“Kevin!” Danny was on his feet now, and his sharp admonishment finally brought Kevin’s eyes back to those of his big brother. His stomach lurched as he saw the anger and the . . . was that fear in Danny’s expression? “You know you’re not supposed to have girls in here tonight! You’ve been told several times!”
“I know, Danny! But it’s my party . . . I just thought . . . .”
“Get rid of them!” Danny snapped, cutting him off. Ryan stood too, now, next to Danny, eyeing Kevin sharply, and silently reinforcing Danny’s command.
“Now, now, let’s not be so hasty,” Gregg Mcarthy spoke up, his voice oozing with mirth. “If the birthday boy wants to have girls at his party, I think we should consider making an exception.”
“Absolutely!” The sentiment was echoed with relish by some of Gregg’s friends and his maddening smirk became even larger.
“No!” Ryan and Danny responded as one.
“Kevin,” Gregg turned to him, “you see how they treat you? Still like a little kid. I know they’re your big brothers, but they don’t seem to want you to have any fun tonight do they? Even though this weekend is your one chance to celebrate your birthday. I think they’re being very mean!”
“Shut your fat hole, Mcarthy!” Jesse snapped.
“Tsk, tsk, Kinkaid. Is there really a need for such hostility on this very special day?” The malicious glint in Gregg’s eyes deepened as Jesse glared at him, and Kevin looked again, confused, at Ryan and Danny. Why were they being like this? They had never been sticklers for the rules before, and why was their arch nemesis now defending him? Everything was upside down. On top of it all, he was definitely buzzed which made it even harder to make sense of the situation. He pressed his hand to his head.
“Girls,” Ryan ignored Gregg and tried addressing the four females. If they could just get them out before Steve came down. “I’m sorry, but you will have to go.”
“Not until Kevin tells us to,” one of them responded with a giggle, clinging to Kevin and pressing up against him. She was a pretty, little brunette with curves, and Ryan cursed under his breath. Danny, however, had had enough. He strode over and took Kevin hard by the arm, dragging him to the back of the room where the pool table stood.
“Hey!” Alex and James reacted, coming out of their drunken stupor and trying to follow their friend. Ryan and Jesse blocked their way, and Patrick, who was also close at hand, stepped up to take hold of Alex, hauling him back. Alex was his little brother.
“Leave it!” Patrick instructed.
“Let me go, Pat!” Alex struggled briefly with him, but was unable to break free.
“You do not want to ally yourself with Kevin right now, Man! Let it go!”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Alex replied indignantly. “I am allied with him! He’s my best friend.”
“All the same,” Patrick tightened his grip as Alex’s struggles were renewed, “the best thing you can do for him right now is leave him alone and let Danny handle it!”
“I don’t understand!” Alex protested.
“I know you don’t,” Pat replied in a gentler tone as his little brother yielded unwillingly, “but you have to trust me.” With that he pulled Alex further back against the wall, keeping a tight hold on him as Alex looked sorrowfully at his friend.
A similar conversation was taking place between James and Jesse. James was Jesse’s little brother, and James was not any happier than Alex was to see his friend dragged off by an arm in front of a roomful of people. Gregg and his friends on the other hand were clearly enjoying themselves as they stared across the room at Danny and Kevin who were now in heated conversation.
“You have no idea the situation you’re putting yourself in!” Danny fumed. “You have to tell them to go!”
“You are not the boss of me!”
“Right now, Little Man, I most certainly am!” Kevin looked like he’d been slapped and tears sprang to his eyes. Danny saw them and his heart wrenched. He loosened his grip and softened his tone. “Kev’bo, you do not want them here, right now. Not tonight. Trust me on this, please.” Kevin looked away and swiped at his tears as they started to streak his face.
At that moment, they heard a door shut on the landing upstairs, and an instant later Steve peered over the railing into the open common room. He narrowed his eyes when he saw the girls, and Ryan and Danny looked up at him, pleadingly. He returned the stares of the two younger members he had come to regard as fondly as if they really were his own brothers, and he swore under his breath. ‘Shit! What was that little punk thinking?’ He finally broke eye contact with Danny and Ryan, and took in the rest of the room: Gregg’s smirking face, Jesse and Pat as they tried to keep James and Alex calm and under control, the terrified freshmen, the divided seniors and juniors. It was his job to bring them all back together again, to lay down the law as justly as possible. Now, as he looked at Kevin, still restrained by Danny, he hated his job more than ever. “What’s going on, here?” he inquired for the second time that day as he finished surveying the scene.
