Worry was clear on his face. “Did he tell Joey the truth?”
“No, which I’m not sure makes me relieved or more nervous. Joey’s evidently actually interested in winning you, which is a bit unfair to him, I suppose. But I figured we can cross that bridge when we come to it. And we’re funding his bid, so technically he’s not actually paying for you.”
Drew pulled at his tie. “This feels a little like being pimped out.”
I grimaced. “I’m sorry. Want me to pull you from the auction?”
At this point, I didn’t even give a fuck anymore. I shouldn’t have let my sorority sisters’ gossip get us into this mess in the first place. So everyone thought I was fucking my brother. It wasn’t like they had proof. Well, proof beyond a dark, grainy video on Aamee’s phone.
He looked at me for a second before offering me a sweet smile. “Nah. It’ll be fine.”
I wanted to believe that, but there was mounting evidence proving the opposite. He must’ve seen the doubt on my face, because he stepped closer and wrapped a hand around my wrist, giving it a slight squeeze.
“Stop worrying.”
We kept our eyes locked on one another for a second, and bit by bit I felt myself relaxing. I wouldn’t be able to stop worrying until this was all over, but I could maybe get through this without having a mental breakdown.
His smile grew wider as he clearly noticed that I’d taken a few steps back from the proverbial ledge. “That’s it. We got this.”
D R E W
I don’t “got” this.
As happy as I was that I could help Sophia calm down, inside I was a nervous wreck. Waiting to walk onto that stage so people could bid on me was not something I was looking forward to. The rumors swirling around us didn’t make the prospect of being thrust into the limelight any more palatable.
I watched the other men who’d agreed to participate march out, most of them at least appearing confident. People threw up the cardstock Sophia and I had spent the week gluing to popsicle sticks to serve as bidding paddles. Most of the guys brought in about a hundred bucks—not too shabby considering it was college kids bidding.
Sophia and I had agreed that I’d go out in the middle of the auction so as to not make a big production of myself. The hope was that I wouldn’t stand out in any way. So as the seventh guy was called to the stage, I prepped myself to go on next.
Sophia’s friend Gina had agreed to be the MC. Originally Sophia had planned to do it, but she thought it might be better to stay behind the scenes and make sure everything ran smoothly than be stuck up on stage. I tried to sneak a peek around the curtain to see if I could lay eyes on her, but the lights shining down on the stage were too bright.
I’d never considered the lengths sorority girls would go to to throw a successful party, but color me impressed. The company Sophia had hired to bring in the stage had also set up lights and sent a guy in to run them. Definitely impressive.
I moved back slightly as the guy who’d gone on before me waved to the crowd and came back behind the curtain.
“One fifty,” he said. “Not too bad.”
It wasn’t bad at all, and I was torn between wanting to outdo him and wanting no one to bid so I could be done with this nightmare. But before I could solidly decide which I wanted, Gina was calling me to the stage.
Stepping into the spotlight—literally—was jarring, and I stumbled a bit before I got my shit together and stood up taller, striding down the stage with confidence I hoped looked believable, because it definitely didn’t feel that way.
“Brody Mason, brother of Zeta Eta Chi’s very own Sophia Mason, is a six-two, two-hundred-and-ten-pound ball of charisma and charm. He’s not necessarily used to hard labor, but he’s agreed to perform some moderate tasks for charity. We’ll start the bidding at thirty dollars.”
It felt like a slap to my ego to start the bidding so low, even though that was where all the guys had started. Sophia had explained that she thought she would get more people to participate if the bidding started out at a reasonable price. I just hoped I made it up to at least a hundred by the time this was over. Or not. I was still conflicted.
But the choice to walk out of here free and clear was squashed when a female voice rang out. “I bid thirty.”
A male voice replied, “Thirty-five.”
I shot my eyes toward the voice, and I saw Carter standing beside a smirking Joey, whose paddle was high in the air.
Even though Joey had been nothing but nice at the costume party, the way he was eyeing me up was a little unnerving. Maybe I didn’t want him to win after all.
Another voice called out, “Forty dollars,” but I didn’t get a chance to see who had said it before a “forty-five” was yelled through the air. It turned into a bit of a bidding war after that, and I stopped trying to figure out who was calling out.
The lights made it difficult to see most people unless they were standing off to the side of the stage, like Joey and Carter were. And Joey, bless his heart, hung in there with the rest of them. I wasn’t sure how much Carter and Sophia had given him to bid with, but I hoped it was a lot, because these chicks were insane.
When the bidding got to two hundred dollars, I noticed Joey look over at Carter, who looked a little worried. Then, when it passed two hundred and Joey stopped raising his paddle, I started getting worried.
I tried to tell myself that it didn’t matter. The most I’d probably have to do was carry a girl’s books around to class and hang out with her for a day. I didn’t want to do it, but it wouldn’t kill me.
The money kept climbing, and it began to feel ridiculous. The only reason anyone was interested in me was because I was the “gay” guy who was maybe bi and maybe fucking my sister. Just the thought of having to spend the day with someone attempting to pump me for information was exhausting. But as the total approached three hundred dollars, I resigned myself to exactly that fate.
Gina, on the other hand, seemed to be having the time of her life. “I’ve got two-eighty; can we get three hundred? Come on, everyone. It’s for a good cause.”
I heard murmurs in the crowd, and I saw a paddle begin to be raised but stopped midair as another voice rang out.
“I bid five hundred.”
Everyone’s head, including mine, swung toward the voice. I squinted into the crowd and held a hand over my eyebrows to block some of the glare. It took me a moment to find exactly where the person who had bid on me was, but the fact that a wide berth had begun to form around her was clue enough.
Sophia?
I felt my brow furrow as my hand dropped back to my side. What the hell was she doing? We’d had a plan…didn’t we?
“Uh, sold to…Sophia Mason. Congratulations.” Poor Gina sounded as confused as the rest of us, but there was also concern in her voice. This wasn’t going to look good to anyone, and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why Sophia would bid on me, let alone bid so much.
Though I had to admit, part of me warmed at the action. That crazy lunatic had bid on me even though doing so was a horrible, horrible idea. The ramifications would likely be huge, but she’d done it anyway for some bizarre, poorly thought-out reason, and it made my chest flutter just thinking about it.