The Fraternity Files

by Stephanie Joeline Kerfoot

  -Charles Dickens

  Jesse and Sean turned the campus upside down, looking for Danny and Ryan’s younger brother. They checked all his regular haunts: the football field, the weight room, the sorority house where the cheerleaders lived, the coffee shop. They even went back to the bookstore, but by four o’clock they had still had no luck, and, discouraged, they decided they better get back to the house. They could only hope that Kevin was there and that Gregg’s search had been as fruitless as theirs. They were sure he would not have tried so hard.

  After checking Kevin’s room one more time, they headed back downstairs to stake out the house’s main entrance; if Kevin showed up, they didn’t want to miss him. They slumped into the common room to find Andy and Pat sitting apprehensively at the table, each with a pile of new books before them. They were, for the moment, the only ones there. Sean and Jesse avoided their eyes as they flopped into two comfy, overstuffed chairs near the door, but Patrick and Andy both turned white as they looked at their friends’ faces.

  “It’s true?” Andy finally ventured in a small voice. Sean looked wearily at him and nodded.

  “Let me guess,” Jesse remonstrated bitterly, “Mcarthy told you.”

  “How did that fucking blabber mouth even find out?” Pat demanded angrily, and Andy sighed.

  “Gregg’s been waiting for this day for nearly a month now. I’m sure he has spies everywhere. I was sure hoping he was wrong, though.”

  Sean shook his head. “I was with Ryan when he checked his mail this morning,” he said softly. “I saw both slips.” Andy sank lower in his chair, and leaned on the table, propping his forehead against his hand.

  “Damn it!” Pat protested. “Why now?”

  “I don’t know,” Sean whispered.

  “I’m sure Mcarthy’s been riding Steve about it,” Andy speculated darkly, “but still! I mean if you’re going to do it, do it, but to wait to the last week of the semester? That’s bullshit! He’s totally blindsiding them!”

  “I don’t think so,” Sean replied quietly. “He’s blindsiding us for sure, but I think Danny and Ryan were not quite so surprised. I’m sure Steve and Ry have been talking about it. It makes sense, kind of. I know they didn’t want anymore problems from Coach. Plus, there’s a whole month between now and next semester for everyone to forget about it.”

  “I don’t care what his reasons were!” Andrew seethed. “It’s still bullshit! Why isn’t Mcarthy getting a summons?”

  “You know Matt already handled that,” Sean defended Steve softly.

  “Well, it’s not the same, and I don’t think it’s fair either!” Patrick sulked, and an awkward silence fell.

  “We’ve been looking for Kevin,” Sean finally continued, changing the subject. “You guys haven’t seen him have you?”

  “Fuck!” Patrick exclaimed. “He doesn’t know, does he?” Jesse and Sean shook their heads.

  “Not unless Mcarthy found him,” Jesse added sullenly.

  “Ryan and Danny never told him what happened?” Andy asked. Sean shook his head, despondently.

  “I don’t think they wanted him to know. We were all hoping Steve would just forget about it.”

  “How stupid were we?” Jesse piped up once more with his cheery perspective. “Mcarthy’s probably been badgering Steve about it everyday between then and now.”

  “Speaking of the devil,” Patrick scowled. His friends turned their heads, and followed his gaze to see Gregg Mcarthy’s gloating face as he stood in the doorway of the common room.

  “Keep him away from me!” Jesse muttered, turning around once again, and glaring balefully at the floor.

  “Well, well, isn’t this a quaint little gathering,” Gregg baited as he came further into the room with his little band of no goods behind him. “What? No Kev’bo?” He came up and placed a hand on Jesse’s shoulder, and Jesse jerked it away, looking at Sean as Sean glowered at their adversary. “Surely, you invited him,” Gregg sat down in a chair next to Jesse and kicked back, smugly, placing his feet on the coffee table in front of them. “I know you would want him to be aware of all this before it went down. It would, after all, be a rather nasty surprise, don’t you think?” Gregg taunted and his friends laughed as they spread out around the common room. Some of them sat at the table across from Andy and Pat, smirking at them as Gregg continued. “You’d want to be there to support him, soothe him, tell him how it’s not his fault, and basically blow sunshine up his ass.” Gregg traded amused glances with his allies as Danny and Ryan’s friends shifted uncomfortably. “You’d want to keep him away from Ryan and Danny,” Gregg went on, “so they could go to some little corner somewhere and cry like the little bitches they are, in peace, without their little brother nagging at them.” Sean’s face flushed, and Andy’s brow darkened. Jesse and Pat gritted their teeth, and Gregg once again paused to enjoy the moment. “Most of all,” he continued at last, “you’d want to keep me from finding him because you know I’d tell that whiney little shit exactly how it is: how his brothers deserve every painful smack they get today, and how it’s all his fault for being such a spoiled little brat!” Jesse sat forward in his chair, gripping the arms.