Gregg was the first to answer, almost gleefully. “Well, as you can see, Steve,” he began, “our young friend, here, decided to bring us some female companionship. As he was celebrating his birthday, it seems, he didn’t feel the rules applied to him, and I was just saying that I thought he was perfectly right, and as he was so hell bent on having them here, the girls should be allowed to stay.”
“Steve,” Danny whispered urgently, “please!” Steve paused and looked at Ryan.
“It wouldn’t be fair, Steve! You know it wouldn’t!” Ryan added his own beseeching plea to Danny’s.
Still Steve remained quiet, looking over the room once more. His lip curled as his eyes rested on Gregg’s simpering face. “I understand your concern, Ryan,” he replied at last, “but rules have been broken.” Steve’s nauseous feeling increased as both Danny and Ryan turned a pasty white. “I have half a mind to entertain Gregg’s suggestion.” ‘No I don’t,’ he thought to himself as Ryan and Danny turned pastier still. “Kevin,” he continued, “I know you have no real understanding yet of the situation you are in. I also know for a fact, however, that you were advised against bringing girls tonight, several times. I, myself, cautioned you more than once and I also heard Ryan and Danny expressly forbid you. You have, therefore, unquestionably disobeyed, and your disobedience shall have to be dealt with.” Steve paused for dramatic affect and looked around. His eyes settled once again on Gregg’s elated expression.
“Steve please . . .!” The voices of his younger brothers reached his ears, but he kept his eyes on Gregg’s face, feeling smug as his next statement took the wind out of his adversary’s sails.
“We shall deal with the matter internally, however. I see no reason to put the girls in a position to witness the goings on of a private fraternity meeting. Kevin had no way of knowing how serious the transgression was, and therefore it would be unjust to put either him or the girls in that situation.”
“But Steve . . .,” Gregg protested.
“That is my final word,” Steve cut him off. “Kevin, say goodnight to the girls and show them to the door, please!”
Gregg glowered unhappily. There were others who were clearly disappointed too, but to them it was just a missed opportunity to add to the drama. It was only Gregg and his band of reprobates who seemed to take Steve’s decision as a personal offense, and now they fell to whispering amongst themselves as they continued to scowl in Kevin, Danny, and Ryan’s direction.
Kevin and his friends, meanwhile, just stood there dumbfounded. This was not at all what they had been expecting. Even when Danny let go of him, Kevin still didn’t move. He was fighting through the alcohol fog that was slowing his comprehension of the situation. Danny and Ryan watched him sympathetically, but after a moment, when he still hadn’t budged, Danny gave him a little shove in the girls’ direction. “Go!” He whispered harshly. Kevin looked at Ryan.
�
�Hurry up!” Ryan snapped. He and Danny just wanted the girls out. Only then would they breathe easier. Only then, could their empathy for Kevin begin to push out the sharpness created by their anxiety. Things were bad enough now, if Kevin only knew. The last thing the poor kid needed was four female witnesses to tonight’s events. Besides the obvious humiliating factors, girls had notoriously big mouths. It would be all over campus before dawn.
Alex and James had, by this time, been manhandled into opposite corners by Patrick and Jesse, and now they stood helplessly watching their friend as Kevin miserably made his way over to their guests. Steve had, during this time, been making his way down the stairs, and now he stood at the bottom in the doorway of the common room, watching with everyone else as Kevin said his good-byes. Ryan and Danny sought his eyes, but he did not look at them, knowing he could not appear to be too sympathetic. His heart ached, all the same, as he watched the youngest of their quartet.
“Sorry,” Kevin managed in a low voice to the little brunette who appeared to be the ringleader of the girls. “I don’t really understand what’s happening here, but I guess you girls are going to have to go.”
“That’s all right, Sweetie,” she gave him a quick peck on the cheek. “We’ll see you tomorrow. Besides,” she continued in a louder voice for the benefit of all, “it feels more like a tomb in here than a party! If you guys ever have the notion to see what a real party is like, come to one of ours sometime.”
