Scarlett furrowed her brow. “What are you talking about?”
“When was the last time you read a book for fun?”
Scarlett tensed. This felt like a test. And she and Mason were supposed to be long past the stage of “Are we right for each other?” questions. “Why?”
He sighed, his look faraway. “Jotham ragged on me for half an hour for reading something that wasn’t on the syllabus.”
“That’s just Jotham being Jotham.”
“That’s PiKa being PiKa,” he corrected.
“I don’t think you’re being fair to your brothers.”
“That’s the thing—they aren’t my brothers. They’re not even necessarily my friends. I asked myself if I would choose them if they weren’t already in PiKa, and honestly, I’m not so sure.”
Scarlett squinted against the sun. “Where is this coming from? You adore Jotham.”
“And he’ll be my friend with or without PiKa.”
“Without PiKa?” she asked, on red alert now.
She felt his chest rise and fall in a sigh. “I’m thinking about quitting PiKa.”
“What?” Scarlett sat bolt upright and spun to stare down at her boyfriend. He stretched and sat up too, running a hand through his messy dark curls.
“What? It’s not that big a deal.”
“Mason, what about your brothers? What about your dad? Every male Gregory has been a PiKa for the past three generations.”
Mason laughed and reached over to take her hand. “Scar, I admire your loyalty, but you take all this Greek stuff way more seriously than I ever have. I know Kappa is really special for you, and I respect that. But . . . ‘brothers,’ ‘pledging.’” He shrugged. “PiKa is just a social club. It’s a nice way to network, I guess, get to know people. But I only joined in the first place because my dad wanted me to, and last night, as we stood there talking to the same old people about the same old shit, I just felt . . . bored. Like, is this how I want to spend my nights for the rest of college?”
“You mean with your best friends and your girlfriend?” Scarlett said pointedly. She flashed back to the first time she met him. The Pikiki party. The plumeria. PiKa was part of their story. And now he was shitting on it.
“Scar, our relationship doesn’t depend on my membership in a fraternity.” His expression sobered. “Or at least, it shouldn’t.”
“Of course it doesn’t. I just don’t understand. Did something happen—did you get into it with another PiKa?”
Mason shook his head. “No, nothing like that.”
“So what’s the problem, then?”
“I just . . .” He sighed again, clearly frustrated. “Don’t you ever just want to try something new? Throw out all the rules and plans and find out what life could be if you stopped telling it how it should be?”
Scarlett stared at her boyfriend. Where was this coming from? Why was he changing so much, so suddenly? An image of Vivi and Mason laughing in the cafeteria, the easy way he’d rested his hand on her shoulder, rose in her mind. They hadn’t talked at the mixer last night—Scarlett made sure of that—but there was one moment, so brief she almost wondered if she’d imagined it, where she thought she saw something pass between them across the room.
Mason held his arms wide. “The world is bigger than PiKa. It’s bigger than Kappa. We’re bigger than both of them. I wish you could see that.”
“I do see that.” But was he judging her for staying with her sisters? And if he wasn’t now, would he in the future? Was this the first step before he asked her to choose him over them?
A swell of unwanted emotion washed over Scarlett, and she stood up before Mason could see the hurt in her eyes. “Don’t forget, we’re having dinner with my parents tonight,” she said, avoiding his gaze. “Unless those are the kind of plans you want to throw out the window.”
Mason shot her a pained look. “Scarlett . . . don’t be like that. Stay.”
“Don’t you have your sociology study group now? You should really go. You have an exam coming up,” she said.
Mason hesitated. Scarlett knew he wanted to talk more, but she could feel a tightness in her throat and a burning behind her eyes. She refused to lose it here on the main green, where everyone could see. Ravens did not cry in public. So she summoned her magic, the burning behind her eyes replaced by a burning in her fingertips. Leave, she urged him. Go now.
“I have to get to study group now, Scar,” Mason said suddenly, responding to her subliminal magical command. He kissed her on the cheek and turned to leave. And even though she’d been the one to issue the command, it still broke her heart to watch him walk away.
Chapter Fifteen
Vivi
“Is that what you’re wearing tonight?” Vivi asked, eyeing Reagan’s hot pants as the two of them lounged in the shade of one of the dozen enormous live oaks that bordered Westerly’s main quad. She and Reagan were in the same astronomy class and tonight was their first trip to the off-campus observatory, a brand-new building funded by a wealthy Kappa alum. Vivi wasn’t sure how long the assignment would take, so she was trying to get as much reading done as possible that afternoon. Classes had just started, yet she was somehow already behind. It’d been much easier to keep up with schoolwork back when she didn’t have any friends.
“Are you worried about me scandalizing the telescopes?” Reagan asked, rolling onto her stomach and closing her eyes, clearly not planning to use the free afternoon to catch up on reading. From what Vivi had been able to piece together, Reagan was highly intelligent but completely uninterested in academics—Ariana told her that Reagan had been kicked out of three different prestigious boarding schools. Vivi had a feeling that the Ravens must have pulled some strings to get her into Westerly despite her lackluster grades, possibly as a way to gain favor with her powerful witch mother and aunts. It was still a little mind-boggling to think of witches living all over the country—and all over the world. Women whose ancestors had used their magic to shape history . . . and who had sometimes paid the ultimate price.
“I’m more worried about you getting bug bites on your butt cheeks,” Vivi said, more flippantly than she felt. “Apparently, the observatory is next to a big swamp.”
“You make an excellent point, Devereaux.” Reagan rolled over, then stood up. “I guess I’ll change before dinner. See you tonight.”
Reagan sauntered off, and Vivi opened her math textbook, but she hadn’t gotten very far before a shadow fell over the page. “Indulging in a little light reading, I see.”
She looked up to see Mason standing over her with a warm smile. Vivi raised the book and looked at the cover quizzically. “It’s only calculus. I’d call that pretty light reading.”
“Compared to what? Advanced neurosurgery?”
“Compared to the nonlinear algebra class I’m auditing. Freshmen aren’t allowed to take it officially.”
“Well, aren’t we the little overachiever?” Mason’s smile widened, revealing the dimple that made Vivi’s heart flutter.