11. Ian
11
IAN
The weather was perfect on Tuesday evening when Bennett invited us up to his room. The balcony had a spectacular view. Lights twinkled in the houses at the base of the mountains in the distance.
I sat on a lounge chair, my legs spread out in front of me. Theo was on my left, and Matt on my right. Bennett and Grant were in the middle, and our buddy Dave was at the end, sitting at a little patio table. He was interning in Chicago, but he’d flown down to help plan our first party of the summer. He was officially the social chair, but everyone just called him the party guy.
“Anyone need anything else to drink?” Bennett asked. “I can get the girl to bring it up.”
The girl. Bennett was really getting off on having a pretty young woman to order around. He wasn’t like this with the staff we hired during the spring and fall semesters.
“I’m good. I’ve got an early flight tomorrow,” Dave said, but the rest of us put in our orders, and Bennett texted Hailey. Dave got up and stood in front of the railing, blocking the view. “Shouldn’t Nelson be here?”
I grinned. “Do you really want him here?”
“We’ll probably cover more ground without him,” Grant said. “Unless you need him to hook us up with a dealer for Friday.”
Fortunately, Grant was kidding. We did skirt some laws here, more than I was comfortable with, but we didn’t take it that far. Besides, as far as I knew, Nelson wasn’t into anything stronger than weed.
We discussed business for a while in the cool night air. Parties didn’t interest me. Nor, in truth, had being in a fraternity, at least not at first. But my best friends were here. I owed everything to Theo and Grant. Bennett too, to some extent, but I wasn’t as tight with him. He’d been a year ahead of us in our private high school outside of Washington, DC, and he always struck me as cold and aloof. But when I met Theo and Grant, who’d been friends since childhood, I knew I'd found my people.
Hailey appeared, stepping tentatively through the open sliding glass door and out here with us. She held a very full tray of drinks and carefully set it down on the little table. Then she popped the caps off the bottles, one by one, and handed them out.
I’d gone with a pale ale that I liked, and I smiled at her when she handed it to me.
Hailey gave the last beer to Theo, giving him a smile as she did so. She turned to go, but the spectacular view caught her attention. She moved to the railing, running her hands along it. The evening breeze made her hair flutter. She was looking at the view, but more than one of my buddies were looking at her.
Bennett cleared his throat. “You can’t stay here. This balcony is for fraternity brothers only.”
“Or the women they bring up here to fuck,” Grant said. He was on the third bottle of that weird beer he liked, but that wasn’t an excuse to be so crass.
“Jesus, Grant,” Theo said. He was our friend, but that didn’t mean we agreed with everything he did. Although, what he’d said wasn’t exactly untrue.
Hailey’s cheeks turned pink, and she hurried back to the table to gather her tray. But before she could leave, Dave called her name.
“Hang on a minute. We have to talk about Friday. You’re going to be working at the bar, right?”
She nodded. We’d introduced her to Dave the first time she brought us drinks, but she didn’t know him, and she seemed as shy as a girl on her first date.
“Let’s talk about your outfit for the party. Bennett said you had some kind of special costume?” Hailey’s jaw dropped, and she started stammering. I couldn’t even make out what she was saying.
“What costume?” Matt asked. Next to me, Theo put a hand to his forehead and shook his head.
“She’ll be wearing a French maid costume at the party,” Bennett said.
“She’ll what?” I asked sharply. He had to be fucking kidding.
“Why not?” Bennett said. “She’ll be serving drinks, why shouldn’t she dress for the occasion?” He glanced over at Hailey, whose face had gone white. “Not everyone wants their drinks served by a girl in an old t-shirt and shorts.”
Hailey was shaking her head. “I can’t do that.”
“It’s not your call, it’s Dave’s,” said Bennett, but we all knew who really ran the show here.
I couldn’t stay silent any longer. “What the hell, Bennett? Are you trying to get her sexually harassed? Because that seems like the quickest way to do it.”
“If she can’t handle drunk guys at a party, she’s definitely in the wrong job.”
Theo cursed under his breath. “She didn’t sign on to be a sacrificial lamb.”
