3
Skylar
While Luke was talking to Ryan…
My friend Janice and I get done doing a two-person coordinated dance, and come off the dance floor to a few claps.
It’s fun to show off what we learned last term in class. I didn’t do all of that dancing in front of the mirror for nothing.
“Who’s the hot jock you were hanging out with earlier…haven’t I seen him before?” my friend Janice asks as we wait for the bartender to bring me what will be—what should be—our last drinks of the night.
Janice has curly red hair, freckles, and an affinity for whisky. Needless to say, we get along.
She nods in the direction of the booth where I was sitting before.
“You mean Luke? Hmm, I guess he is technically a ‘jock.’ We studied abroad together in Buenos Aires. I don’t really see him with a label. He’s just Lucas.”
“I’ve seen him at frat parties at Alpha Gamma Zeta.”
I slap a five-dollar bill down for the bartender as she hands me my beer.
“The Alpha Z’s. That’s him all right.”
Janice wiggles her eyebrows. “Didn’t know you had a thing for frat guys.”
I roll my eyes. She’s right, though. If I had a ‘type’ it would be musicians, I think. Then again, based on my dating history, I’ve really dated all types of guys across the board. “I don’t have a thing for frat guys, least of all Luke. We’re good friends and…we like to have fun, intellectual, drunken chats.”
I stop short of informing her of the details and the people involved.
I glance over my shoulder and see Jennifer and her friends standing close. One of the things about a small college like Greene State University is that gossip spreads like wildfire.
And if anyone else—I mean anyone—knew that Luke Rutledge, senior captain of the baseball team and most popular member of Alpha Gama Zeta, was suspicious of Jennifer’s motivations for marrying his roommate, that information would come back around to her like a speedy boomerang, and Luke would be toast.
“What were you talking about tonight that was so stimulating?”
I shrug off her double-entendre, and decide a second perspective might be a good idea.
I just won’t give her any real names.
“Well, we had this debate. His friend he was hanging out with from back home, Ron, just got engaged but he thinks the girl might be putting up some red flags.”
“Such as…?”
“For example, one time his fiancé told Ron that she was staying in, then decided not an hour later that she would go out, knowing Ron wanted to go out. And she didn’t invite him, or even tell him she was going out.”
“That’s definitely weird. Why would she do that? That’s just…not super considerate. I don’t know if it’s red flag worthy, though. But it’s not not a red flag.”
“If I had gotten engaged, I’d like to think I would be including that person in my plans from then on and being honest about said plans.”
Janice shrugs, and we change topics to our upcoming classes for winter term as some snow starts to fall outside the bar. Thank God it’s only a four block walk back to our off-campus house.
We’re about to leave since the forecast calls for the snow to really start coming down soon. I go to the bathroom, and on my way back I hear Jennifer’s unmistakable voice having a conversation with one of the friends with whom I saw her come into the bar.
“Wrapped around my finger,” she says to the friend while spinning her finger around.
My ears perk up, and I stop and tune into their conversation.
“How did you do it? I mean, I know that you’re hot and everything, but…what’s your secret?” Is Victoria her friend’s name? I think I’ve had a class with her before.
The song “Fat Bottomed Girls” comes over the jukebox. I take a sip of my almost finished beer, then feign like I’m drunk out of my mind and just have picked a random spot to stand so I can continue eavesdropping on the two of them. Luckily being just a couple of inches over five feet tall makes it easy to blend in.
“Honestly, it’s not even that hard. Just get in really good with his parents—which I have. That’s a definite key. And you have to nail them down when they’re a little naïve. He’s so young. After all of the older guys I used to date during the summers in New York when I was a sugar baby, it hit me: why not just find a sugar daddy…for life! And Ryan is…I mean, let’s face it, he is what he is: a simple man who is easy to please.” She laughs. “I even trained him to think he doesn’t like blow jobs!”
She laughs maniacally. My heart does a tumble, breaking for Ryan. My skin prickles. She’s so cocky, so much of a slapstick villain right now that I have a hard time trusting my own ears.
I’m the sort of person who always thinks the best of people, so this conversation is a little unbelievable to me. I can’t believe she’s bold enough to even think these things, let alone say them out loud and bold enough to think they wouldn’t get back to her fiancé!
“You’re a mastermind. Let me see that ring again,” Victoria says.
I swallow down the rest of my beer, the hair on the back of my neck standing up like I’m in some sort of horror movie and I just found out the killer.
“The only problem is that friend of his—Luke. I swear, he’s been putting doubt into Ryan’s mind about us. The guy is really freaking smart.”
“What a dick!” Victoria responds.
“I know, right?! He better not get him to pull a Rudy Finklestein,” Jennifer says.
Everyone at Greene State knows the story of Rudy Finklestein—Greene State’s hottest senior from last year. He was engaged to be married to this girl one year older than us, and then on the day before they were to be wed, his frat brothers had an intervention where they showed Rudy hard evidence that said girl was cheating on him. Twenty-four hours later they were all on a flight to Cancún, Mexico for spring break, instead of the wedding.
“You’re way smarter than that, though. You’d never get caught.”
A cold chill washes over my body.
Is this really happening? She’s worse than a James Bond movie cardboard-cut out villain.
“I don’t even know what you’re talking about,” Jennifer says sarcastically, and they both laugh again, that witch-like cackle. I throw up a little in my mouth, and turn my body away from the two of them so as not to attract attention. Janice gives me a what are you doing? wave from across the bar. I flash her the one minute signal, because I’m not done doing recon here.
Jennifer’s friend sighs. “I just want you to know, some people might judge you for what you’re doing, but you know I don’t. I just want to learn from you.”
“Life’s a game, V. I didn’t go one-hundred and ten thousand dollars into debt to leave the most prestigious university in the Midwest empty-handed. And my Russian Lit degree doesn’t exactly have employers lining up.”
“Well you’ve certainly picked the right guy for your Mrs. degree. By the way, did you notice those frat guys on the dance floor? They were totally checking you out,” Victoria says.