by JB Salsbury
“Nice of you to keep a stash for the females,” I say, only half joking.
He zips up the bag and tosses it across the room to his dresser. “They’re not for females, they’re for me. I keep a stash when we travel for games.”
“Oh.” I stare down at the blue and white bristles feeling a little ashamed for thinking the worst.
He seems to read my body language well because he hugs me and kisses the top of my head. “I know what you probably think about me, and I’m not going to lie and say I haven’t had my fair share of one-night-stands. But that’s not what this is.”
“What is it then?” I’m genuinely curious to know if we’re on the same page.
“After what happened tonight, I only want to have you in my bed where I know you’re safe and you can sleep easy. That’s not to say that I don’t want to kiss you and…” He clears his throat. “I don’t want our first time to be clouded with the shit that happened tonight.”
“I’m so embarrassed. I feel like I brought this on myself. I should’ve let you break things off with her when you wanted to.”
“I blame myself.”
I pull away to look up at him. “Don’t. You were only doing what I begged you to do.”
He finally kisses me then. “You didn’t have to beg. I would’ve done whatever you asked if it meant making you happy.”
We kiss a little longer and then I remember the surfboards and pull back. “I have to return the surfboards tomorrow.”
“I’ll swing by the house and pick them up before work in the morning.” He pushes a lock of hair off my face and kisses the bruise on my cheek. “You’re welcome to stay here as long as you need.”
“Thank you, but I have to go back. It’s my home and—”
“Tell me you’re going to file a complaint with the Greek Review Board.”
“I don’t know.” I catch his frown, but he doesn’t press the subject.
“Sleep on it.”
I can’t stand the look of disappointment in his eyes, so I slip free from his arms and go to the bathroom to brush my teeth. When I come back the room is dark and the comforter and sheets are pulled back. I close the door and Loren guides me to the bed, pulls me into his chest where I rest my cheek against his beating heart. He runs his fingers through my hair and I find myself drifting to sleep a lot sooner than I thought I would. I imagined the first time I got a chance to be alone and in bed with a half-naked Loren, I’d be climbing up his body and kissing him until my lips bled.
So much for the fantasy.
Chapter Fifteen
Loren
Sitting at the edge of my bed, showered and ready for work, I watch Bex sleep. I hate to wake her up and see the tranquil look in her face disappear. I couldn’t fall asleep last night until I saw the tiny groove between her eyebrows finally go away. Until I knew she stopped thinking about what had happened at the party and found a peaceful rest. Waking her up now means I have to watch her go from a few peaceful seconds of consciousness to the shattering reminder of what she went through last night and what she has to face today.
But leaving her in my bed without saying goodbye is something I refuse to do. Leaving her a note is too impersonal.
I run a hand through her hair, tucking the wild strands behind her ear. “Good morning, gorgeous.”
The little groove between her brows comes back before her eyes are even open but I don’t know if I put it there or if her memories are already crashing in on her peace. “I’m sorry to wake you up.” I really am. “But I’m going to go grab the boards and go to work.” I continue to run my fingers through her hair, tucking them behind her ear, and repeating. “Go back to sleep. I’ll be home around—”
“No,” she says, her voice rough but determined. “I want to go with you.” She kicks off the covers and stretches.
I stand to make room for her to get up. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
She rubs her eyes and yawns. “I can’t hide forever. The sooner I face Riley and…everything that happened, the better.”
I scratch my jaw, feeling all sorts of not okay. “You’re not hiding, you’re taking space. Time to gather your thoughts, come up with a plan.”
She stands, looks around the room as if she’s searching for her things, but then stops probably remembering she trashed everything she came with. “Let me hit the restroom and we can go.”
“Hey.” I get to her before she makes it to the door and hug her tightly. “You don’t have to do this. I can go and if Riley or any of those bitches says shit, I’ll tell them all to go fuck themselves.”
She hugs me back just as hard and fuck, I love the feel of her body pressed against mine, holding on, finding comfort. “I appreciate that, but I’m a big girl and I can fight my own battles.” She pats my back and I release her. “I’ve been doing it all my life.”
I hate that she had to grow tough skin against her own blood, her fucking sorority. I watch her disappear into the bathroom and I grab my keys, hat, wallet and phone. My blood pumps with excess adrenaline, similar to how I feel before a game, and I regret not waking up early and going for a run. If it had been humanly possible for me to release Bex from my arms to do it, I would have.
When she comes out of the bathroom her face looks washed, her hair is pulled back in a knot, and she’s rolled up the waistband of my sweats so they don’t bunch around her ankles. She’s also tied the shirt she’s wearing in the back making my clothes on her look less borrowed and more oversized casual.
“We’re doing this, huh?” I give her one last chance to back out, to reclaim her place in my bed and allow me to fight her battle.
“If I need bail money—”
“You can count on me.” We share a smile, I take her hand and we head out. At the front door I look down at her bare feet. Having her borrow a pair of my shoes seems ridiculous so I lift her up just as I did last night.
Her arms come around my neck to hold on and a smile tilts her lips. “You know, I can walk barefoot to your truck.”
