Coldness traveled up my spine. I didn’t know if it was Molly, the idea of this dance I’d just agreed to go to, or a combo of both. But I knew the feeling—it was dread.
Chapter 11
“How are we getting in the dorms?” It was a legitimate question that I probably should have thought of before we were ten minutes from the place.
“The frats all have the fobs. You know that, right?” Molly shrugged.
I did. The guys had told me several times.
The campus was buzzing for being spring break where no one was allowed on campus. But apparently, with the Frats getting letters there were exceptions to rules the rest of us had to follow. Maybe because no one was sleeping there? Or did the college just have a policy of looking the other way when it suited them to do so?
I still didn’t have a response from my parents, but my mother’s boss had assured me that there was no evidence they were hurt or missing. She was going to look into it for me.
The lights in the dorm were dimmed, the only sign it was officially closed, and I had to put on my gold dress in the minimal light. But I thought I looked okay. Maven had dressed me in gold and now so had Connie. How had she known I was going to need this? The woman was scary sometimes.
The dress flowed down my body, touching the floor slightly, but when I paired it with the heels I’d gotten in New York for the other gold dress, it would work. The outfit hugged my curves although it was quite obvious I hadn’t really been eating. I had no appetite except for sugar, and I’d had enough of that.
I’d lost five pounds at least. The dress would have fit perfectly if I was my normal size. I supposed it wasn’t a problem. My boobs stuck out less in the dress this way. I’d never been all that comfortable with cleavage.
If I’d picked out underwear that Chance would like, then I wasn’t really hurting anyone but myself.
“Where am I sleeping tonight?” Why hadn’t I thought of these things earlier?
Molly turned from where she flounced by the mirror. “With Felicia. You’re covered. I paid for it.”
My cheeks heated, embarrassment was a tough pill to swallow. “I’ll find a way to pay you back.”
Depending on how much the room cost…
She shook her head. “It’s okay. I split it with Felicia and R.J. pays for our room. Tonight is going to be hot. I promise you that.”
I didn’t want it hot, and I couldn’t help but remember the dream I’d had where the fire’s heat had scorched me. I shuddered. How was it I could want to go home when I didn’t have one? What was the need for home? Was it some place or was it someone?
“Well, I…”
A knock sounded, and Molly opened the door. R.J. stood there with another guy, who I had to presume was his fraternity brother. Within the frats, as far as I could grasp, guys had little brothers. They were someone even more connected than the brothers were as a whole. I’d never heard my guys mention their little brothers or big brothers, but then again I hadn’t wanted to talk about the frat at all, as Banyan had shouted to me on the street.
He was right. Why would they have thought I wanted to do this with them when I’d been so adamantly opposed to even thinking about going to one of their regular parties? I’d certainly participated in the downfall of everything. Disinterest was as much a crime to relationships as anger or jealousy.
I shook my head. Why act like I knew anything? Why think of it as a relationship? At best, it had been a weird friendship with them. I was sick of having to question everything.
The guy who came in was good looking. Much more so than R.J. who was bulky and shaggy looking all the time. Clearly a type, since Molly found him so attractive, but he’d always just screamed scummy to me. Maybe it was more his energy than anything else.
As for my date, he was taller than R.J., thin and lean. He had reddish hair and freckles. His smile was fast. “You must be Giovanna. I’m Lee Forbes. It’s nice to meet you. Thanks for bailing me out. Apparently, my going alone to this was going to be a huge issue.”
R.J. snorted. “You’re the incoming president of the frat, Mr. President-elect. The Presidents always have to go with a date. It’s tradition. Sets the tone. The whole board is required to be there. Unless you want to get stuck with some sorority girl who wants the status of getting in your pants and won’t leave you alone, this is the best way to handle it.” R.J. patted me on the arm like we were friends. I wanted to throw up. Instead, I kept my face passive. “Giovanna is perfect. She just got her heart broken by those asses at SPiI, and she’s like quiet and shit.”
I steeled my spine. There was nothing worse than being talked about as though I wasn’t there except that it was so much worse because it was R.J. doing the talking. “Well, you summed that right up. It’s nice to meet you, Lee.” I put out my hand and he shook it. “Is this where I ask you what your major is?”
He laughed. “You’re funny.”
I really wasn’t.
R.J’s. frat had chartered a bus to take everyone over to the venue, which proved to be a ten minute drive from the school to a hotel on the other side of town.
“They can’t count on anyone being sober.” Lee answered my unasked question. The bus was loud, but we hadn’t been chatting much. He gave me a half smile. “I have five sisters. I learned to read people’s faces a long time ago. And no, different parents. I’m the only one my parents had together. Modern family.”
I hadn’t even wondered about his parents. “That’s interesting.”
It wasn’t that Lee wasn’t nice, and he was certainly being friendly without in any way acting like he was hitting on me. But he wasn’t who I wanted to be sitting next to. “Everyone pre-drinks?”
“Yes.” He widened his eyes. “I’m a terrible date. My girlfriend tells me all the time. Do you want one?”
I shook my head. “I don’t drink.”
