Brynn Helena

“A Wicked Walk” by Brynn Helena

Submitted to Contest #277

Safety starts to feel like a myth when you’re selling your body like it’s a hanger for a clothing rack. This is me, am I good enough for you? Are my legs thin enough, or do they rub together too much when I walk? Do you like my eyes, my chin? Should I swing my hips or not? Do I have a boring face, an average body? I’ve even been told I was too pretty before. A pat on the hand, the way a child gets a bandage for a wound that nobody can see. Sorry, we’re looking for uglier girls; you understand.  No, I don’t. The music is pumping in ...

20 likes 15 comments 15

Read story

“Sex and Skittles” by Brynn Helena

Submitted to Contest #275

Sure, I’m an addict. But aren’t we all?That there is every sex addict’s favorite string of words. Go to a sex addicts anonymous meeting and you’ll see. I’ve heard them say it millions of times, maybe billions, I couldn’t be sure. Even I had said it. Even I found myself still saying it around mixed company, even though sex addiction was one of those things you could get away with. Sex addiction is like being a bisexual woman (try being both), people aren’t going to look at you much differently once they know, they’ll just start picturing what...

52 likes 30 comments 30

Read story

“(Not What I Was) Expecting” by Brynn Helena

Submitted to Contest #275

“You’re not the weed girl,” I said as I stood in the second-floor girls’ bathroom with my brows stitching together. It was my usual third period trip to the bathroom on a Thursday to pick up my weed, and instead of seeing Miranda, I was staring at what looked to be a senior with mascara running down her cheeks. I was a junior, so just from her face I couldn’t place her name. She was blonde and tall and looked like her perfume was called “Bubblegum Kiss” or something like that. I immediately wanted nothing to do with her, or her teary eyes, b...

52 likes 39 comments 39

Read story

“From Rags to Rich Girls” by Brynn Helena

"We're just so glad you two have become so close. Lucy has never been so well behaved," the father said, dropping his voice slightly on the back half. I could tell Lucy still heard it though from the way she smirked and popped her gum from behind them in the kitchen. My gum was in her mouth, God, when had she swung that?Suddenly, I couldn't hear anything Lucy's parents were saying to me as I watched the red-headed teen girl leaned over the kitchen counter in those little shorts... that see-though tank. No bra. She was blowing another bubble,...

38 likes 14 comments 14

Read story

“Boning ” by Brynn Helena

Life is unpredictable, that's all I know for sure.Had you asked me who I'd be ramming on top of my biology teacher's desk during Homecoming, I definitely wouldn't have guessed the same girl who threw up on me in kindergarten. The same girl I’ve lived across the street from since I was two. I probably would have said I'd never do such a thing, but we humans tend to surprise ourselves, I've learned that, too.She’s underneath me cursing, head thrown back, sweat glistening on her forehead as she tries to keep her dress hiked up so I can see unde...

27 likes 14 comments 14

Read story

“An Examination of Desire” by Brynn Helena

The sight of him, his scent, his voice, his hair… everything so intensely tempting that I often found myself biting my lip as soon as he crossed my path. Shamefully, even when Lena was with me. “Isn’t he in your writing workshop class?” She’d asked me. Or at least that’s what I had thought I heard. I was busy staring at him, taking in every inch of him. The way the hem of his jeans were lightly frayed, his converse scuffed and on their last legs. His thighs, pressing against the denim, his hand resting on his belt buckle. His t-shirt tu...

18 likes 14 comments 14

Read story

“Lillian” by Brynn Helena

Submitted to Contest #233

My father was an exorcist. And his father before him, and his father before him. My dad died when I was ten years old. That's when I decided I wouldn't end up like him. Never at home with his children, enraptured by the idea that he was a savior. A god. I thought it was a huge, steaming load of shit. An excuse for him to spend years hanging us out to dry, leaving our mother to scrounge for ways to feed us, always returning with a new perfume on his collar. So, when I graduated high school, I went straight to college and studied law. I b...

70 likes 56 comments 56

Read story

“Colors ” by Brynn Helena

"You love changing the subject," Mika commented, lying at the foot of the bed, her bareness covered only by a riskily placed ivory sheet. Her midnight blue hair fell around her face in flawless curls, catching the moonlight from the window and shining like a lake in early winter. Her eyes flickered back to me, one hazel, one blue, and I found it hard to hold her gaze. I didn't. She giggled softly and I knew she had caught my blush even in the low light."I wasn't changing the subject, I was just curious..." I defended weakly, not offering the...