“We do go to yours, Beth! All the time!” Danny could contain himself no longer. He knew the girl well, and she was nothing but trouble. “Well then,” Beth batted her eyes in his direction and smiled, “it’s a shame you haven’t learned anything.”
“Get out!” Danny bellowed, and Ryan put a hand on his arm.
“Sooo serious tonight,” Beth drawled with another flirtatious bat of her eyelids and the other girls giggled. “What’s wrong with you all? Why are you so gloomy?”
“That is none of your business,” Steve interjected before Danny could respond. “This is a closed fraternity gathering as Kevin, James, and Alex well knew before they brought you here tonight. They broke the rules. Don’t add to their guilt by prolonging your departure. We are respectful of your sorority and would never presume to interrupt a meeting that we were informed was closed.” Beth looked taken aback and finally a little rattled. Steve had a good reputation within the college community as a whole. He was known among the other house leaders for being fair and respectful. Nobody questioned his authority.
“I’m sorry, Steve,” Beth replied at last. “We didn’t know.”
“I know you didn’t,” Steve responded, “but now you do, so please leave.”
“Come on, girls.” Beth squeezed Kevin’s hand, and then turned towards the door, the other three girls trailing after her. Ryan and Danny each breathed a sigh of relief as the door closed behind them.
Kevin was mad now, though, and they didn’t have much of a respite as he turned on them. “What in the hell was that? Are you trying to completely ruin my weekend? If so you’re doing an excellent job! This is what I left the party for? You’re all about as lively as a bunch of pall bearers carrying a casket in a funeral parade. You must be on crack if you think I’m going to stick around here. This is fucking bullshit!”
“All right, Kevin! That is enough!” Steve rebuked. “You will not address your brothers in that tone! They were trying to protect you!”
“Like hell they were!” The outburst came not from Kevin, but from James who was still standing in the back corner where he had been dragged by Jesse.
“Protect me from what?” Kevin sulked as he continued to glare at Ryan and Danny.
“You have a lot to learn tonight, Little Brother,” Steve went on, ignoring both James’ outburst and Kevin’s question. “Before the night is over, you will learn to talk to your brothers respectfully; you will learn to shut your mouth when they are trying to advise you . . . .”
James snorted, “Why should he listen to them?”
“All they’ve done is lie!” Alex agreed, but he closed his mouth quickly as Pat glared at him.
“You will in fact learn,” Steve continued as he moved further into the room and away from the door, “to respect this fraternity as a whole, and abide by the rules and traditions it upholds. Right now, Kev, you and I are going to have a little talk about the importance of following directions. Come here!”
“What?? What the hell is this shit? Are you serious?” James’ drunken state made him somewhat irrational, and a ripple of apprehension surfaced among the older students as he openly challenged Steve.
“James . . .,” Jesse whispered in an urgent attempt to calm him.
“No, Jess!” he turned on his big brother. “You told him this was a party for fuck’s sake! What the hell is going on?”
“Shut up!” Jesse spat. “You are going to make it worse!”
“Worse? How could it be worse?”
“Keep pushing and you’re going to find out!”
“Is that a threat?”
Jesse softened his manner a little and responded in a gentler tone. “No, Man. It’s not a threat. It’s an unavoidable fact. Just calm down . . . .”
“Calm down! You want him to calm down?” Alex made a threatening move towards Jesse, but Patrick intercepted him. “Do you think we’re just going to roll over while our best friend gets scolded like a dog in front of everybody? On the weekend before his birthday, no less? Oh no! The hell with this! Come on, Kev, we’re out of here.” Alex started for the door, but Patrick yanked him back, and, taking him by the shirt collar, forced him against the wall.
“You are going nowhere!” he directed. “This is not about you, and it is not up to you to interfere!” Alex gaped at his big brother, silenced by his forcefulness.
Kevin too looked dismayed. Steve had never addressed him so sharply in front of others before. As rattled as he was, however, he responded to Steve’s command. He had never yet disobeyed a direct order from his oldest brother, and now he made his way on shaky legs to stand before the president of the fraternity.
Steve rarely ever got angry with his brothers, but when he did, the scolding that followed was unbearable. The couple of times Steve had called Kevin to his room for a lecture, his little brother had cried for hours afterwards. Only Danny and Ryan had been aware of those occasions and Kevin had leaned heavily on them. They had been subjected many times to similar reprimands. As the younger brothers of the president, it was the special privilege they were all entitled to. Now, it was not the fear of Steve’s anger that affected Kevin as he looked into his oldest brother’s eyes, it was the dread of his disappointment. “We need to have a long talk tonight, Kev,” Steve spoke softly, and Kevin hung his head.