That wasn’t entirely true. I had with the guys, but I wasn’t going to that evening.
“Hey,” a guy in the back of the bus called out. “I just heard those SPiI guys are stuck. The storm last night flooded the river, so wherever that secret camping spot they go to every year is, they’re officially stuck. One of the guys texted his brother. They’re not getting home to their formal this weekend.”
The cheering made me roll my eyes. This was just ridiculous. How much time did these fraternities spend worrying about each other?
“You’re better off without them. They’re not nice guys,” Lee spoke to me again, catching my attention. “I mean, I’d do anything to keep Kate. That’s my girlfriend. Which one were you dating, anyway? I don’t believe the rumors. That website is never accurate. Kate calls it the place with the bullshit drivel.” He grinned. I decided I’d like Kate if I ever got to meet her. Not that I would.
“I was dating all of them. But only in my own head.”
Lee snorted. “You’re a trip, aren’t you?”
It would seem that way.
The guys didn’t just dance at these formals. It was a very loud, very drunken mess. The girls who had started out beautifully done up at the beginning of the night were falling out of their dresses now. One woman had the straps from her dress totally snap off entirely. I’d tried to help her in the bathroom while she’d drunkenly cried about it. I wasn’t sure where she’d gone off to now.
Molly was animated, talking to the other women, laughing at things R.J. said. If she remembered I was there, I’d be surprised. But that was okay. I kind of liked staying back from this crowd. I’d elicited some whispers from some of the sorority girls and promptly ignored them. If I never heard my name in a passing voice again, it wouldn’t be too soon.
So this was what a fraternity formal looked like. My guys were apparently trapped behind a river, a fact I was trying not to dwell on too much. What did that even mean? Well, from the bit I could gather, it seemed their cars couldn’t pass so for now they had to stay where they were.
They were safe.
That was important.
Lee, for his part, had been friendly enough. He’d gotten me some food and something non-alcoholic that tasted fruity. Then he’d pretty much left me alone.
He arrived next to me even as I thought about him. “It’s a little stuffy in here, isn’t it?”
I nodded. “I guess so.”
He smelled like beer but so did everyone in here. It might not be him. It might just be the whole area in general. “It’s funny who we fall in love with, right?”
Lee had to shout to be heard, which he apparently didn’t like since he nodded toward a deck outside. Lots of the guests had taken to hanging out there. It wasn’t that cold of a night. And given that if I didn’t know the song playing—and even if I had I wasn’t going to dance to it—I followed Lee out into the evening.
He walked to an open spot by a railing and looked down. “There’s a gorge down there somewhere, but I think we’re on top of the river.”
There were small areas like this all over the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania. Beautiful rivers that seemed to come up from nowhere. I wished I had time and transportation to go see them regularly. I could hear it rushing beneath us. Thanks to the weather we’d been having, the spring showers, the river must be full.
“This would be a pretty location in the daytime.”
Lee nodded. “So I said inside it’s funny who we fall in love with, right? I mean, you’re clearly hung up on those three. I don’t like them. I’m just going to be honest. I’ve had nothing but negative interactions with Banyan in the two classes we had together, but I guess he’s not the worst guy in the world.”
I shook my head. “Please don’t say bad things about them. I’m not in any way ready to hear them.”
He nodded. “That wasn’t the point. Sorry, I’ve been drinking. Look, my point is that we can’t really control it, right? I met Kate. She and I are not right for each other. Girl wants to travel and speak ten languages and never stay in one place very long. I’m a homebody. But we love each other. That’s just how it is.”
As of late I wasn’t sure I believed in love. It took me by surprise and hadn’t done anything but make all of this worse.
“I guess…”
I never got to finish what I was going to say. We both became aware of a burning smell at the same time. Or at least I assume that’s what happened. I’d become very attuned to the scent, and Lee jumped at the same time I did.
The deck was on fire. I didn’t know how it started. I hadn’t been watching, and honestly, the fact that it lit up when everything was wet was sort of surprising. But it was on fire, just the same.
The railing on the other side of us was ablaze. Red, orange, the dancing demon of death. It was stalking me. Everywhere I went it chased me.
Screams sounded. People ran. I backed up, but I was already as far away as I could go, and I’d have to pass right by the blaze to get in the building.
“Shit,” Lee yelled, but I only distantly registered the noise.
The railing was catching like logs in a fire, which made sense, considering this was an old wooden deck.
Lee pulled on my arm, tugging me forward. He wanted to run toward the flames? But then the guys were pulling out their coats and blocking the increasing flames. We managed to get by and inside. The room was in chaos.
The curtains were all on fire.
How had this happened? What was going on? Where was Molly? Felicia? The loud music had stopped, replaced by the blaring of alarms. I ran some more, kicking off my shoes. I knew this feeling. I’d already done it once.
My dress, too long without the heels, tripped me, and I went down. Someone banged against my body, pushing over my prone form and continuing to run. Stunned, I cried out and tried to get up, knocked over again by another body hitting me.
