Total pages in book: 171
Estimated words: 167204 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 836(@200wpm)___ 669(@250wpm)___ 557(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 167204 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 836(@200wpm)___ 669(@250wpm)___ 557(@300wpm)
Unfortunately, I sit next to Liam in this class, and since Killian made an ass of himself at the gas station, that is extremely awkward.
I must look as good as I feel today, though, because when class is over and everyone is about to leave, Liam takes his time packing his school bag and asks, “Everything all right?”
I nod, flashing him a quick manufactured smile. “Yeah, fine. I just didn’t get much sleep last night.”
Liam’s eyebrows rise ever so slightly, and it’s only after I say the words that I hear how they sound.
Grimacing, recalling Killian flashing the condoms when he slung his arm around my shoulders, I say, “Not like that.”
Liam offers a thin smile.
Lying is never my first impulse, but sometimes it’s where I end up to quickly explain away an awkward situation. I’m not great at it, but in a casual interaction like this, you don’t usually have to be. “Actually, I… was up late brainstorming with my friends. The Zetas,” I say, and though it’s a complete fiction, it brings me a little peace.
In a different version of my life, that could have been how I spent last night.
I got invited to join them after rush week and I moved into the big, beautiful Zeta mansion. I never went to the Rho Kappa Halloween party or met Killian or a single Blue Blood, and instead I spent my free time building my own sisterhood with a group of fun girls who probably have movie nights together and their own sense of family.
Like the Blue Bloods, but not scary, and much less murder.
Probably.
I don’t know what sorority girls get up to.
But I smile at my imaginary life, the one I didn’t qualify for.
It would have been nice.
“Oh yeah?” Liam asks, and I remember I was talking to him. “What are you guys brainstorming about?”
I shift my gaze back to his. “They’re hosting a fundraiser this weekend. I think it starts tomorrow night, actually. There’s an auction and the proceeds are benefiting the Rho Kappa guys since I’m sure you heard…”
His expression shifts in tone from picturing me hanging out with the hottest sorority on campus to moderated solemnity. “Oh, yeah. I heard about the fire.”
I nod with matching solemnity. “So the Zetas wanted to help out, and I have a couple of friends that are Zetas, so… I offered to help out, too.”
There’s a partial truth in there, at least.
“Well, that’s awesome of you,” he says, finally standing since I am.
The awkwardness returns when he praises me for my little fiction, but I’m on my way out of here, so I won’t have to live with it for very long.
“When is the auction? Is it at the sorority house? I’d love to come and show my support.”
“Do you have an iPhone?” I ask. “I can air drop you the flyer.”
“Or you can just text it to me,” he says, a touch playfully.
“I don’t have your phone number.”
“I can think of a way to remedy that.”
He still sounds playful, but my heart sinks a bit.
Noticing my hesitation, he says, “Unless your… boyfriend would have a problem with that.”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I say quickly, awkwardly, tucking a chunk of dark curls behind my ear as I make my way out of the classroom.
But he would have a problem with that.
I have a problem with some of the things he does, too, though, so I probably shouldn’t let that dictate my life.
I’m not interested in Liam outside of being classmates, but as I hand him my phone in the hall and watch him type his number into the new contact, I wonder if I would have been if I’d never met Killian. He was more my type before. Killian certainly wasn’t.
I’m not sure he is now, but I can’t deny missing him a little—even if he is a low-down dirty catnapper.
Thankfully, there’s no time to think about that. I have to get to my next science class, so I send Liam the flyer Vanessa sent me, and then, with a quick goodbye, I’m on my way.
___
In a strange turn of events, my lie comes true when Vanessa texts me asking if I want to drop by the Zeta house this evening to help them prep for the auction tomorrow.
I have studying to do, but I also have all weekend to do it, and since my conscience is a bit guilty from telling the lie in the first place, I tell her I’d love to.
I haven’t been to the Zeta house since rush week, and to be honest, I’d forgotten how it felt to stand in front of it. House is a misnomer; it’s a mansion.
There are two enormous columns on each side of the double entry doors, and the Greek letters representing the sorority hanging above them on the front of the house. Above the grand entry is a little fenced-in balcony overlooking the street—the only room with a balcony, I remember from my rush week tour. The presidential suite.