Alphabet City Everybody who comes to New York City has a dream. What is yours?

Someone on the outside might realize, despite Sullivan's messy life, he was quite fully and unflinchingly loved by his older sisters. He was a self-centered little shit, but they both had always adored him, since he came home from the hospital in a soft blue blanket. It was a sibling devotion that h...

"I'm willing to accept the designation," he said, shrugging, because it was often true and it wasn't really the first time he'd been called as such. Sullivan still hadn't found that perfect balance of giving and insufferable self-centeredness. "You know you love me anyway," he ad...

His smile slid crooked again; once more, he forgot that anyone else noticed them-- he would admit, fully and willingly, that he could practically bask in Momo's smile, it was that bright. "I know. And I think she's crazy for it. And I think that's where whatever we were talking about before led...

"Didn't they have those in the olden days? Nightcaps?" he asked, nosing at her hair to take a deep breath, closing his eyes at the smell of her shampoo still on her scalp. "I'll get one of those dressing gowns, too. We'll be transported back to the eighteen hundreds."

"I don't think that's true." It had never been true in his experience: Sullivan was shallow, and had, in his years, only hooked up with or hung around with people he found attractive in some way. It might not have always been especially conventional, but most were, and usually interesting ...

"Worked pretty well on the street." That was true, and had been helpful, and for the first time in awhile, he found himself somewhat missing that life, when no one depended on him, where no one questioned him or his motives. In retrospect, despite his poetic posturing, it might have been m...

"Everyone is special means no one is. Means you're just like anyone else. That you're not any more interesting than the next asshole with tattoos and a dumb past." He sounded more defeated than annoyed or upset. "And, no, I'm not saying she's going to dump me or doesn't love me. Just ...

"I can take care of that," he replied, and that was true, pulling the covers up over her and letting their legs wind together and his arms wrap around her form. She fit perfectly against him, and he breathed a sigh through his nose, annoyed at his own thoughts and the fact that he'd be up ...

Did he look disappointed now? Did it cross his features that he felt shut out in some way? He didn't know, but nodded and laid down again, obediently, now completely unsure of what she wanted. He'd thought she wanted to sleep, then she demanded a real kiss, and the kiss seemed to be mounting and now...

He blinked. He actually had no response to that, and people were bringing Sullivan up short right and left recently and he really didn't like it, didn't like being left without a comeback or the last word. It was his personality to get that last one in, and he looked down again, properly scolded, wh...

"Yeah?" He was a little flattered by the assessment, as he never really paid attention to how he looked while playing, just as he never noticed his expressions during sex, either-- it was a matter of being absorbed in the act. He was grinning, though, that sort of lopsided, boyish smile, w...

"I'm not." He was biting at his lip between drags off his cigarette, though, and that was a nervous gesture that was hard to ignore. He couldn't claim to be totally ignorant on the concept-- he knew there were girls in the past who slept with him just because he wasn't like the guys at wor...

He let it go, though he could see her discomfort in the mere discussion. It was something he still didn't understand, the being shy about being told she was beautiful, any woman's issue with that, really, because who didn't like to be told they were hot? Women. Settling his hands on hips, he smirked...

And now the eyebrows drew together. "Maybe she just likes musicians," he countered, because that was certainly true of her, and then, of course, he remembered she went to school with musicians, and so that was a moot point. This was suddenly much more tumultuous and worrisome than he'd rea...

"No one would say that. Well, okay, they probably would say you look stuck up if you don't smile. It's more... aloof. Not stuck-up. You look difficult which, really, is actually pretty sexy, too." Distracted again, faint goosebumps on her arms, spreading slowly along her collarbone like th...

That was honestly something he'd not thought about-- but, then, he wasn't a girl. Apparently they had these thoughts all the time, considering how easily Hadley commented on it. "Rebellious streak thing?" he repeated, eyebrows going up. Hell, he didn't even really think of himself as havin...

"I'll poll people from now on," he informed her, lifting himself up so he could settle on his knees above her, sitting back on his heels to look down at her. He was distracted, yes, by her naked form, as he always was the instant she shed any of her clothes, but he kept talking. "Just...

"I don't know," he said, honestly; Nora's parents had liked him before he knocked her up, and liked him after, and that hadn't done anything to change him in Nora's eyes. That was a mark in Hadley's column, though, but Momo was a daddy's girl, through and through, and if he hated Sullivan-...

"It's easy when you're this beautiful," he replied, and that was the God's honest truth: he saw something shining like a star, and never could quite understand why or how she didn't see it too. "I'm easy, but I'm shallow, baby girl: you're incredible."

"And you're prettier. See? I'm fucking hot and you're better. Let's get that part straight." Because he didn't disagree: Sullivan was handsome, even with-- or especially with-- his awkward features, but she was beautiful on a level he was pretty sure wasn't legal. "So, I know I'm gorg...