29 likes 15 comments 15

Read story

“Cole” by Brynn Helena

It was bliss.Fifty stage lights burning down onto the seven of us, and three hundred people looking on, waiting to see what we'd do. The biggest crowd we ever performed in front of, the anticipation palpable on both sides. We wore those baggy blue cargos and white button-ups topped with black suit jackets. You told me how stupid you thought we looked three minutes before we walked out, but secretly I bet you thought we looked cool. I blamed your dig on nerves. I don't know why you would have been nervous though, because that night you comple...

37 likes 30 comments 30

Read story

“Graduating” by Brynn Helena

[A Continuation of 'When It Hits You']It's the things we fight tooth and nail for that always teach us the biggest lessons. I'll be honest, I'd never had a boyfriend before Jake. Exactly zero experience to speak of. So, when the reality that I had gotten my way really started to sink in, it came with some of the strongest self-doubt I'd ever felt.I remember sitting on his porch steps three weeks after our fight, dressed in a pair of khaki shorts and a polo I'd borrowed from his closet, with my arms crossed. The sun was setting, and a summer ...

16 likes 6 comments 6

Read story

“When It Hits You ” by Brynn Helena

Submitted to Contest #203

He punched me in the face, my teeth rattling around in my mouth, my brain clanging against the side of my skull like the sharp crash of cymbals, and there I lay.It was raining, and the bell for first period was well in the past, a distant, hazy memory as I tried to recover from Niki's dizzying blow."You're such an asshole," Niki spat at me, running his injured hand back through his short brown hair, clinging to his temples from the downpour. My vision cleared just enough to reveal to me that he had tears streaming down his face, turning away...

66 likes 40 comments 40

Read story

“How to Pop The Question” by Brynn Helena

[A Continuation of 'How to Slushy a Fuckboy' & 'How to Buy a Red Panda'] "What're you still doing up there?" Oliver asked, sitting in a steel folding chair within the row just in front of the stage. All of the screaming college students had cleared out, leaving behind a trail of discarded food wrappers and empty plastic cups strewn everywhere. Confetti speckled the stage as well as the floor, and the stage lights had been brought down, but he could still see her there. She sat in the middle of the floor up there, legs crossed like a ki...

23 likes 16 comments 16

Read story

“Atta Boy” by Brynn Helena

It was often he found himself lost in thought. That afternoon he sat on the warm sidewalk chewing on a wooden popsicle stick, his lips stained red from the cherry ice pop he'd finished long ago. Early summer, the air was cool but the sun was hot, and the breeze perfectly punctuated each fleeting moment. When birds passed overhead, they seemed to glide on the wind, basking their iridescent wings in the plentiful sunlight. A bush next to Carter blossoming with bunches of purple flowers buzzed with honey bees, pollinating the buds of the fresh ...

22 likes 10 comments 10

Read story

“Cut and Run” by Brynn Helena

Submitted to Contest #199

"Reckon I'll fold," Adelaide sighed, puffing one last breath out of her cigar before she stamped it out on the card table, leaving her hand behind, and stood to head toward the ladies washrooms. She could feel the eyes of all of the men at the card table watch her walk as she left, their gazes crawling along the curvatures of her body in her jeans. Luckily, the walk was short, and she escaped them as she swung the wooden washroom door open with one hand.The entire saloon was quiet, nothing but the sound of the workers playing their late nigh...

33 likes 15 comments 15

Read story

“Dr. Green (Trial #1348)” by Brynn Helena

The rain, sprinkling onto my face, was what eventually woke me up. As soon as I started to come to, I knew something was off. My body had never felt so light, and I could feel I was running hot. Upon opening my eyes, I was greeted by a huge shining sun, and cool rain misting everything around me. The sky was blue, speckled with off white clouds, bordered by a vibrant array of palm tree tops, swaying in the gentle wind. My eyes burned against the newfound light, and I felt a wave of dizziness, propping myself up on my elbows in the glittering...

17 likes 17 comments 17

Read story