I know Chase won’t like it and I know it’ll be a very difficult conversation but my mind is made up.
I hate the idea of losing the strange truce between us since that eventful night, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take because this secret is literally eating away at me from the inside.
We’re almost at the end of Greek Row, where the largest and most popular houses are located and even before we come in view of the ΓΔΤ’s stand, I see two tall figures dressed as gladiators holding signs that say: ‘Pledge ΓΔΤ this fall’.
Long, powerful legs, bulging biceps and muscles for days on end. “Chase? Reid?”
I can barely keep the elated surprise out of my tone but while Chase growls at me, displeased with being caught in such an embarrassing predicament, Reid quietly glares at me and walks away.
“What—”
Chase shakes his head, making the words die in my throat but Bryce can’t stifle a loud laugh.
“Thank our new president for this shit,” Chase scolds him. “And if I were you, I wouldn’t be so amused motherfucker, because you might be next. As soon as the asshole has had enough of showing the brothers that Reid and I are no longer in charge.”
I keep hearing about the new Gamma president and I look around the stand when Chase shakes his head, taking his gladiator helmet off.
“He’s in the fucking house, getting ready for the parties tonight. Most houses on Greek Row are throwing some kind of bash. And he has me and Reid doing all the work out here.”
I instinctively touch Chase’s bicep in what in my intention is supposed to be a soothing gesture and Chase leans into my touch for the briefest of moments. But that’s also when Reid comes back from taking to a group of guys who had just approached the stand and as soon as his gaze lands on me and his brother, Chase recoils back as if my fingers had burned him with that fleeting contact.
I turn my back on Chase, still feeling his eyes on me, and this time I catch Bryce’s gaze intent on us.
He doesn’t say anything and I’d be lying if I said that I’m not relieved about it. If Bryce and Parker have noticed the truce between me and Chase, they haven’t mentioned it.
I walk away from the Gamma stand, approaching what was my destination all along, the Zeta’s stand.
There’s a small crowd around the stand and several girls are speaking to the prospective pledges, so I wait for my turn, thinking about what’s the best way to introduce myself.
“Hi, welcome to the ΖΘΒ stand. Have you thought about joining the most prestigious sorority at Bridgeport U and one of the top five sororities in the country?”
A curvy brunette who’s dressed in a very similar way to me approaches me and hands me a flyer once some of the crowd dissipates.
“My name is Erin and I’m the treasurer of the Zetas. What’s your name?”
“Kaya Pembroke, nice to meet you.”
I shake the girl’s hand, preparing myself to mention my legacy status, when a thin, blonde girl literally barges into our conversation, pushing Erin to the side with a bump of her hip.
“Oh, finally someone that looks like Zeta material! I swear that the quality of the pledges gets worse every year. Well done, Erin for spotting someone that at least from the outside looks like a Zeta. Good to see that you know the standard we’re looking for, even if you can’t manage to adhere to it.”
There’s a sharp edge in the girl’s tone and it obviously hits the intended target, because Erin takes a step back, holding her stack of flyers closer to her ample chest in a defensive stance.
Her eyes are suddenly shiny with what I think might be tears and I feel immediately sorry for Erin and open my mouth to say something, I’m not sure what. But I never have the opportunity because the blonde girl continues. “Hi, I’m Valeria Wellesley, president of the Bridgeport Zeta chapter. I would like to invite you to tonight’s party at the Zeta house where we’ll commence our selection of this year’s pledges and kick off the official beginning of rush week. Which other sororities are you planning to rush?”
I avert my gaze from her probing hazel eyes: Valeria has a way of looking at other people that’s quite unsettling. She looks at others as if she’d already evaluated them and found them lacking. As if she were at least one level above the rest of the people around her.
I know her type, there was a girl like her at boarding school in New York, she was the academy’s Queen B and she thrived on putting other people down.
So when I introduce myself, I do it making sure to meet her gaze and to keep my head high, to signify that when I begin filling the form she hands me, I’m applying to rush the Zetas, not to be her doormat.
“Pembroke?” she asks as I hand her back the form, checking the sheet attached to her clipboard. “You’re one of our legacies this year.”
Her smile widens showing perfectly white, regular teeth. “It’s a relief that at least at a first glance, you look suitable for the Zetas. You have no idea what I’ve had to let in last year,” she says looking at Erin again and causing the other girl to tighten her grip on her stack of flyers so much that her knuckles turn white.
All of a sudden, I’m not sure that I’d fit in with the Zetas anymore but I made a promise to my mom and I know that I have to at least try.
Chase
I’VE BEEN TO THE ZETA house many times, their parties are legendary and the Zetas seek the company of the Gammas on a regular basis, as we’re the most prestigious fraternity on campus.
Normally, I’d look forward to a big party and the Zeta house was my favorite hunting ground when I was trying to fuck Kaya out of my system. Now? I’d rather be anywhere else, first of all because I’m done with the hookups.
I simply fucking can’t.
How can I even think about touching another girl when I can still feel Kaya’s lips on mine, her soft body in my arms, her tight, wet heat clamped around my cock.
Every time I close my eyes I see her, every time I fall asleep she’s in my dreams. It’s driving me insane and it’s tearing me apart and it’s not the first time that I wish that she’d gone to college far away from here.
I know I can’t be celibate forever but right now just the idea of even kissing another girl leaves me cold at best. And I couldn’t do it knowing that she’s at the same party anyway. For as much as I don’t think I can be her friend and definitely not her brother, I’m done doing anything that would hurt her.
I know she’s really unhappy about my request to keep our secret, to not tell Parker and Bryce about what happened between us. And don’t get me wrong, I don’t feel good either about lying to my best friends in the whole world. Even if they’d be mad, if they punched me in the face for making love to the girl they’re both dating, the real reason is that I can’t afford the risk of this getting out, not matter how small.
If Dad heard about it, I know there would be some really ugly confrontations coming my way. I didn’t miss the look on his face when Bryce and Parker pitched the idea that Kaya could move into the room left vacant by Reid in the house we share off campus.
My old man hit the roof but I’m sure that it wasn’t just because he didn’t approve of Kaya living under the same roof with the guy she’s dating. Dad’s eyes were fixed on me and I struggled to maintain a neutral expression.