“Where is it?” Steve turned to Danny with the same paternal air. Danny hesitated as he regarded his chastened little brother, and he swallowed hard as memories of last year rushed back on him. Steve’s demeanor, however, was one of no-nonsense and Danny dared not disobey. Resignedly, he approached the couch, and keeping his eyes on Kevin, he raised the blanket and produced the paddle, picking it up and clutching it tightly. Kevin was looking at him now, and at the sight of the paddle terror filled his eyes. Steve took hold of Kevin’s arm, anticipating his youngest brother’s desire to run. “Bring it here,” he commanded Danny firmly. Danny, however, was paralyzed by the look on his little brother’s face, and he remained where he was as Kevin’s friends reacted.
“No! No! Oh my God, No!” Alex pushed to get past Patrick, but Patrick kept him pinned against the wall and Alex turned resentful eyes on Danny. “How could you do this?” he screamed. “You’re his brother!”
“You’re a no good traitor!” James raged, nearly knocking Jesse over. Jesse, however, had the ultimate strength advantage this time and he hauled James back, gripping him by both his arms. “Let me go, Jess! Let me go! I’ll kill you!” he shouted at Danny and Ryan. “I’ll kill you both!”
“No! It’s not fair, Jess!” James continued to struggle. “It’s not fair! They told him this was a party!”
“They never told him that, James!”
“Yes, they did!” his little brother persisted stubbornly.
“No! Kevin came to that conclusion all on his own!”
“Well they sure as hell didn’t deny it!”
“They were not in a position to!” Jesse snapped as he lost what was left of his patience.
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” James demanded. “They totally set him up! God,” he choked, “they let him walk right into this!”
“They didn’t have a choice!” Jesse snarled. “You have no idea what you’re talking about, James! If you knew the first thing about what Danny and Ryan went through today, you would shut your mouth right now!”
“I don’t give a rat’s fuck what they went through today!” James struggled once more to break free.
“Drop it, James! I mean it!”
James, however, was done listening and he lowered his head, driving Jesse nearly into the far wall before Jesse managed to get him in a headlock. James spun around in an effort to free himself, but Jesse was in control now, and tears of frustration began to streak his little brother’s face. “Do it!” Jesse cried, facing Steve, and keeping James locked soundly in his vice like grip.
Steve nodded and prompted his younger brother once more, “Let’s go, Dan!” Danny swallowed hard again as he fought to control his emotions, but finally he obeyed. He approached Steve almost as apprehensively as Kevin had and held out the dreaded implement. Steve took it determinedly, meeting Danny’s eyes as he did so in an effort to reassure him. Danny hung his head, and Ryan came quietly up beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder.
Gripping the paddle resolutely, Steve returned his attention to Kevin. “Kev,” he addressed him sternly, “your lack of discipline is astonishing! Your shoddy effort, your arrogance, your obnoxious behavior and your unwillingness to accept advice or guidance even from those who have been where you are and know better has been a continual problem!” Ryan put his arm around Danny and Danny leaned closer. Both Kevin’s brothers knew how hard it was to face a scolding from Steve even in the privacy of their own rooms. Steve’s soft spoken and pointed rebukes did more to communicate his disappointment than the harsher words and more severe tone of any number of the other house leaders, and because all his little brothers looked up to him, his disappointment was devastating to them. Now Danny and Ryan sought solace from one another, feeling helpless as Steve tongue lashed their younger brother. Steve took in Danny and Ryan’s pale faces and shrinking demeanor with a sinking heart, but after a moment he continued. “You are truly incorrigible, Kevin!” he chastised. “I really do not think I’ve ever seen anything like your cockiness or stubbornness!” “I have,” an unknown voice goaded from somewhere amongst the scattered seniors, and a few of the older students snickered. Steve dropped his chin to his chest, smiling just a little as the familiar tones reached his ears. ‘How he had missed the owner of that voice,’ he thought wistfully and the next moment hot tears filled his eyes. He pinched the bridge of his nose, taking a deep breath as his throat tightened.
The Fraternity Files Page 5