Page 9 of Spiral

“A little,” I admit, rolling my eyes. “But it doesn’t matter. He’s a total dick.”

Obviously, it doesn’t matter, Georgia – you’re dating Patrick. You live with Patrick. And you hate Henry. Yep, you’ve just decided you hate him.

“What’s his name?”

Jesus, is this 20 questions?

“Henry.”

“Henry what?”

“Henry Anderson!” I say, much louder and slightly angrier than I anticipated. I instantly sink into my chair to hide from the irritated stares of the engineering table, who by now are loudly shushing us.

“God,” I whisper, still crouching down in my chair and wincing. “Sorry.”

She doesn’t seem to notice the annoyance of the engineers, nor my humiliation at having loudly blurted out the name of a man that, undoubtedly, everyone in this library knows.

“Henry Anderson?” she says, a coy smile forming on her face. “Like, captain of the TU football team, Henry Anderson?”

“Unfortunately.”

“GOD, he is fine,” she says, her mouth agape and eyes rolling dramatically to the back of her head. “You actually talked to him?”

I nod.

“Lucky bitch.”

“I’d rather not talk about it,” I mutter, turning the page of my History of American Literature textbook that I still haven’t finished reading.

There’s a beat of silence.

“I’d hit that,” Eleanor whispers.

I should’ve studied at home.

7 | Henry

“YOU TOLD HER I said that?” Danny glares at me, utter confusion contorting his face. “What the hell were you thinking, dude?”

“I don’t know!” I sigh, exasperated, and let my forehead fall into my palms. We’ve been talking about this since Danny came back from his last class.

“And you dragged me into it!” he concludes, shaking his head in annoyance.

“Well, I needed to explain why I said that! Besides, I only meant it as a joke. I said it jokingly.”

“Said what jokingly?” asks Jonah, sauntering into the living room from his bedroom on the first floor.

When we first moved in, we drew straws for the one bedroom that’s downstairs – the biggest one – and Jonah drew the long straw.

Bastard.

“Henry insulted Georgia within 5 minutes of stepping on campus,” Danny grunts.

“No way, dude – the cute chick next door? What’d you say?” Jonah plops himself down onto the arm of the couch, fully invested.

“He called her a snitch,” Danny informs him, tersely.

“Dude!” I look at him, irritated that he’s making me sound like such an asshole. But then again, maybe I am that big of an asshole?