  “Take it easy, Jess,” Sean warned.

  “For all these reasons,” Gregg focused entirely on Jesse now, “I know you told him. Unless,” he let his feet drop, and sat forward again, getting right in Jesse’s face. Jesse dug his nails into the cushions and tried to avert his eyes, looking for Sean once more. Sean and Andy were both sitting straight up now and frowning at Gregg in a menacing manner. “Unless,” Gregg continued, “you couldn’t find him.” He smirked again. “That means he’s still fair game!”

  Gregg’s friends tried to sign a warning, but they were not fast enough. Nobody had heard Matt come in, and Gregg never knew what hit him as Steve’s big brother yanked him out of his chair by his collar and threw him against the wall, pinning him there. “You are a real horse’s ass! You know that?” he snapped. “You apparently don’t remember the talk we had three weeks ago, so let me refresh your memory! There will be no more warnings, Gregg. You think you’re such hot shit, always picking on little guys, but you just keep in mind that the rules are not the same for me as they are for them! If I were Steve, I would have worn your ass out a long time ago, but he’s got too big a heart and an unshakeable propensity for fairness. I’ve got neither, asshole, and I’m telling you now, if you mess with Danny, Ryan, Kevin, or any one of their friends just one more time in the littlest, tiniest way, you are going to be hearing from me! Do you understand?” Gregg swallowed hard and nodded. “Good!” Matt let him go, and Gregg brought his hand up to rub the red mark on his neck. “That goes for all you jokers!” Steve’s brother glared at each of Gregg’s friends in turn. “Consider yourselves forewarned and leave these guys alone today, unless you want the tables to turn!” With that, Matt stalked out of the room and continued up the stairs to Steve’s room.

  Now, it was Danny and Ryan’s friends who couldn’t help smiling just a little lopsidedly as Gregg and his cronies retired to the far corner of the room, where they could bitch about Matt without being detected. “I wish Danny and Ryan had been here to see that,” Patrick asserted wistfully.

  “I wish I had a damn video camera!” Jesse remarked sardonically. Sean looked at Andy, but looked quickly away again as they both tried to keep a straight face. Jesse, Danny, Kevin, and Kevin’s best friend, James, were all arguably in the running for the world’s original drama king, but in his big brother’s opinion, given the chance, Jesse would lock it up nicely.

  Nobody paid much attention as Matt entered Steve’s room. Not long after that, however, they heard his door open again, and Steve’s friends, Kurt and Mike, peered irately down from the railing above. “You need a babysitter, Mcarthy?” Kurt called. Gregg flushed and muttered something under his breath as Mike closed Steve’s door, and the two seniors headed for the stairs. A moment later they appeared in the common room.


  “Are you all right?” Kurt came up beside Jesse, and put a hand on his shoulder.

  “Yeah, I’m ok, I guess,” Jesse replied gloomily, and Kurt dropped into the chair beside him that Gregg had so unwillingly vacated. Without a word, Mike sat too as he glared in Gregg’s direction.

  File Four

  Anticipation

  "There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it." -Alfred Hitchcock

  “The public has more interest in the punishment of an injury than he who receives it.”

  -Cato the Censor

  It was four forty-five now, and still there had been no sign of any of Steve’s brothers, but the common room was starting to fill up. “What the hell is going on?” Patrick whispered in dismay as he and Andy brought their chairs closer to their four friends. “Why aren’t they all at dinner?”

  “Human nature,” Jesse growled. “Where else would they be after Mcarthy told them all?”

