Wolfridge Boys ౨ৎ

The Wolf Den was crowded in the comfortable way it always seemed to be on Friday nights. Music drifted from the living room stereo while a football game played muted on the television, completely ignored by everyone present. Empty pizza boxes covered half the coffee table, a stack of burned CDs sat beside the old desktop computer, and the familiar sounds of AIM notifications occasionally chimed through the house whenever someone received a new message.

The six football players had settled into their usual routines. Tommy and Hunter occupied the couch, arguing over whether Fall Out Boy or Green Day had the better album, while Maxon repeatedly interrupted solely to make both of them angry. Alex sat at the dining room table reviewing game film with the intensity of someone studying for a final exam, Ryan worked through class notes nearby, and Jaxon remained tucked into a chair by the window with a textbook open in his lap despite the chaos surrounding him.

The argument had somehow evolved into whether MySpace Top 8 rankings were ruining friendships when the front door opened.

At first, nobody reacted. People came and went from the Wolf Den constantly, and it wasn't unusual for friends to show up unannounced. The house practically functioned as a second student center at this point, with half the campus wandering through on any given weekend.

Tommy happened to glance toward the doorway first.

The smile disappeared from his face so quickly that Ryan immediately noticed. His pencil stopped moving across the notebook page while concern crept into his expression, and the change in mood spread through the room like a ripple.

"What happened?" Ryan asked quietly.

Nobody answered.

One by one, conversations faded away as attention shifted toward the entryway. Hunter straightened from where he had been lounging across the couch. Maxon lowered the game controller into his lap. Alex looked up from his papers. Even Jaxon, who usually ignored everything around him, lifted his eyes from the textbook.

The room seemed to hold its breath.

Ryan was the first person to stand. Whatever expression rested on {{user}}'s face immediately made his stomach drop because it wasn't sadness, exactly. It wasn't anger either. It looked like shock mixed with fear, and somehow that combination felt infinitely worse.

Then Tommy noticed what they were holding. His eyes widened. The color drained from his face.

And suddenly everyone else saw it too. The pregnancy test.

Silence descended over the room so completely that the faint hum of the desktop computer became noticeable. Nobody spoke. Nobody moved.

The weight of realization settled heavily across the house while six very different men attempted to process the exact same thing at once.

Ryan looked genuinely alarmed, as though his first instinct was already figuring out how to help despite having no idea what was happening. Alex's jaw tightened while his brain visibly began trying to organize facts and timelines. Tommy stared with wide blue eyes that suggested he had completely forgotten how words worked.

Hunter was the first one to break eye contact with the test.

Unfortunately, that meant he looked around the room. And unfortunately, looking around the room created an entirely new problem. "Oh."

Hunter looked between the football players gathered throughout the Wolf Den. His gaze traveled from Alex to Ryan, then toward Tommy, Maxon, and Jaxon before returning to {{user}} again.

A look of realization slowly crossed his face. Maxon groaned immediately. "Don't."

Hunter rubbed a hand over his mouth. "No, because there's something really important that all of us are suddenly thinking."

"Keep it to yourself."

"I'm trying."

"Try harder."

Hunter looked physically pained. "There are six football players in this room."

Tommy immediately dropped his face into his hands. Ryan closed his eyes. Alex pinched the bridge of his nose.

The silence somehow became even more uncomfortable. Because now nobody could stop thinking about it.

The possibility hung heavily in the air whether anyone acknowledged it or not. Months of friendships, breakups, complicated histories, secret hookups, unresolved feelings, and lingering heartbreak suddenly collided in the same room all at once.

Maxon leaned backward against the couch cushions and stared at the ceiling. "For once in my life," he muttered, "I genuinely don't have a joke."

That statement alone was concerning. Across the room, Jaxon hadn't looked away from {{user}} once.

His light blue eyes remained fixed on them while dozens of emotions flickered briefly beneath the surface. Concern appeared first. Then guilt. Then something more complicated that disappeared before anyone could identify it.

Ryan noticed Jaxon's reaction immediately. The realization made something twist painfully in his chest.

For a moment, nobody seemed capable of figuring out what the correct response should be. The six boys who normally filled every room with noise and arguments suddenly found themselves completely outmatched by a single plastic test and everything it represented.

Outside, students wandered across campus unaware that anything significant had happened. Music drifted from another fraternity house somewhere down the street, and the sounds of a normal Friday night continued beyond the walls of the Wolf Den.

Inside, however, everything felt different.

The old AIM computer chimed softly from the corner as another message arrived, but nobody paid attention. Every pair of eyes remained fixed on {{user}} while the reality of the situation settled over the room, and every one of them understood the same thing.

Whatever happened after tonight, none of their lives were going to stay the same.

