Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
SINCLAIR
S aturday night and I’m in my room with Elise. We’re getting ready to go out and do The Stroll, as they call it. It’s when all of the fraternities and sororities have a sort of open house that’s sponsored by the various organizations that fund them. Meaning alumni. It’s a tradition Thornhill has upheld for at least thirty years and it’s one of the most exciting weekends of the fall semester.
I’m standing in front of my pitiful closet, examining my pitiful clothes and I can feel Elise approach, a sound of disapproval leaving her. “You have nothing sexy to wear.”
She’s right. I don’t. That’s why my closet is feeling pathetic.
“You want to borrow something?”
I glance over at her, sizing her up. She’s skinnier than I am but not by much. And she has bigger boobs. “Like what?”
“I don’t know. Let’s go through my closet.”
We thumb through her clothing, pausing over one sexy dress after another. She owns a lot of them, and I don’t know why I didn’t put two and two together earlier. Elise is outgoing, loud and has no problem flaunting what she’s got. She came at me acting like a demure little princess when I first met her, and I wonder if she was just mimicking my own energy back at me.
“Do you think I’m a demure little princess?” I ask her as she holds a red strapless dress to the front of me. The fabric looks tight. Unforgiving.
“Yes,” she says without hesitation, waving the dress at me. “Try this on.”
“No way.” I shake my head. “I’ll end up looking like a sausage.”
“Oh my God, you will not.” She shoves it at me, the hanger falling with a clatter on the floor. “Please. Do it for me.”
Grumbling, I shed my T-shirt and shorts and slip the dress on, struggling to get it into place. Elise helps me, straightening the sides, adjusting the top before she steps away to study me.
“Wow. Okay, skinny queen.”
Rolling my eyes, I turn to the full-length mirror on the wall, pausing when I catch my reflection. Elise wasn’t lying. I definitely look like a skinny queen, like she said. The dress clings in all the right places, emphasizing my faint curves and showing off my cleavage, of which I never really thought I had any until this moment.
“You are stunning,” she breathes, coming to stand just behind me.
“Are you sure I look okay?” I tug at the fabric at my hip and she slaps my hand. “Ouch.”
“You look amazing. Stop picking at the dress. If you act uncomfortable, you’ll look uncomfortable and no one finds that attractive.” She rests her hands on my shoulders, smiling at me in the mirror. “Red is your color.”
“I don’t look…slutty?”
“Take that word right out of your vocabulary, please.” She heads back to her closet and starts digging for her shoes. “What size do you wear?”
“Eight and a half. ”
“Oh perfect. I wear an eight.” She pulls out a pair of strappy gold stilettos and holds them out to me. “These are an eight and a half. I’ve never worn them because they’re too big.”
“Why did you buy them, then?” I take the shoes from her, my gaze lingering on the thin, pointy heel.
“Because they didn’t have my size and I was hoping I could make them work.” She shrugs. “They’re yours now.”
“Hey thanks.” I slip them on, tying the straps up around my calves, feeling stupid as I wobble over to the mirror. But oh my God, the shoes look amazing with the dress. “I have gold hoops I could wear.”
“Put those fuckers on,” Elise says. “And wear that bracelet and matching necklace you’ve always got on too.”
I add my jewelry, watching myself in the mirror the entire time. Thinking of August naturally because when do I not think of him?
Realistically? I should despise him. There’s a part of me that does. He’s a horrible human with a bad attitude and an arrogance that is astounding. I’ve never met anyone like him. Maybe that’s what intrigues me.
Well, that and his talented tongue and fingers.
My cheeks turn red and I press my cold hands against them, still watching myself. “I look like a joke.”
“Oh stop it. Your self-esteem is the worst when it shouldn’t be. I mean, look at you.” Elise stops right next to me and I take in her outfit. Short black leather mini skirt and a tight black short-sleeved bodysuit that makes her boobs look ginormous. “You’re gorgeous.”
“So are you.”
“Right.” Elise nods, grinning. “We’re gorgeous, we’re young, we basically own this campus. We can do whatever we want and tonight, we’re going to have fun and kiss whoever we want! ”
I turn to look at her, shocked by what she said. “Why aren’t you wanting to kiss GG? Or…Tim?”
Elise wrinkles her nose. “I’m bored with them already.”
I know for a fact she was with them just last night because she told me. “But you went to their dorm room.”
“Ugh, and watched them make out instead of them making out with me. I swear I think they’re into each other. I’m just a prop for them to have around so they feel straight. They need to admit their feelings for each other and just get on with it.” She blows out an aggravated breath, irritated.
I watch her stomp away, going to her closet so she can dig through her shoes again. She pulls out a pair of black leather knee-high boots and holds them up. “I think I’m going to wear these. I want to look like I can kick someone’s ass.”
“Okay.” I swallow hard, shocked by her mood change. Now she seems frustrated. I wonder if she’s upset at her throuple falling apart? “Maybe you should go talk to Rafe?—”
“Nope. No way.” She shakes her head as she pulls a pair of socks out of the top drawer of her dresser and puts them on. “The best way to get over someone is to get under someone else.”
I’ve heard that before and never thought it applied to me. But maybe…
Maybe that’s what I should do. Find some hot guy and hook up with him. I’m probably hung up on August because he’s literally the only guy I’ve ever been with. For all I know he could be complete shit at the sex thing and I just don’t know any better.
Probably not, but hey, it’s possible.
Elise pulls on the boots and studies herself in the mirror, a pleased expression on her face. “Okay, the boots are the perfect touch. I love it.”
“I love it too. You look great.” She really does. Completely unlike the girl I met on move-in day, but I’m guessing I look nothing like that girl either. That’s a good thing. We’re growing. Changing. Aren’t we supposed to evolve during college?
