Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
CHAD
We have a lazy morning of cuddling and hanging out before we head back to Greenwich. It’s super boyfriend-y, and I’m here for it. Bailey and Chad. Prince and Doomsen. I mentally cringe at how close that sounds to “Prince’s Doom” and then tell myself to get over it.
So maybe I’m a fraction worried about how it’s going to go down when we’re back, but it’s mostly for Bailey’s sake. I’d warn him against rocking the boat at home and ostracizing himself, but he can make his own decisions, and if he’s sure, I’m not gonna try and talk him out of that.
Plus, I want this. To be us.
The sooner we tell people, the sooner they’ll get over it.
My brothers will think it’s weird, but knowing some of them, it’ll become a joke that we all laugh over later.
Me, falling for a Kappa. So if things get too nasty for Bailey, he can always spend his time at our place.
The others have their girlfriends there constantly, so I can’t see how this will be any different.
On the train ride back, Bailey slumps down with his head on my shoulder, and I hold him close beside me, listening to him tell stories of how he grew up between the city and the Greenwich house.
Then I tell him about our place in Atlanta.
I’d never class us as poor, because it’s not like I went without as a kid, and my parents are happy, but with the house comes a mortgage, and with the car comes a loan.
They’re both paying off student debts still, and I fully expect that to be the life I’m heading toward.
No matter what’s going on with me and Bailey, his money is his. I want to make my own way, otherwise how can I feel like my own complete person outside of our relationship?
His family are still at the house when we get back there, waiting to have lunch with us, and unlike the first time we were here, I’m way calmer around them.
Victoria and Alistair treat me the same way as they’re treating Bailey, Rachel, and Sierra. Like I belong here with them, which isn’t something I ever would have imagined when I stepped foot in here on Friday.
I’m reluctant to head back to school, and I’m feeling the same hesitancy coming from Bailey. Lunch goes for way longer than it should, and then we spend some time outside before we head up to collect our things.
“You okay?” I ask him.
“Yeah, fine.” Even his answer sounds distracted. He must be nervous over having to tell his friends he’s dating the street menace, and I kinda wish I’d controlled myself all these years so he wasn’t in this position, but also if I had, I wouldn’t be me.
And Bailey really likes this me.
It’s afternoon by the time we leave, and when Bailey pulls up in the parking lot of Deja Brew, he turns off his car. I turn toward him, surprised to find him staring at his phone, small line marring the pale skin between his dark eyebrows.
“Seriously, what’s up?”
“Nothing.” He shakes whatever that was off and smiles. “Want to grab some coffee before we head back?”
I narrow my eyes. “You nervous or … is this something else?”
“What was it you told me? ‘The front yard isn’t safe today.’”
“You guys are planning a prank?” I go to reach for my phone when Bailey’s hand closes over it.
“You made me keep quiet, and we weren’t even dating then.” His blue eyes are all big and pleading, and how the hell do I say no to him when he looks like that?
“I have to,” I whine.
“No, all you have to do is come and have coffee with me, and by the time we get back, you will have miraculously missed it all.”
Shit. This is exactly what my brothers will be worried about when they find out about him. Me being forced to choose between them and my boyfriend. To them, the decision should be easy. Hell, a month or so ago, it would have been. I’d be out of this car and on the phone.
But now … I make a noise in the back of my throat. “What kind of prank?”
“Just an inconvenient one.”
At least that doesn’t sound too bad. It’s not like the Kappas have never pranked us before, and thankfully, their ideas tend to be shit in comparison.
“When are they doing this dumb prank?”
“Half an hour.”
Against every cell in my body, I nod. “Fine, let’s get those coffees.” I comfort myself with the fact that his house will be hoping to get me with their dumb idea, and Bailey’s stopping that from happening.
We’re both putting each other first.
I kinda like it.
Us against everyone else.
I’m jittery as hell through coffee though, and Bailey keeps laughing at the way my legs are bouncing.
“Trust me, you’ll be happy to have missed it, and then you get to organize a prank in retaliation, which we both know you’re excited for.”
“That’s true.” I grin at him. “Maybe I won’t even give you the heads-up this time.”
“Ooh, those are fighting words.”
I think we both know that would never happen. I’m oddly protective of my man, even though he’s the one who can effectively kick ass, while all I can do is throw my heavy fists around.
Bailey watches me as he slowly finishes the last of his coffee, then sets the mug down with a large, satisfied “ah.”
I glance at the time, and he relents.
“Okay, you can go now.”
“Fuck yes.” I sprint from the booth and have to jog back to drop a kiss on his head before I leave. It’s not until I’m back in my car that I realize I might have fucked up by PDA’ing without checking who was around first.
Too late now.
Everyone will find out soon enough anyway.
I jump in my car that I left in the lot on Friday and quickly back out, driving the ten minutes home.
While I wish I had more time with Bailey, I love getting back to the house, seeing my brothers and hanging out.
It’ll be a thousand times better when my boyfriend is there to do those things with me.