  “So much for Steve’s brilliant plan,” Kurt remarked quietly, exchanging glances with Mike.

  “What plan?” Pat questioned sourly.

  “Well, I mean, you don’t think Steve wants to do this, do you?” Mike too was becoming agitated as the room continued to fill. “He wanted to make things as easy as possible on Danny and Ryan, so he chose five o’clock because he assumed everyone would be at dinner.” People were looking and whispering now, intrigued especially by Kurt and Mike’s presence among Danny and Ryan’s friends. Nothing could have confirmed the rumors Gregg had been spreading, faster. Seniors, particularly friends of the president, did not mix so openly with underclassmen unless there was an occasion of some sort. To see Kurt and Mike with their little brothers, Sean and Andrew, wasn’t so unusual, but for Jesse and Pat to be with them too? That was practically unheard of. “He’s going to have a fucking hissy fit when he finds out about this,” Mike added with a nervous glance at all the activity.

  People opened new books, fresh from the campus store, as he looked their way, lowering their heads, and pretending to be hard at work. “That’s the understatement of the year!” Kurt agreed. “Is this really because of Mcarthy?” Jesse and Sean nodded glumly and recounted their run-in with Gregg.

  “That sorry son of a bitch!” Mike fumed, meeting Kurt’s eyes again. Kurt threw another smoldering glance in Gregg’s direction, but Gregg was looking quite pleased with himself again now, and he did not acknowledge Kurt’s silent threat, if he even saw it. Instead his grin widened and he looked up over all their shoulders.

  “Hey Kev’bo!” he greeted, and with a collective feeling of dread all six of Ryan and Danny’s friends turned their heads in the direction of the door. Kevin swallowed as all eyes turned toward him and the din of the common room began to die. He had been standing there, unnoticed, scanning the room for his brothers for at least a couple of minutes. He had not approached their friends because he did not like the feeling he got as he surveyed the room. Now his anxiety increased still more. The last time people had behaved like this around him, he had gotten his ass beat, but good.

  “Has anyone seen Danny and Ryan?” he questioned tentatively, focusing particularly on the little group sitting closest to him.

  Gregg snorted, and Kurt narrowed his eyes at him. “Not one word!” he hissed. “Not one single word!” Gregg raised his hands in a gesture of protest and assumed his best look of injured innocence. He then sat back, crossed his arms on his chest, and once again traded looks of amusement with his closest friends.

  “What’s going on?” Kevin asked. After all, he wasn’t stupid. Jesse put his head in his hands as Pat and Andy traded nervous glances. Sean gnawed at his lip, and looked at his five allies, but none of them looked back, and finally he looked again at Kevin.

  “Nothing,” he answered him softly. “Nothing’s going on, Kev. What did you need from Danny and Ryan?”

  “I was just hoping Danny could help me with my history project,” Kevin replied timidly, his stomach turning. Something was definitely not right. Sean cursed under his breath and looked at Jesse. Jesse met his eyes and shook his head as he in turn bit hard on his lip. “Fucking unbelievable!” he muttered. It was the one place they had not looked, and where Kevin had most assuredly been, the library. They were just not used yet to the golden boy reputation Kevin was fast acquiring. It had, after all, been less than a month since he was the party king.

  “Why don’t you bring it here,” Sean encouraged, at last. “I bet Jess and I could help you.”

  “But Danny’s the History major,” Kevin protested and Gregg Mcarthy snickered again.

  “Yeah, Sean, Danny’s the History major!”

  “Shut it!” Sean turned on him, unable to contain himself any longer.

  “You know what, never mind,” Kevin backed away.

  “See you later, Kevie!” Gregg called brightly. “Hey, why don’t you ask Steve where your brothers are?”

  “You asshole!” Mike fumed, and Kevin gave them both a funny look.

  “Yeah, I’ll do that,” he replied, turning towards the stairs.

  “No!” all of his brothers’ friends exclaimed together. Kevin returned once more to the door of the common room, all his anxiety written clearly on his face now, as Kurt and Mike stood up to confront Gregg.

  “You,” Kurt pointed his finger at him, “are going to get your ass beat!”

  “What the hell is going on?” Kevin shouted in distress.

  “What’s the matter, Kev’bo?” The tired sounding voice in the hallway made everybody freeze.