“Ready to go?” Elise asks as she shoves her phone in a tiny black purse.
“Definitely.” I send one last look at myself in the mirror and then turn to face Elise with a smile. “Let’s do this.”
The streets are packed with people, and the majority of them are drunk. Meaning they’re loud and obnoxious. Most of the fraternities and sororities are in the same neighborhood, making it easy for us to move from one house to the other. The problem is, we can’t get into the more popular houses because they’re already packed. There are actual lines of people waiting to get in and everything.
“This sucks,” I tell Elise after we’re turned away at yet another house. This one was a sorority and the girls at the front door were kind of snobby. “Maybe we should set our sights a little lower.”
“Did you hear that one chick? I’m pretty sure she called us skanks.” Elise shakes her head, a fierce expression on her face. “Like seriously. They don’t even know us. They have no idea if we’re skanks or not.”
I feel like we’re a little overdressed for the occasion, but I don’t have the heart to tell Elise that. The majority of women I’ve seen out tonight are wearing jeans, though they’re almost all wearing skimpy tops. I’ve seen a few dresses and a few in high heels but for the most part, I stick out the most out of anyone in the red dress. And yeah, I probably look like a skank.
I’d give anything to be wearing a pair of flip flops and sweats. The gold stilettos are killing my feet and the dress keeps riding up my thighs every time I walk, which is nonstop. I can’t quit tugging on the skirt, yanking it down because I’m terrified my ass is going to hang out of it.
I should’ve never let Elise convince me to wear nothing underneath the dress. No bra, no panties. I’ve never felt so exposed in my life.
Well, there was the one time I had August Lancaster’s face buried in my pussy but that doesn’t count.
See how he pops up in my mind at the most inopportune times? It’s annoying. I still haven’t told Elise about him. She probably wouldn’t believe me. Or worse, she’d force me to seek him out so we could try and hang out with him and his friends. She told me not even fifteen minutes ago she was set on leveling up, as she called it. Finding a man who has immense wealth and power—direct quote. There are a lot of men like that on this campus, and while she didn’t mention August by name, I wonder if she was referring to him.
Ugh, I don’t know. More like I don’t want to know.
“And what do you mean, we should set our sights a little lower?” Elise asks, sounding indignant. “What’s wrong with trying to get into the most popular house?”
“What’s wrong is none of them are letting us in. We should go to a less popular house and see if we could get inside there,” I suggest, coming to a stop so I can readjust the straps wrapped around my calves for about the hundredth time.
“No one cares about the less popular houses.” Elise keeps walking and I envy her wearing the boots. They look way more comfortable. “Come on. Let’s go to the Alpha Squared house.”
I freeze, coming to a complete stop while Elise keeps walking. I watch her go, my throat constricting at the idea of showing up at August’s frat house wearing this. He’ll probably laugh at me. Or maybe he’ll grab my hand and drag me into his bedroom where he’ll demand I give him a blow job.
My pussy throbs at the thought.
Elise eventually comes to a stop when she glances over her shoulder and realizes I’m not right behind her. She throws her hands up in the air. “Come on!”
“Sorry.” I reach for the shoe straps again, pulling on one to make it look like I’m adjusting it. “These stupid shoes keep slowing me down!”
“They’re the worst,” Elise agrees, waiting for me with her hands on her hips. Love how she agrees with me that they’re terrible. No wonder she gave them away so easily.
The moment I’m next to her, she hooks her arm in mine, flashing me a reassuring smile. “Don’t feel so intimidated by going to the Alpha house. I’m nervous too.”
“You are?” I’m shocked. Lately Elise doesn’t seem fazed by anything.
“Of course. Rafe and Tim will be there. It might get weird. Especially with you being there too,” she explains.
“Why would I make it weird?” I don’t even think of Tim in that way. I’m too hung up on someone else, which is stupid. A complete waste of my time too.
“Tim likes you, Sinclair. He feels terrible that you know what happened between us.” Elise doesn’t act guilty over it though. And she shouldn’t. I wasn’t interested in Tim then and I’m not interested in him now either.
“I don’t get it.” I shake my head as we keep walking. The Alpha Alpha house sits at the end of the block, large and imposing, and I swear my knees start quaking the closer we get.
“He wants what he can’t have.” Elise sighs, leaning her head against my shoulder for the briefest moment. “That’s probably where I blew it. I made myself too readily accessible to them.”
“I think you got in over your head.”
We walk in silence for a while, surrounded by all kinds of people who seem to be headed in the same direction. A group of guys walk directly behind us, making rude comments, but we ignore them.
“Do you really think that?” Elise asks me once the group walks past us, one of them making kissy noises from over his shoulder, his friends jostling him like that was the funniest shit ever. They’re stupid. “That I got in over my head?”
“Maybe?” I give her arm a squeeze. “I support you no matter what, though. I’m not about to pass judgment on you.”
“You should. I’m a skank, just like those girls said, while you’re a sweet virginal angel.”
Confessing my secret is on the tip of my tongue, but I swallow it down instead. I don’t need to make that reveal at the moment. “You’re too hung up on my virgin status.”
“It’s weird, huh.”
“That you’re hung up on it?”
“No, that you’re a virgin.” I gape at her and she bursts out laughing, nudging me in the ribs with her elbow. “I’m kidding. But I should probably warn you before we get into the house.”
“Warn me about what?” I ask warily.
“Tim said I would be fine but supposedly there’s some sort of contest at Alpha Squared during this weekend where every guy tries to get with a virgin. Something to do with a sacrifice and it keeps the house in good order? Those were his exact words.”
I hate what she just said. Worse, I hate how it made me feel. “That sounds fake.”
“I hope it is.”
Me too.