“Yeah, but then I wouldn’t get the chance to carry you.” I manage to pop the door handle without having to put her down, then place her in the seat. “You’re sure you’re ready for the confrontation?”
“I know Riley. If I hide from her it’ll only invite her to attack. I have to stand up to her, it’s the only way she’ll back off.”
“Coincidence that you just described the suggested response to dealing with a bully?”
“Not a coincidence at all,” she mumbles and reaches for her seatbelt.
I close her door and circle around to the driver's seat, firing up the engine, I pull out and wish I could take the longest route possible to get back to the sorority house. And I would if I didn’t have to be at the shop to unlock the doors.
“What’s your plan?” I ask as I point us in the direction of campus.
“I’m not sure I have one. At the very least I’m going to pull her aside and tell her what she did to me was petty and assholish.” She sticks her hand out the open window feeling the cooler morning air on her fingers. “I’m sure she’ll say she did it because she thinks we’ve been seeing each other behind her back.”
“Will you tell her the truth?”
She turns her tan-colored eyes toward me and with the sun shining on her face they look gold. “Of course.”
“Will you let me explain to her that we never even kissed until just a couple nights ago? It’s so fucked up because Riley and I were not together.”
“She has every right to be mad. I should’ve just let you break up with her. I thought I was protecting her by making you wait until after the formal, but I ended up just hurting her worse.”
“Please,” I say with a humorless chuckle. “The only thing you hurt was her inflated pride.”
She shrugs and looks ahead as we come around the corner and onto Greek row. Her house looms up ahead and a renewed anger ignites my blood as I remember racing away last night with a sobbing Bex in my arms.
I pull into the back lot and park in guest parking. “Wait, I’ll come around,” I say to Bex.
“There’s no way I’m having you carry me into the house,” she says, but there’s laughter in her voice that manages to curb my simmering rage. “I’ll walk.”
We hop out of the car together, and I clasp her hand in mine, grateful she doesn’t pull away. We head up the stairs to the front door and she punches in a code on the keypad that unlocks the door.
When we walk inside the foyer the girls milling about stop what they’re doing when they see us. Bex groans and rolls her eyes. “Nothing more to see here. Pretty sure you all saw plenty last night.”
“Hey.” I get the attention of a girl I’ve seen before, but don’t know her name. “Can you tell me where the surfboards are from last night?”
She blinks up at me. “Oh, they’re still out back.”
Out back? They left them out there where anyone could steal them? Of course Riley would do that, seeing as they were being held on Bex’s credit card. If anything did happen to them it would be Bex’s responsibility.
“You want me to walk you up to your room before I grab the boards?” I know she has to walk by Riley’s room and if that bitch confronts Bex I don’t want it to happen without me.
“No, I’ll be fine.” She squeezes my hand. “Thanks for taking the boards back.”
I lean down and kiss her, soft, slow, and in front of who the fuck cares. She pulls back first, but that’s all right. It’ll take awhile for her and others to get used to us being together. “I’m going to load them up, but I’ll pop up to say goodbye before I leave.”
She smiles at me, but it’s small and tinged with worry. I try to give her my most reassuring grin, but I don’t know if it does any good.
Once she’s up the stairs, I turn to the hallway that leads to the back door. The patio is completely clean, tables and chairs gone, DJ booth and dance floor gone as well, if it weren’t for the traumatizing memory of what went on here last night I would’ve thought it was a dream. There are no remnants that anything went on back here at all except for the pile of surfboards thrown into a sloppy heap at the far corner of the space.
I count ten and load them into the truck.
Bex
Every sister I pass on the stairs and in the hallway avoids my eyes as I make my way to my room. I stop at Riley’s door and notice there are no sounds coming from behind it. Not music or her television, no voices, and I wonder if she’s sleeping in after her own guilt kept her awake. Does she regret what she did to me?
Having left in such a hurry I didn’t lock my door, not that I need to. Sisters generally stay out of my space because of the snakes and my invisibility. Something is off when I get to my door. My white board is wiped clean, and the pythong sticker Loren gave me has been ripped off. I run my finger over the tacky glue it left behind. A sense of unease trickles through me as I slowly twist and push open my door When I step inside I can’t believe what I’m seeing.
Empty.
I cover my mouth with shaking fingers as I gaze at the blank wall where my terrariums once sat. Gone. She took my fucking pets!
An unholy rage of the likes I have never felt before floods my system. All the blood sizzles in my extremities, pumped by my racing heart.
I whirl around so fast it makes me dizzy and I pound on Riley’s door. “Riley! Open the fucking door!” I wiggle the handle and it’s locked.
I turn around, run into Stephanie nearly knocking her down as I fly past her and down the stairs. Whispers erupt and I feel the sense that I’m being followed, but I’m too furious to care. Take my shit, fine. Burn it for all I care. But do not fuck with my snakes.
My bare feet slap the tile as I round the corner into the kitchen. “Where’s Riley!”
Half the women stare back at me with wide eyes while the other half avoid looking at me. I turn around and race into the living room. “Where is she!” Again, no answers.
I head into the sunroom, a space usually reserved for tea with special guests and I nearly trip when my legs slam to a halt. Sitting with her back toward me, her brown hair in the signature French twist, and pearls strung along the back of her neck, I’d recognize her anywhere. “Mom?”