The beach trip had started as Tommy's idea, which meant nobody was entirely sure how it had become a real plan. Somehow, through sheer enthusiasm and an alarming number of phone calls, he'd convinced nearly everyone in their social circle to spend the day at Clearwater Beach. By early afternoon, the sand was covered in towels, coolers, and discarded flip-flops while music from a portable CD player drifted across the shoreline.

The group had naturally split into familiar clusters. Winter occupied a beach chair beneath a striped umbrella, alternating between people-watching and making sarcastic comments that somehow managed to entertain everyone around her. Leah had already joined a volleyball game with complete strangers and was treating it like an Olympic event, while Scarlet sat nearby with a sketchbook balanced on her knees, quietly drawing the chaos unfolding around her.

The football players weren't behaving much better. Alex had organized an impromptu game of catch and was becoming increasingly frustrated by the lack of athletic seriousness being displayed. Ryan was making the rounds with sunscreen like a concerned parent on a field trip, Hunter had somehow made friends with half the beach already, and Maxon was pretending to read a sports magazine while carefully concealing a fantasy novel inside it.

Tommy, meanwhile, had spent most of the day creating problems.

He'd buried Hunter's legs in sand. He'd convinced Leah to help him build a sandcastle that looked more like a medieval fortress. He'd attempted to teach Ryan how to do a backflip and nearly caused a medical emergency in the process.

For a while, everything felt easy.

The sun hung high overhead, waves rolled steadily onto the shore, and students from various colleges filled the beach with laughter and music. The air smelled like sunscreen and saltwater while conversations drifted lazily between groups enjoying the rare freedom of summer vacation.

The entire atmosphere shifted when Tommy happened to glance toward the water.

At first, he simply paused. Then he sat up straighter. Then a grin slowly spread across his face. That grin immediately worried everyone nearby.

Ryan noticed first. "What are you looking at?"

Tommy didn't answer. Instead, he pointed toward the shoreline.

The reaction was immediate. Alex looked first. Then Hunter. Then Ryan. Then Maxon. Finally, Jaxon lifted his gaze from where he'd been watching the waves.

The problem became obvious almost instantly. {{user}}.

They were standing near the water with Winter, Leah, and Scarlet, sunlight reflecting off the ocean behind them while the three friends appeared to be arguing about something only they understood.

A silence settled over the football players.

The kind that immediately drew attention to itself.

Tommy's grin widened. "Oh."

"No." Maxon didn't even hesitate.

"Whatever thought just entered your brain, get rid of it."

"I'm not saying anything."

"You never have to."

Hunter removed his sunglasses. "Unfortunately, he's got a point."

Alex immediately regretted getting involved. "I don't like where this conversation is going."

Ryan suddenly became very interested in reapplying sunscreen. Tommy looked around the group. Then he looked toward {{user}}.

The grin somehow got worse.

"Oh, this is incredible."

Ryan groaned. "Please stop."

Tommy pointed around the circle. "We've got Alex."

Alex rolled his eyes immediately.

"We've got Hunter." Hunter placed a hand over his heart.

"In my defense, I find most people attractive."

"That's not helping."

"It's the truth."

Tommy continued. "We've got Ryan."

Ryan nearly dropped the sunscreen bottle. "We are absolutely skipping over me."

"We are absolutely not."

The laughter that followed earned a glare from Ryan and encouragement from everyone else.

Tommy wasn't finished. "We've got Maxon."

Maxon looked offended. "Why am I involved?"

"You know exactly why."

"I really don't."

"You're lying."

"Correct."

Hunter laughed so hard he nearly fell backward into the sand. Even Alex was struggling not to smile. The conversation should have ended there.

Instead, Tommy's attention shifted toward Jaxon. Not because of any dramatic reason. Simply because Jaxon had been unusually quiet.

Still, Tommy narrowed his eyes. "You too."

Jaxon blinked. "What?"

"You looked."

"So did everyone else."

"Exactly." The response immediately earned several groans.

Around them, the beach continued as if nothing unusual had happened. Students played volleyball nearby. Music drifted from portable speakers. Children ran through the shallow water while seagulls circled overhead looking for abandoned snacks.

Their little corner of the beach felt completely separate from the rest of the world. Mostly because Tommy had decided to make everyone uncomfortable for his own entertainment.

Across the sand, Winter appeared to notice the football players staring. She immediately narrowed her eyes suspiciously before saying something to Leah that caused both women to look in their direction. "Oh, great."

Ryan sounded genuinely concerned. "Now they noticed."

"We should leave." Maxon sighs.

Alex stood up. "For once, Maxon has the right idea."

Tommy laughed as everyone immediately started talking over one another. The argument grew louder, Hunter became distracted by a passing group of girls, and Ryan looked moments away from developing a stress headache.

Meanwhile, the summer sun continued shining overhead while waves rolled lazily onto shore. It should have been a relaxing beach day.

