2. Jason
2
JASON
I couldn’t wait for this night to be over.
The party was only getting started. Downstairs at the frat house where I was the president to oversee and instigate all the madness and mayhem, they were booming music and pouring drinks. We’d had to get careful with the harder drugs after one of the sorority houses had someone start a violent fight. But the party kicking off tonight wasn’t even a good one. It wasn’t one of the famed events that we were known for as notorious partiers and rebels on campus.
Tonight was a low-key kind of thing. The regulars would be down there, looking for a good time.
Usually, I’d be all for it. The less I focused on my studies and my future, the more relaxed I was.
Not tonight, though.
A raging headache kept me from wanting to go near the music. Muscle aches from my last workout left me more tired than I ordinarily would be.
Maybe I was coming down with something. Dehydrated from too much booze.
Or I could just be sick of it all for once, needing a quiet night to actually fucking sleep for more than a few hours.
“I’m just saying…” the short blonde said in a pleading tone that set my teeth on edge. I loved it when they begged. I would never turn down a willing fuck buddy who’d beg for my dick. But tonight, I wasn’t feeling it. Her cajoling sounded too much like whining or demanding. And she was just a freshman, not some experienced pussy who’d be able to persuade me easier.
“You look stressed,” she said with a coy smile as she ran her fingertip down the front of my shirt.
Chants of someone chugging beer reached us on this landing upstairs, and I cringed at the noise. It didn’t help the throbbing in my head. And this girl’s plea wasn’t appeasing me either.
“Stressed?” I scoffed, giving her a hard look. I was a frat president. My style was to party hard enough that no stress could ever reach me. But I felt like it right now.
It’s because of that fucking letter.
It wasn’t the first time I’d gotten a letter from the dean’s office. And it wouldn’t be the first time that my parents would make a donation to pay off whatever the college was pissy about. With practiced indifference, I’d rolled my eyes when I saw the envelope addressed to me from the dean’s office. Then I’d tossed it onto my messy desk in my room to forget about until they’d reach out again. The fact that they sent a letter meant they’d already tried and failed to reach me via email.
It didn’t matter. They couldn’t do anything to me.
Still, it lingered in the back of my mind. Sooner or later, I’d have to reply to it.
I wouldn’t tonight.
All I wanted was to pass out and sleep off this headache so I could wake up and be ready to have fun and party hard tomorrow.
“I could help you relax,” the freshman said.
“I doubt that.” I knew what she meant, and I knew what she was after. I hadn’t earned my reputation by behaving. Everyone on campus was aware of my parties, of the fact that I ruined good girls for sport. The only reason she was up here talking to me and trying her hardest to get me in my room was to take a ride on my dick.
If I gave her a few more minutes, she’d really be throwing herself at me. But I wasn’t in the mood. An easy lay would boost my mood for a few minutes, but I just wasn’t up for it right now.
Annoyed about that letter I'd neglected, I took out my irritation on her by turning her down. “I’m not interested.”
She laughed, as if I’d cracked a joke. “But…”
I shook my head again, turned off even more by how pushy she was being. Fucking my way through college was my latest pastime and hobby, but I wasn’t this stupid. This slut had already made her way through too many of my frat brothers. An open invitation to whatever STDs she was carrying didn’t entice me. Sure, she was hot, but she was trying too damn hard.
Half of the thrill was in ruining the good ones.
The pleasure of deconstructing an obedient girl who should never want an asshole like me.
I wasn’t the kind of guy to bring home to meet the parents.
“But…”
“I said no,” I reminded her again as I pushed past her and headed down the stairs.
The closer I came to the music, the more my head ached. But the sooner I reached the kitchen, the faster I could count on relief. I got a beer and a water, knowing I wouldn’t last long drinking too hard tonight. Even though I nodded hellos at the people already in here helping themselves to the kegs, I ignored everyone else.
When Dennis, one of my oldest friends here, came up and smirked at the cups in my hands, I didn’t pay attention to his shit-eating grin.
“Water?” he teased. “What’s that about?”
“I’ve got a fucking headache,” I replied.
“Getting old?” he joked, spanking a girl on the ass as she passed by. She blushed, scurrying away. Now that appealed more than the freshman on the stairs. The chase, the fight, the challenge. Those were what turned me on like nothing else.
“I’m younger than you, fucker,” I replied with a grin.
“By a month,” he shot back, draining his beer. “Seriously. What’s up your ass?”
“Nothing,” I muttered, drinking my beer. Screw this. I should just take a shot then follow with water.
“He’s pissed about that letter,” Kevin, one of our frat brothers, said as he joined us to refill his cup at the keg.
“What letter?” Dennis asked, checking out a couple of girls across the room, always multitasking and counting on getting laid.