Dave tried to regain control of the conversation. “Look, Hailey, we don’t want you to be uncomfortable, but our parties have a certain reputation. Bennett’s right, you can’t attend looking like that.” Dave liked to party as much as the next man, but he wasn’t a bad guy at heart. I didn’t know if Hailey would agree with that, though, until we found out what he would say next.
“You have to wear a dress, obviously,” he said.
“A short dress,” Bennett added. “Not a tent or something that makes you look like a grandmother.”
“Agreed,” said Dave, as if he had signed on to be Hailey’s legal representation.
Hailey had her back to the railing and her arms across her chest. She might have meant to look stern but all she really looked was cold.
It wasn’t right. She didn’t deserve to be in the situation.
“And high heels,” Bennett added.
“And makeup,” Grant said. He shrugged when I glared at him. “What? They’re right, we do have a reputation to uphold.” He seemed to be confusing notoriety with reputation.
“I don’t have a dress like that,” Hailey said softly.
“I already found you the perfect one, but you refused to wear it,” Bennett said. Had he really gotten her a French maid costume? I slanted my eyes at Theo, who nodded. Did everyone know about that except me?
Ignoring Bennett, I addressed Hailey. “Do you have a friend you can borrow one from?”
She thought it over for a moment. “Yes, I guess so”
“Is she single?” Dave asked and we laughed.
Hailey fidgeted nervously and took a step forward. She looked like a scared little lamb among the wolves. “I’m really not sure I should be at your party. I took this job to cook and clean. I don’t know anything about mixing or serving drinks.”
“This is part of the job,” Bennett said.
“And we can help you,” Theo said. I assumed he meant about serving drinks, not the dress. Then he threw me to the wolves, too. “Ian worked the bar a lot when he was a pledge. He can help you out.”
Great. I hadn’t even planned on making more than a quick appearance at the party and now I’d be working it. But the look on Hailey’s face, like I’d just thrown her a life preserver, made it impossible to object. “Sure.”
That erased some of the tension in her posture, but not all. We all knew that she wasn’t the type of girl to go to frat parties, and yet when Bennett decided something, it usually happened. I didn’t have to like it, though.
Hailey waited a few more seconds, glancing around the balcony, as if waiting to see if more bad news was heading her way. When no one said anything else, she picked up her tray and escaped into the suite.
I tried again. “Maybe it’s not the best idea to have her working the bar. She’s not twenty-one yet, is she?”
Theo shook his head. “She’s twenty.”
Bennett dismissed that. “That’s what lawyers are for.” But we all knew we weren’t likely to be challenged. Both on campus and off, people knew that the Forsythe family wasn’t to be messed with. And those who tried usually regretted it.
The conversation grew less contentious as the night wore on. Everyone out here was my brother, and I was linked to them all. And friends with them all, more or less. The purpose of a fraternity wasn’t that we’d all be carbon copies of each other. We were very different people, but I’d learned to get along with everyone. Even Bennett, at least when he wasn’t on a power trip. Which seemed to be happening more often these days.
Eventually, I knew I had to get back to my room to hit the books. Everyone groaned when I stood up. I was almost always the first person to leave. But I didn’t have the family connections the others did. I had to work my ass off, and deep down, they knew it.
I jogged down the stairs and did a double take when I saw Hailey on the landing, skulking in the corner. What was she doing here?
“Hi,” she said.
“What’s up?”
“Um, thanks for what you said out there. For standing up for me.” She looked down, her dark eyelashes brushing against her cheeks, and I felt guilty I hadn’t done more. But at least I could look out for her at the party.
“Anytime.” It was an automatic response, but it was rather depressing how frequently things like this might happen to her before the summer was over.
“Can I ask you something?” she said, proving that she could.
“Sure.” I was curious what she wanted. Maybe a way out of her bartending duties at the party? I couldn’t blame her for that. Or maybe to ask me to try to get the other guys to lay off her? Theo had told me how badly Bennett and Grant treated her, but to be honest, I hadn’t really noticed until tonight. My mind was pretty much always on my coursework, whether I was in class or out of it.
