew louder, accompanied by yelling and screaming. It was coming closer, and then the bedroom door banged open.

Both Aldous and Saundra jolted up when a masked figure skidded to a stop before them.

“Oh not this again,” Saundra said. “Don’t you knock?!”

Aldous’s reaction was a little different. He sprang out of bed like he’d just been stuck in the ass with a cattle prod. “What the hell!” he yelped.

“It’s just a loser in a mask,” Saundra said. But the longer the person in the mask stayed in the room, saying nothing, the more he gave Saundra the heebie-jeebies.

“Get out of here!” She tried to stare the masked monster down, but his edges became hazy. Blurred. It almost looked like two masked people standing one in front of the other. Now she was starting to freak out.

“Don’t just stand there, Aldous! Protect me!”

“Aldous?” Aldous repeated, confused.

“Fine—Aldie, whatever, just do something!”

The person in the mask jumped Aldous and the two fell, thrashing on the floor, all limbs and backs, looking like they were melding together. Saundra knelt on the corner of the bed, making herself as small as possible as she watched the commotion.