  “I don’t know!” Kevin answered his brother in exasperation. “They won’t tell me!”

  Mike sank back into his chair and brought his hand to his eyes. “Fuck,” he muttered under his breath.

  “Oh, yeah!” Gregg sneered. “It’s show time!”

  “Your day is coming, asshole!” Kurt clenched his fist tightly, but as Danny and Ryan appeared behind their brother, he too sat down again, propping his head on his hand, and closing his eyes.

  Sean looked quickly at the floor, and Jesse bit his lip, reddening, as their two best friends looked their way. Andrew colored too, and Patrick dodged Danny’s eyes.

  “Mary, mother of God,” Ryan breathed as they surveyed the scene in the common room. Danny turned ashen and Ryan’s hand went to his shoulder.

  “Where have you two been?” Kevin asked, turning to look at them. “I’ve been searching for you everywhere!” He paused as he caught sight of their wan complexions. “God, are you guys all right?” he asked.

  “Yeah, Bro, we’re ok,” Ryan assured him quietly. “We just had some things we needed to take care of.”

  “Yeah, Right. ‘Things,’” Gregg snickered. His friends laughed with him, while Danny and Ryan’s friends clenched their teeth and glowered in their direction.

  Ryan and Danny ignored them all. “What did you need, Kev?” Danny inquired softly. “Is it something that will wait?”

  “I guess,” Kevin replied uncertainly, his former anxiety creeping back into his voice as he regarded his brothers. “I just wanted some help with my History project. I thought maybe we could talk about it at dinner.” Jesse

  and Sean came quietly up beside them now and Danny and Ryan looked away.

  “We’ll help you, Kev’bo.” Sean carefully focused his attention on Danny’s younger brother as he repeated his previous offer. “Why don’t you go get it, so we can see what we’re working with?”

  “I have it,” Kevin protested, pulling the crinkled syllabus from his pocket, “but I wanted Danny to help me.”

  “I can’t, Bro,” Danny replied gently, and Ryan tightened his grip on his brother’s shoulder, “not right now.”

  “Why not?” Kevin’s disappointment was evident and it cut his brother sharply.

  “I just can’t, Kev,” he looked away again, struggling to maintain his composure. Kevin hung his head, and the expression on his face, when Danny looked back at him, was more than his big
brother could bear. “Here, let me see it, Kid,” he said softly, holding out his hand. His voice was tight with emotion.

  “Danny, come on, man,” Ryan urged him uneasily.

  “I just want to look at it!” Danny snapped, and Ryan squeezed his shoulder again. He knew how hard it was for his brother to deny Kevin this kind of request.

  “Won’t you guys tell me what’s going on?” Kevin pleaded, the paper forgotten as tears filled his eyes.

  “It’s nothing, Kev, it’s nothing,” Danny tried to reassure, “let me see,” he indicated the paper again, and doubtfully, Kevin handed it to him. Danny opened it up, and tried to smooth out the wrinkles, glancing over it as he did. Finally he looked up at Jesse. The two friends shared a long look and tears welled in Danny’s eyes too, now, as he looked back at Kevin. “Jess should be able to help you with this,” he said softly. “We did the same thing last year.”

  “But I want you!” Kevin’s anxiety increased as he saw his brother’s tears. “Why can’t you help me?”

  “I can’t do it, right now, Kev’bo,” Danny said again, trying his best to remain calm. “Let Jess get you started and I’ll help you later, ok?”

  “But why?” Kevin’s agitation was mounting by the minute and Danny pressed his fingers to his eyes. Ryan hung his arm lower over his little brother’s chest and pulled him against him.

  “We’ve got to go now, Bro,” he whispered in his ear. “We are going to be in big trouble if we keep them waiting any longer.” Danny swallowed, and nodded, looking at Kevin one more time through blurred eyes as Ryan maneuvered him towards the stairs.

  “Wait!” Kevin followed them, putting his hand on Ryan’s arm. “Where are you guys going?”

  Ryan’s face flushed, and he bit his lip. “We have to go talk to Steve, Kevin,” he replied tensely. Danny stood before his brother on the very first step, still in his protective embrace, and now he covered his face with his hand.