Her head turns on a slow swivel and disappointment twists her features even before her gaze slides along the length of my body. “Dear God, Bexley, what on earth are you wearing?”
I tug on my shirt, smoothing the fabric as if it’ll somehow do something to make me look more presentable. “What are you doing here?”
“I called her.” Riley leans to the side for me to see her fully from her spot across from my mom. “We needed someone to come and get your things.”
At the mention of my things I’m reminded of why I raced down here in the first place. Reminded of how I want to toss my cousin headfirst through a window. I cross to stand at the edge of the table and glare down at Riley. “Where are my snakes?”
“That’s what you care about? Your stupid snakes?” Riley says.
“Would both of you lower your voices?” my mom hisses. “Bexley, sit down. You will speak like civilized women, not street trash.”
I don’t sit.
“Your things are safe.” My mom adjusts the gold buttons on the cuffs of her pale green silk blouse. “I had a moving company take your things to an apartment at The Weldon. What you should be more concerned about is how your lapse in judgment is going to affect our family.”
I blink and stumble back at the absurdity of her words. “My lapse in judgment?”
“Not a single Thunderbird in our history has ever been removed from their fraternity or sorority.” Thanks to a liberal amount of Botox and filler, it’s hard to tell just how angry my mom really is, but her voice turns venomous as she spits, “How could you do this to your cousin?”
“What exactly did she tell you I did?”
“Would you please sit down—”
“No, mom. I won’t sit down.” I swing my gaze to Riley. “You humiliate me in front of our entire sorority and their dates, you kick me out of Eta Pi, call my mom to clear out my things…. All because a guy chose me over you?”
Her cheeks flush cherry red. “You were having sex with my boyfriend!”
“Riley, keep your voice down,” my mom spits through tight lips.
“Is it too much to ask that you let me win this one time? Just this one time.”
“Oh please, don’t start with the pity speech.” She rolls her eyes.
“Everyone has always loved you best. Our family, friends, not a single person we know would pick me over you and you know it.”
“Playing the victim is so unattractive,” my mom says shaking her head. “You seduced Riley’s boyfriend, which is a flagrant disregard to the Eta Pi oath you took when you joined.”
“Seduced?” I chuckle. “Look at me, mother.” When she doesn’t do more than give me a cursory glance, I snap, “Look at me!”
Her pale brown eyes fix on mine in shock.
“Do I look like the kind of woman who could seduce a man away from her?” I shove an accusing finger at my model-gorgeous cousin. “You think by my power alone, I could get a man to walk away from her to be with me?”
My mom doesn’t answer, she doesn’t have to. Her silence says enough. Riley shifts uncomfortably in her seat as she sees her argument dissolving in front of her.
Chapter Sixteen
Loren
I’ve been racing around the sorority house looking for Bex ever since I went to her room and found it empty.
“Amy! Have you seen Bex?” Amy is one of the nicer sisters, and I had her in a class last year. “I can’t find her anywhere.”
She looks around as if checking to make sure we’re not being spied on. “Sunroom. Go past the living room and hang a left.”
I take off in the direction she indicated in such a hurry I don’t have a chance to thank her. My feet skid to a halt when I hear Bex’s voice.
“Loren chose
me. I’m sorry if that hurts you. But he was not your boyfriend when he did.” Her voice is shaky, whether with rage or tears, I don’t know. “I begged him to go to the formal with you. He did it for me, not because he was into you.”
I step into the doorway and spot Bex standing near a table where Riley is sitting with another woman. An older woman.
“That’s absurd,” the older woman scoffs. “The young man needed to be convinced to take Riley to the formal? And you expect me to believe that, but not that you somehow persuaded him away?” She folds her napkin and places it on her lap. “Both are frankly too ridiculous to comprehend.”
“Did you tell my mom how you humiliated me last night?”
“I’ve heard enough.” The woman, Bex’s mom, scoots her chair back and stands.
“I’m going to take that as a no,” I say as I step into the room and take Bex’s side. “Riley’s only telling stories that benefit her.”
A tiny gasp comes from Bex as her mom, thin and tall, but made taller by a pair of ridiculous heels, tries to look down her nose at me. “I suppose you’re the one to blame for ruining Bex’s future.”
I snort and shake my head. “No, ma’am.” I nod to Riley. “You can thank Riley for being selfish, immature, and real fucking petty.”
Her eyes widen in horror. “You’ll watch your mouth—”
“I won’t. My momma taught me to always be a gentleman in front of a lady, but the only lady worth respecting that I see is the one I’m holding on to.”
“Bex, we’re leaving right this second.” She grabs her handbag and snaps her fingers at her daughter.
I don’t know how Bex will respond, but I half expect her to drop her chin and dutifully follow her mom’s command. When I feel her arm slide around my lower back and hold on I grin.
“I’m not going with you, mom.”
The woman looks as if she’s just been told her diamonds are really petrified rat shit. “You’ve been ordered off the property. It’s embarrassing enough that I had to come down here, do you know how many of these girls will tell their parents what happened?”