“See? All gone. Now no more thinking of that dick face, unless you’re going to give me permission to do a little dick-punching.”
My roommate’s thin shoulders shook with laughter. “You and dick-punching. I never knew it was a thing.”
“Oh, it’s definitely a thing.”
The weekend passed without any other incidents. My parents didn’t try to call. They left me alone, which was good. I needed space anyways. I couldn’t…I couldn’t handle it right now. I still needed time to process. Might’ve been childish of me, but everyone processed things differently. People were all different; that’s what made the world such an interesting place.
Or a terrible place. It all really depended on how you looked at it.
Chapter Thirteen – Levi
The days after that party were long, terribly slow. I didn’t realize how slowly time passed until after I was with Kelsey. Foolishly I thought being with her might snap me out of whatever hole I’d fallen into when it came to her, but I was wrong. I fucking dreamt of her.
That was…definitely new territory for me.
It was late Sunday night when Dean found me in the kitchen of the house, giving me a sleazy smile that I wished I didn’t see. “So, heard you nailed someone at the party. Who’d you get?” He knew better than to ask me; I’d told him I didn’t want to be a part of their sick games anymore.
I was waiting for the oven to beep, to tell me that my food was done, and the last thing I wanted to do was talk to this dipshit. “It’s none of your business,” I told him, meaning it. I wanted him to drop it, to leave it at that.
“Jordan said he saw you heading upstairs with a brown-haired girl,” Dean went on, refusing to drop it. “That wouldn’t be Mel’s roommate, Kelsey, would it? Did you fuck Mel’s roommate too?”
My stare turned icy. This was not a conversation I wanted to have—
Wait. Roommate?
Kelsey was Mel’s roommate?
I must’ve looked stupid, for Dean laughed. “Man, don’t tell me you didn’t know? Aw, shit. That’s priceless. It really is.” He turned his back, hopping up and sliding his ass on the counter; the new position made him taller than me. “I don’t blame you. Kelsey’s pretty, and her rack—”
“Shut up,” I muttered, frowning.
Kelsey was Mel’s roommate? Had Kelsey mentioned me to Mel? Mel had a lot of shit going on with Dean, but she also had a bit of shit because of me. I was not innocent in what happened last year.
“I wonder if Kelsey knows what you did to Mel?” Dean spoke aloud.
My blood boiled. If I could’ve beaten the shit out of him right then and there, I would have, but the other guys in the house would have his back. Bros before hoes and all that shit. “I only did what you made me,” I said. Not just what Dean made me. If it was just Dean, I would’ve said fuck it. It was this fraternity. It was tainted black, a dark underbelly of SCC no one talked about.
“It’d be a shame if Kelsey found out, wouldn’t it?” Dean posed the question, noting that my hands had clenched to fists. “I want Mel back,” he said, even though I knew for a fact he’d been with another girl over the weekend. Maybe even more than one. “Convince Kelsey to tell Mel to take me back.”
I had no idea why Dean thought Kelsey could convince Mel of anything, especially after what he did—and surely what he’d do again. I also had no idea why the bastard wanted me to talk to Kelsey about it. Bad blood rested between Dean and I, and it wasn’t like I could ever bring Dean up in a normal, everyday conversation with Kelsey.
“Fuck off,” I told him, giving him my back as the oven dinged.
“Careful, Levi,” Dean said, hopping off the counter. I knew he glared hard at the back of my head. “You know I could ruin you if I wanted to.” He said nothing else, leaving the kitchen, leaving me furious.
I had no idea how the hell Dean could possibly ruin me, but I knew better than to assume he was full of shit. Dean didn’t make threats unless he could follow up, and apparently he had some dirt on me.
Had to be from what happened last year. Had to be because of what this fraternity made me do.
I used that as an excuse, of course, but no one really made me do anything, which was probably why I currently felt so enraged about it. I just wanted to forget last year, pretend what happened simply didn’t happen. Easy enough. If you ignored the elephant in the room, it didn’t exist, right?
Wrong.
What happened last year would always weigh on my mind. I felt responsible, and that’s because I was, even if I was just the gun Dean had used to point and shoot at Mel. A way to get back at her for what she did—and all she’d done was break up with him when she found out what he’d done to stay a member of Sigma Chi.
Sigma Chi was a fucking bigoted mess, and its members were constantly trying to one-up each other. If, by the end of your first year, you didn’t fuck who they wanted you to fuck, you were out. Of course, there were other terms they used when kicking you out so the president of SCC didn’t get involved. No one outside of the fraternity knew about it, either. It wasn’t really hazing, but that’s what it was.
Though Dean had been dating Mel at the time, his hazing involved fucking another girl and bringing back her used underwear as a trophy. He didn’t stop, though. Dean kept going, fucking
