Chapter Two
I had two big pillows behind me as I stretched my legs out in Jay’s bed. Wearing one of Jay’s t-shirts and a pair of his boxers, I not only smelled like him, I was dressed like him, too. I eyed my legs, covered in bandages and my ankles wrapped in gauze. I touched the mass on my thigh gingerly. The normal dark copper coloring of my skin was discolored—red and swollen in some places, dark and bruised in others.
Looks like I’m wearing pants for the rest of the semester.
I heard his footsteps walking down the hall and I inhaled deeply. Holding it in, I locked away any of the remaining emotions that didn’t come out during my cry in the tub. I exhaled as he walked in.
Handing me a bottle of water, he sat on the side of the bed. “Talk to me, Brook.”
“Where to even start?” I was speaking more to myself than to him.
His eyes narrowed as if he questioned if I was going to tell him at all. “The beginning,” he snapped dryly.
I tried to let out a little laugh, but I winced instead.
My ribs hurt. The pain medicine hadn’t quite kicked in yet. I was so concerned with how bad my legs looked and how bad my feet hurt; I didn’t even remember my ribs were giving me issues. I sighed.
“You’re going to be fine,” Jay promised, reaching out for my hand.
I squeezed his hand back before letting it drop. “Even though Carter’s different, living with her this last month has been nice. We weren’t friends again, but at least we were friendly.” I paused. “But living in that house has been a challenge.”
He nodded sympathetically.
“Things in the house started off rocky. I thought it got a little better though because they stopped giving me the cold shoulder. For the first time, when an impromptu pep squad meeting was called last week, I was actually included on the group text. Usually Dakota and her minions would conveniently forget to text me and Kim. Once Carter saw we weren’t there, she’d text us. But we were already late and missed half of the—”
Jay stifled a yawn as he interrupted, “What does this have to do with the bruises? I already know that Dakota is the head cheerleader from hell. I don’t give a damn about her. I need to know what happened to you.”
“It goes with the story, I promise.”
Stretching out across the foot of his bed, Jay got comfortable as he nodded for me to continue.
“At the meeting, Dakota talked about unity and bringing the team together. She said she wanted the new girls to fit in and for us all to be one,” I mimicked the bleached blonde’s high-pitched voice. I closed my eyes and shook my head. “She laid it on thick, too. And from that point forward, everyone was friendly to me and Kim. It felt fake from most of them, but it was better than how we were being treated prior to.” I gave a slight shrug. “So, at the next meeting, a couple of days ago, we all went, and everything was cool. Dakota said that Pi Rho Omicron pranked our house so as a bonding activity, we were going to prank them back. We were all given a job. My job was to distract one of the guys. Kim was doing the same thing.”
He gave me a look. “Distract them how?”
I rolled my eyes. “You know good and damn well I don’t have sex with men I don’t have real feelings for—especially not in some frat house. What do you take me for?”
He held up his hands. “I didn’t say sex. You did.”
“Do you want to hear my story or not?”
He gave me a smile. “Yes. Please. Continue.”
“So anyway,” I started again, playfully glaring at him. “We were supposed to just make sure they stayed on the first floor by playing a game, telling a story, anything.”
“What did you end up doing?”
“Talked. Had a conversation.” I curled my lip and had I not been in pain, I would’ve thrown a pillow at him. “But I know what you’re insinuating.”
“I’m not insinuating anything.” A smile played on his lips and I knew what he was thinking. Before I could continue my story, he added under his breath. “But you do have a thing for the PROs.”
“Oh my God… I went on one date with that Matt guy over a year ago!” Despite my indignant tone, I felt my lips curling into a small smile.
“Matt last year. Aiden Black this year…”
I rolled my eyes, but my lips tugged upward even more definitively. Just hearing Jay say Aiden’s name made my skin flush.
“PROs are assholes and you’re way too good for them.” Jay held my gaze for a long, contemplative moment. “But it’s good to see a smile on your face.”
Jay didn’t have a problem with all the fraternities on campus, but he hated the PROs. From the beginning of our college career, he’d said they embodied everything that was wrong with our society—spoiled, entitled rich kids who were never held accountable for their actions.
And he wasn’t wrong.
The fraternity had about thirty-two members and each of their parents were worth millions of dollars. Some of them entered campus as condescending and pompous jerks, but some of them only became that way once they joined with their PRO brothers. And together, it was as if they were untouchable because the administration allowed them to get away with expellable offenses since PRO parents accounted for eighty-seven percent of university donations.
But while most of the PROs lived up to the reputation, not all of them were bad guys. Matt was one of the nice ones. We just didn’t have any chemistry. And Aiden wasn’t a bad guy.