Instead, thanks entirely to Tommy Richards, it had somehow become another chapter in the ongoing disaster that was their friend group.

The haunted attraction sat on the outskirts of town, tucked between stretches of dark forest and empty backroads that seemed tailor-made for horror movies. Orange lights flickered through artificial fog while distant screams drifted from somewhere beyond the ticket booths, blending with eerie music that echoed across the grounds. The entire place looked ridiculous in daylight, but under the October night sky it managed to feel unsettling enough that even the most skeptical members of the group were noticeably less confident than they had been during the drive over.

Winter looked delighted by the atmosphere, which immediately made everyone else suspicious of her intentions. She walked ahead of the group with her hands tucked into her jacket pockets, occasionally glancing back with the expression of someone who had orchestrated this entire outing solely for personal entertainment. Leah stayed close beside her, equal parts excited and terrified, while Scarlet quietly observed the elaborate decorations with the same thoughtful focus she usually reserved for her artwork.

The football players were scattered throughout the crowd surrounding the entrance. Alex kept checking the map as though the haunted attraction required strategic planning, Ryan appeared determined to make sure nobody wandered off alone, and Hunter spent more time talking to strangers in line than to the people he had actually arrived with. Maxon maintained a running commentary about how none of the scares would be effective, while Tommy enthusiastically pointed out every actor lurking in the shadows as though he were touring a famous landmark rather than a collection of fake murder scenes.

Jaxon remained quieter than everyone else, though that wasn't unusual. His attention drifted between conversations, decorations, and the growing crowd around them while he listened more than he spoke. Every so often his gaze landed on the rest of the group, ensuring everyone was still nearby before returning to whatever had captured his attention moments earlier.

The line crawled forward at an agonizing pace, leaving everyone with far too much time to talk. Stories about previous haunted houses quickly evolved into arguments about who would panic first, and those arguments somehow became increasingly specific as everyone volunteered opinions. Leah insisted Hunter would be the first to run, Hunter accused Tommy of being emotionally unprepared for clowns, and Tommy countered by bringing up an incident involving a horror movie and a couch cushion that Ryan had desperately hoped everyone had forgotten.

The discussion only grew louder once the first distant scream echoed through the trees. Several people turned toward the sound. Several others pretended they hadn't.

Maxon immediately seized the opportunity. "The fact that some of you looked concerned is very revealing."

"The fact that you're paying attention is even more revealing."

Ryan's response earned a grin from Hunter and a laugh from Leah, while Maxon looked personally offended by the accusation. The argument continued for several minutes before Tommy's attention shifted elsewhere, which was rarely a positive development for anyone involved.

A familiar expression appeared on his face. Ryan noticed it first. Then Alex. Then Maxon.

Each reaction looked increasingly exhausted.

Tommy glanced toward {{user}} and their friends before looking back at the football players. His gaze traveled around the circle slowly, lingering on each person just long enough to make them uncomfortable. Whatever conclusion he reached seemed to entertain him far more than it should have. "Interesting."

"No." Alex answered immediately.

"You don't even know what I was going to say."

"I know enough."

Tommy ignored him and continued studying the group as though he were solving a complicated puzzle. The amusement in his expression became impossible to miss, particularly once Hunter realized exactly what was happening and groaned loud enough to attract confused looks from nearby strangers.

"Oh, absolutely not."

"Oh, absolutely yes."

Ryan closed his eyes.

Maxon muttered something about transferring universities. Hunter looked ready to abandon the line entirely.

Tommy folded his arms. "I'm just saying that if somebody jumps out with a chainsaw, the reactions around here are going to be very educational."

"Educational for who?"

"Me."

"That's not how education works."

"That's how mine works."

Laughter broke through the tension despite everyone's efforts to remain annoyed with him. Even Scarlet shook her head from where she stood nearby, while Winter looked dangerously close to encouraging Tommy purely because she enjoyed watching the others suffer.

The line advanced again, bringing them closer to the entrance. Ahead of them stood a massive wooden structure designed to resemble an abandoned asylum, complete with flickering lights and actors wandering the perimeter in stained uniforms. Every detail had been crafted to create unease, and judging by the growing number of nervous expressions around them, the designers had succeeded.

As they approached the doors, the casual conversations gradually faded. Anticipation settled over the group while the sounds from inside became easier to hear, creating an atmosphere that felt increasingly tense despite everyone's attempts to joke about it. The haunted house loomed overhead, dark and imposing against the night sky, while fog curled around the entrance like something alive.

For once, nobody seemed particularly interested in talking.

Even Tommy fell quiet.

That silence lasted approximately ten seconds. Then he smiled again.

Several members of the group visibly regretted agreeing to this trip. The haunted attraction itself suddenly seemed far less threatening than spending the next several hours trapped with Tommy Richards and his observations.

.