“Nothing,” I repeated dryly, wishing I’d just stayed in my room. I could have, but it was a standard to uphold here, being present as the host of every party so they’d all know it was thanks to me that some students on campus could have a good time.
“Something from the dean’s office,” Kevin said, flippant about my mood. He’d brought the mail in. That was the only reason he knew.
“Uh-oh…” Dennis said. He shot Kevin a worried glance. “It’s gotta be about that one girl.”
I huffed a bitter laugh. “That one girl?” We had hundreds of chicks coming in and out of this huge house. Everyone knew this was the one place on Greek Row where rules were ignored for the sake of enjoying life to the fullest.
“Yeah.” Dennis nodded, no longer eye-fucking the girls across the room as he focused on this conversation. “Rory overheard someone talking about how we’d all be expelled for that one girl at that party last month. Becca? Beth? Something that started with a B. She got so fucked up and wasted that she was hospitalized.”
I shrugged. “Hey, she couldn’t handle it. That was her choice. It wasn’t like we forced anyone to drink until they got alcohol poisoning.” Besides, Rory was wrong. He was the most paranoid of us, but he was incorrect about being punished for any misconduct. As president, I was the scapegoat to target. If any discipline was headed our way, it’d come to me , not them.
And that didn’t scare me one bit.
“But it looks bad,” Kevin said.
I scoffed, shaking my head. It was bad. What did they expect? “I’m not worried about it.”
“Not at all?” Dennis arched one brow. “It’s not the reason you look like you’ve got something up your ass all night?”
“Nope. Not worried at all.” I finished my beer, hating how full I felt from it. Eyeing the food on the counter, I debated eating to pace myself tonight. “It’s not like they can pin anything on me. Everyone who comes here to have a good time does so at their own risk.”
“But you’re the host,” Dennis reminded me, scowling a little.
I barked a laugh. “Yes, I fucking am. And I dare them to try to expel me.” Rolling my eyes, I turned to fill up my red Solo cup at the keg. Screw the water, I wanted the oblivion of being buzzed. Any mention of an expulsion pissed me off now.
It wasn’t because I feared it. I was too cocky to let them see me afraid.
Afraid?
I smirked before chugging my beer.
“Fuck that,” I muttered.
I wasn’t afraid.
Just angry.
Deciding to drink faster and party harder instead of babying this headache, I looked at them and wondered when they’d started to get soft like this.
“Fuck them,” I reminded them hotly, counting on my attitude and bravado to urge them into not giving a shit like it usually did.
“Fuck them for wanting to kick us out or slapping our hands for having fun.”
“Damn straight, Prez.” He held his cup up for me to knock mine against his.
“I’m not going to let some assholes in an office try to ruin my life.” I grinned at them.
I’d be damned if anyone from the dean’s office attempted to ruin my life like they had to?—
Don’t go there. Don’t. I gritted my teeth, furious at the thought of someone else the dean’s office had targeted. Don’t think about it. Not now. Going down that path and recalling how someone else I knew had been ruthlessly expelled would take my headache into migraine territory. In an effort to fight back that fury, I drank faster.
“Fuck them!” Kevin cheered.
Someone changed the music and turned it up in reply. Shouts followed, and I winced at the rise in decibels that hurt my head more.
Fuck. I can’t be getting too old for this yet. I was only twenty-three. My life was just starting.
As I wove through the rooms of the frat house, soaking up the attention and acting like I was the fucking king on campus, I did my best to ignore how untrue that was.
My life was stuck here, and I was fine with staying put until I knew that I’d done all I could here—and I didn’t mean that in terms of getting on the goddamn honor roll.
No. I wasn’t going fucking anywhere.
It wasn’t just being cocky that had me so convinced I couldn’t be ousted from this position as the lord of the party, the infamous frat president who never shied away from wreaking havoc.
The college couldn’t get rid of me. Not when my parents could bail me out each time. Mr. and Mrs. Reeves wouldn’t bat an eyelid at paying off the university for whatever grievance Dean Chen or any of the other elite assholes could cry about.
My parents wouldn’t give a shit if I were expelled, but they’d realized it was way easier to hand over a check and look the other way. It hadn’t taken me long to understand that they only cared about not having to be present in my life.
It started with nannies.
Then babysitters.
Even tutors.
Mr. and Mrs. Reeves had never been the hands-on parents to give a damn about my “success”. So long as they could continue being used to living their lives in the city and doing as they saw fit with their lives as if they’d never had kids, I could carry on just like this.
I tipped back my cup, draining another beer. Already, my buzz was erasing the worst hits of pain in my headache from shitty sleep, dehydration, and not eating much before this party.
Fuck them , I swore again when an errant thought about that envelope hit me again.
No matter what the college wanted to summon me for, it wouldn’t be a legitimate threat to my doing exactly what I wanted on campus.
Nothing would ever stop me from getting revenge, either.