Fear, already on the edge of my psyche, pushed forward. This was what terror felt like. The absolute and utter inability to move. I couldn’t get up. I was going to be trampled to death. I was…
Hands hauled me to my feet, pulling me against a strong body. It took me a moment to register that it was Banyan.
I’d never been so happy to see anyone in my life. “How?”
“Talk later. I’ve got you, sweetheart. I’ve got you. Fuck.”
He turned and with me in his arms, took the stairs outside. Fire trucks blared their sirens, appearing in the driveway of the hotel.
“I’ve got her,” Banyan called out and turned toward two figures running toward us. It was Maven and Chance. I was lifted from Banyan who squeezed me tight for one second before letting me go to Maven.
“We have to stop meeting this way,” Maven whispered in my ear. It would have been funny if the tightness of his voice hadn’t belayed the humor of what he said
Chance didn’t pull me toward him. Instead, he seemed to be focused on something behind me.
“Chance,” Banyan called out, but he’d already charged forward. Maven set me down as others rushed toward us.
“You got her?” Someone called to Maven. That was when it dawned on me that I was surrounded by their frat brothers and not only that, but Chance had Lee by the shirt collar.
“You could have gotten my girlfriend killed,” Chance yelled at him.
Lee shoved him backward. “Your girlfriend? Fuck you. She’s not your girlfriend. The whole school saw how you three threw her over. Publicly. You broke up if you were ever together.”
Chance breathed hard. “That isn’t what happened. And she didn’t break up with me. She’s still mine. Besides, you want to talk about bullshit? Still telling the fucking lines about Kate. How many Kate stories have you used to get girls in bed?”
Wait. My mind stuttered. What?
Chance raised his fist and Banyan pulled him backward before rounding on Lee himself. He smashed his fist into Lee’s face. “Sorry, Chance. You have a no violence rule. I’m not letting you break that.”
Banyan charged at Lee and they both went down together.
The police were everywhere. The building was on fire and a surge of fraternity brothers exploded on top of each other. I was yanked backward, face-to-face with Molly.
Her pupils were dilated, huge. She breathed heavy. “You must see it now.”
“What? See what?” I pulled out of her hand. They all needed to stop fighting. This was insanity. How were the SPiI guys here and what was happening? My senses were in overload. I couldn’t understand anything. My head hurt. I wasn’t sure if I’d been kicked when I hit the ground.
“How beautiful it is.”
Did she mean the fire? Her eyes weren’t right. It wasn’t just that they were dilated. They were wrong… they were like her mother’s. Molly had dead eyes.
“The fire?”
She grabbed my shoulders. “I’ve been trying so hard to get you to see. We can be sisters now. We should always have been sisters. No one pays attention to either of us.”
“Molly…” My whole body was cold. It was funny how I could suddenly know something and the world seemed opened up because of it. There could be perfectly reasonable explanations for what she just said, except there weren’t. “You did this? You’re the one doing the fires.”
She stepped back. “I’ve got to go, Giovanna. But you understand now. Or you will soon. I love you. Like a sister.”
“Molly,” I shouted, but she’d taken off running. She hadn’t exactly confessed but this was lunacy. I knew it like I knew my name. Molly had set the fires. But why and how and…
Maven pulled me against his side. “Where did you go?”
“I…”
Sirens sounded as the police appeared en masse. In the chaos things became very clear. Molly was an arsonist, and they knew it. The guys were back, but our reunion and confrontation was going to have to wait. As I was ushered into a police car, it turne
d out that being the roommate of a suspected serial arsonist was a very bad thing to be.
I had my head down on the hard table. It had been ten minutes since anyone had been to talk to me, and I really had nothing to tell them. The best I could do was mutter about finding Molly’s lighter that one time on the ground. I otherwise didn’t know anything. I thought her mom might be plotting to kill a dog.
I wiped at my eyes. How could I know so little about what was going on?
The door flung open, and a man I’d never seen before came into the room. “Come on Giovanna. You’re leaving. They’re not charging you with anything, and you’ll make yourself available if they need more information. There is no reason whatsoever to keep you here any longer.”
I stared at the older gentleman in the blue suit. “Ah… thank you.”
I was bone tired, like my joints hurt just from trying to keep me upright.
“I’m Clive Wimer. Banyan’s father sent me to help you.”
He had? I hadn’t seen the guys after I was stuck in the back of a police car and taken here. I didn’t even know what had happened to them. My last view had been the police breaking up the fight. How was I going to pay for this man? It always all came down to this.
I shouldn’t be feeling this old when I was only twenty. The guys jumped to their feet from where they sat as I came out. When had they gotten here? I’d been back there talking about how I knew nothing for hours.
Molly was still missing and none of this was going to be good news. Someone shouted in another room, and I recognized the voice as R.J.’s. He’d been brought in wearing handcuffs as they’d been leading me to the interview room. It was bad to be Molly’s roommate, but perhaps it was worse to be her boyfriend.
I’d always found him creepy. I still thought he was. Only it turned out I’d totally misread the creep factor and should have been more focused on my so-called friend.
Seeing the three guys right there made my heart clench. They’d come and saved me. “Hi.”
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