That seemed like a copout, now. So far, I’d only done the bare minimum for her, and that wasn’t enough. “What do you want to know?”
She hesitated. “That new guy—um, I mean, he’s not new, but I hadn’t met him before. Dave. Does he have one of the rooms up on the third floor, the ones over mine?”
That was the last thing I’d expected her to inquire about, but I shook my head. “No. His room is down by Theo’s.”
“Thank you,” she said, a smile spreading across her face.
I hadn’t the slightest clue what she was smiling about, but she sure looked pretty when she did.
The bass from the speakers thumped so hard I could feel it in my chest. The place was packed shoulder to shoulder with bodies moving, swaying, and grinding under the dim, multicolored lights we’d rigged up earlier. It made me feel claustrophobic, even though the bar was between me and the partiers.
I filled one red cup after another. It had been a long time since I had manned the handheld draft nozzle, but muscle memory had taken over when the lines got long.
A shriek from the corner alarmed me, but it quickly became apparent it was a shriek of pleasure. A couple had their hands all over each other in a way that should probably have been saved for a bedroom—just hopefully not mine.
The crowd surged toward the center of the room, where some guy—I think it was Brad—was doing a handstand on a keg, egged on by cheers and shouts. On the far side of the room, a group of girls had climbed onto the coffee table and were dancing like they didn’t care if it broke under them. One of them had neon bracelets on her wrists that flashed every time she threw her hands up. That particular movement also made the skimpy crop top she wore rise up, and there was a crowd of drunken guys following her every move.
Classy.
I didn’t know what made me look over to the left, but there was a pretty girl, her dark eyes flashing, who was trying to skirt around the crowd. She kept getting bumped into by frat brothers—whether from Rho Kappa Alpha or elsewhere—who weren’t paying attention. If they had been, they would’ve been all over her.
Her little black dress had a halter top, which was basically two wide strips that rose up from the high waist and covered her breasts while still leaving ample room for her cleavage to peek through. The halter straps tied behind her neck, and I sincerely hoped they were tied tightly. Or that they’d been reinforced by a stapler or a padlock or something. She was a brave girl.
And likely a thirsty one, since she was headed this way. Her full lips pursed together as she picked her way around the remaining partiers. It couldn’t have been easy to navigate the crowd in those high heels. She?—
Oh shit. It was Hailey.
She was breathless when she arrived, and I stepped back to allow her behind the bar, where she’d be safer, but not entirely safe. What the hell had Bennett been thinking, telling her to dress like that?
Not that she didn’t look hot as fuck. Her hair was up in a loose and sexy updo. It reminded me of the way a woman looked when she woke up after a long night of enthusiastic sex.
“Sorry I’m late,” she shouted above the music. I almost laughed. She was apologizing for not delivering herself to this hellish gathering earlier? We were the ones who should be apologizing to her for putting her through this.
“It’s fine,” I said, bending down so she could hear me. “And you look amazing.” She was definitely going to get a ton of compliments from men tonight—some sincere, some suggestive, and some worse, but I couldn’t help telling her how good she looked.
She blushed, looking down at the slinky little dress. “Thank you. I borrowed this from my friend Naomi. I’ve never been to a frat party before. She said to dress like I would for a nightclub, but I’ve never been in one of those, either.”
I handed out bottles of beer to the greedy hands that reached for them and mentally gave myself a stern talking to. I was here to protect this girl, not ogle her. But damn, she looked good.
Why the hell had she followed Bennett’s instructions to the letter? He was going to cum in his pants when he saw her. And now he was going to think that he was entitled to make other sexist demands of her.
Theo was right, I did need to pay more attention to what was happening under my own roof. Of course, when I had an exam coming up, I barely knew what was happening under my own nose. But that was no excuse.
Hailey dove in, popping off bottle caps like a pro as she handed out beer. Maybe I wasn’t going to have to teach her that much. Anyone could work the nozzle for the draft beer, and it was kind of fun.
But then two guys from a neighboring frat made their way over to the bar. Their eyes practically popped out of their heads when they saw Hailey.
“Can you work at our party next week?” The dude’s question was for Hailey, but his eyes were on her cleavage.
“Why wait until next week?” his buddy asked. “She can come over anytime.”
Hailey’s cheeks turned red, and she ducked her head to find the IPA they’d asked for. I couldn’t tell if she grabbed the right one, but I didn’t think her admirers would care. Or even notice, judging from the alcohol fumes radiating from them. Then three giggling girls approached the bar. Ignoring Hailey, they made a beeline straight for me.
When I was done getting their drinks, I caught Hailey looking around the room with wide eyes. There was movement everywhere as people danced, jumped, and swayed to the deafening music.
Her jaw dropped, those perfect pink lips forming a circle as she looked off to the right. I followed her gaze to see what had surprised her.
It was Grant. I should’ve known. He was so tall that his head was visible above the dancers. But when there was a break in the crowd, I could see the two women who were grinding against him. One was smashing her breasts against his chest, and the other was attempting to twerk, rubbing her ass against him, but she kept turning to hang on his arm and say things into his ear that made him grin.
Hailey watched, mesmerized, as if she had never seen anything like that before. Probably she hadn’t. Those girls were hungry, and they wanted Grant. They were practically climbing their way up his tall body. And he was in his element. Here he was free to be the carefree frat boy persona he often projected. Only a few of us, Theo included, knew there was more to him than that.
But not tonight. He was in party mode.
A guy in a cowboy hat came up, touched the rim of his hat, and ordered a drink from Hailey. She finally pulled her gaze away from Grant and his admirers on the dance floor.
But I kept watching them. Those girls were hot. There was no getting around it. They were all legs and boobs in their short little dresses.
Hailey looked hot too, but there was a big difference. She looked sexy and beautiful. Those young women just looked sexy. It was an entirely different thing.
Two of my frat brothers I hadn’t seen since the spring semester came over, and I went around the bar to give them a one-armed hug. That was the norm for frat brothers who genuinely liked each other but were secretly too insecure in their manhood to actually embrace. I didn’t count myself among that number, but I went with the flow.
Scott asked who my friend was, and I introduced him to Hailey. He nudged his buddy, Steve. “Looks like we picked the wrong summer to intern at that law firm in New York.” I was pretty sure that last part had been brought up to impress my junior bartender.
Steve couldn’t take his eyes off of Hailey, but he still managed to ask for a Frat H2O.
“What’s that?” Hailey asked. I told the guys to come back in five minutes. School was in session.
“Our signature drink. I’ll teach you to make it, but you can only give it to members of our fraternity.”
She looked worried. “How will I know who they are?”
“They’ll be the drunkest ones,” I said, glancing at Grant who was still grinding his hips against random women on the dance floor. Then I motioned Hailey closer. “I’ll teach you to make it, but you can’t tell anyone else how.” Technically, I wasn’t supposed to even tell her, but hey, it was the powers that be that decided she’d be working this party in the first place.
I showed her where the ingredients were. She watched with wide, heavily made-up eyes as I poured a generous amount of vodka in a cup. “Then the white grape juice.”
She laughed. “Can I have some of that by itself?”
“Maybe later. Next, you pour out a capful from one of these white bottles down here. That’s the secret ingredient.”
“What is it?”
“Sorry, I can’t tell you.” She pouted, her adorable lower lip jutting out. But what I’d said was true—I couldn’t tell her. Mainly because I didn’t know what it was myself. Those unlabeled bottles were just always down there, and whenever someone new learned to make the drink, we showed them where they were.
Next, I stirred in the tonic water. “This provides the fizz and a little bitterness to cut the sugar from the juice. When we make it for ourselves, using real glasses, we add a slice of lime on the rim. But not with plastic cups.”
She peered at the drink. “It looks like water. It doesn’t smell like it, but it looks like it.”
“That’s why it’s called Frat H2O. Legend has it that the brothers who invented it made sure it was clear so that if they wanted to, they could bring it into class in water bottles.”
“Sneaky,” she said. “Can I try it?”
“Sorry,” I said. “It’s for members only.” I didn’t adhere to all the rules and traditions of the fraternity, but I agreed with that one. Especially since it meant that Hailey wouldn’t be drinking at this party. Hopefully.
Theo danced his way over to us. As an officer, he was on duty during this party, but it was clear he was enjoying himself as well. That was good. Sometimes my friend had his head in the clouds and looked at the world through an artistic lens. This scene was anything but artistic, but he seemed to be enjoying it.
To Hailey’s delight, he asked for the signature drink, and she skillfully made it for him, handing it over with a smile. He took a gulp and declared it to be perfect. Hailey beamed with pride. Or maybe she was just happy to see Theo.
Things got busy, and I had my hands full preparing drinks and scaring off the guys who tried to hit on Hailey. Thank God there was a rather substantial bar between them. If Bennett or Grant had demanded that she circulate among the crowd with a tray of drinks, she would’ve been toast.
The party went on for hours, and we were both exhausted. “My ears are ringing,” Hailey complained at one point.
“Mine too.” I decided against telling her what research showed about the effect this level of noise had on people’s hearing. I believed in trying to be as healthy as possible, but you couldn’t guard against all future problems, or you'd never live your life.
Hailey looked up at me. “My feet hurt too. Don’t tell me yours do too unless you’re wearing three-inch heels.”
I couldn’t help glancing at her bare legs. The heels made her legs look longer and her ass look round and pert. While I’d been spending all that time in my room studying, I’d neglected to fully appreciate what a gorgeous woman we had living with us.
Perhaps I did spend too much time studying like everyone kept saying.
I closed the bar at one a.m. The party wasn’t over, but everyone was officially cut off from all drinks except the ones in the beer fridge in the kitchen. This caused a lot of people to bitch at me, and it also brought a lot of guys around, each one clearly hoping to tempt Hailey into coming home with him.
But she was home. Or at least her temporary home, and I intended to see her to her room safely. My efforts to guide her through the crowd didn’t work all that well. There were just too many drunk people stumbling around. Finally I put my arm around her bare shoulders and guided her along. That way we wouldn’t get separated.
Her skin was warm under my arm.
She breathed a sigh of relief when we reached the stairwell. The heavy door only partly muffled the noise from the party, but Hailey seemed relieved as it closed behind us. She kicked off her shoes and bent down to pick them up, showing me far more of her breasts than she likely intended to.
Not that I was complaining.
“Is it always like that?” Her voice was too loud, no doubt because of the volume of the party we just left, and it echoed around the stairwell.
“Sometimes,” I said. “And sometimes worse.”
She shook her head. “I can’t even imagine that.”
On the second floor, I held the door for her open and she trudged down the hallway, looking exhausted. We stopped when we reached her door. She looked up at me, and I saw that her mascara or eyeliner was smudged a little. Whatever it was, it was sexy as hell.
“This is my stop,” she said as if our train had just pulled into a station.
“So I see.”
She giggled. “I wasn’t sure if you knew. You spent almost as much time in your room as Nelson does in his.”
I laughed. “Well, you know me. Life’s not worth living if I don’t have my video games and pot.”
She grinned, and I couldn’t resist the urge to tuck a strand of hair that had worked its way loose behind her ear. God, her hair was soft and silky.
“Thanks for showing me the ropes tonight.”
She was t hanking me for making her attend a party where men tried to grope her and hit on her every other minute? Well, Bennett had been the one to require her attendance, but I still felt complicit.
“Guess I should go inside.” She paused, her hand on the doorknob. “Do the partygoers ever come up here?”
“Rarely. But it is the summer, so we don’t have as many of our members here to keep order.” And some, like Grant, seemed to have forgotten their responsibilities all together.
She noted. “So I should definitely?—”
“Yes,” I said firmly before she could even finish her sentence. “Definitely lock your door.” Living in a house full of frat boys, she probably did that anyway, but it was even more important tonight.
But I’d keep an eye out anyway. Guess there wasn’t going to be any studying for me tonight.