I hum to the radio as I drive through the U district toward Greek Row, but as soon as I turn onto the street, I immediately know something isn’t right.
My brothers have filled the front yard and are covered in … glitter? Which would be fucking hilarious—if it wasn’t for the ambulance in the driveway.
My pulse spikes, and I hurriedly pull up to the curb and jump out.
“What the hell?” I ask, crossing the street toward where Zeke is standing. He’s red, and not just from the copious sparkly shit clinging to him.
“Brandon,” he says.
“What …” I crane my neck around Robbie to see the two paramedics and Brandon in an oxygen mask. “Shit, is he okay?”
“I think so, but—”
Robbie spots me at that moment, and the look on his face … he makes being glitter bombed look terrifying.
“Dooms! Let’s go.”
“Go where?”
“Those fucking Kappas, man. They’ve gone too far this time.” His voice is scratchier than usual.
This doesn’t make sense. Bailey said it was inconvenient, and yeah, the glitter is, but how does that lead to an ambulance and Robbie looking like he’s ready to kill someone? “What the hell happened?” I demand.
“They filled the living room with some spray shit and blocked all the doors and sealed the windows so we couldn’t get out. All I could hear was those assholes laughing while Brandon had a fucking asthma attack.” Robbie’s eyes are wild. “He couldn’t fucking breathe.”
“Until you broke the door down,” Zeke mutters.
“What was I supposed to do?” he shouts, rounding on Zeke.
I yank him back as Zeke lifts his hands. “Dude, it’s fine. You did what you had to.”
Some of the tension starts to leave Robbie, even as his breathing stays heavy. If Robbie wanted to get away from me, it wouldn’t take much, and I’m still ninety percent sure he’s planning to go on a rampage.
His fists are tight. “Those assholes have got it coming.” He takes a step toward Kappa House and raises his voice. “Hear that, assholes? You’ve got it fucking coming!”
I turn to see a group of them huddled on their porch down the end of the street, and my stare finds where Bailey is hovering in the middle of the yard, looking our way. This … this is not good.
One of the paramedics approaches us, eyeing Robbie warily, but it’s not needed. Robbie deflates at the sight of him. “All good?”
The paramedic nods. “His breathing is back to normal, but he’s going to travel with us to the ER so they can monitor him for a few hours. As long as everything looks good, he’ll be back home tonight.”
“Thanks,” Zeke says, walking with them over to check in on Brandon.
I glance at Robbie. “You okay, man?”
“It was terrifying.” He scowls. “At first it was just coughing, but then he couldn’t stop, and he was making this gasping noise …” A cringe races over his enormous body. “What were they thinking?”
“They weren’t.” I really hate what I’m about to say, but I need to damage control fast. “But we don’t think through our pranks. Brandon had to remind us about checking the medical records with those water balloons, remember?”
“But he still did his job. Where was their risk manager on this? Kurt should have never let this happen.”
He’s right, and if the way Bailey’s phone has been going off all weekend is any indication, this wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment prank. They’ve been planning this. And if they’ve been planning this, they sure as hell should have checked that they weren’t going to hurt anyone.
After the ambulance leaves, we reenter the house, and the living room looks like unicorn carnage. Glitter blankets everything, the living room door is splintered in the hallway, and air freshener cans litter the carpet.
Fuck me.
I go to grab the vacuum and find it superglued to the kitchen ceiling, which is just fucking perfect.
Normally, I’d grudgingly appreciate something that stupid, but right now, I’m getting almost as pissed as Robbie.
To top it all off, there is so much shit missing from the house that it’s clear the Kappas have stealth stolen hundreds of points’ worth of items.
This is not good.
This whole thing is a fucking clusterfuck.
And I’ve got this ball of dread sitting heavy in my gut that I didn’t pick up the phone and warn them. Bailey said it would be fine, and when I think about it, glitter bombing a frat is something we’ve all done. If Brandon hadn’t been asthmatic, it would have been harmless.
But he is.
And it wasn’t.
And my brothers—especially Robbie—are too far past reasoning to try and make them see it that way.
All I know is the plan for us to go public with our relationship is solidly on the back burner.
I check my phone as I head next door to ask if we can borrow their vacuum and find a ton of stressed-out texts from my boyfriend. He clearly sounds worried, and I get it, but I have to deal with this mess.
Being VP is all fun and games until shit blows up in your face.
I text him that I’ll call as soon as I can, then get to work cleaning.
We manage to source a bunch of vacuums from across the neighborhood to deal with all the glitter.
My guilt is so strong that I can’t even bring myself to make the pledges, Raymond and Carter, clean down the walls, but once I get started, everyone else chips in.
It takes a few hours for the house to finally look back to normal, but the smell is stuck to everything. We collapse on the floor and couches once we’re done, and all I want is to go to bed, but Zeke and I wait up for Brandon.
It’s another hour before we hear Robbie pull up from going to get him, and when Brandon walks inside, he looks almost back to normal.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, pretty tired though, so I’m going to head up to bed.”
We wish him good night, and Robbie watches him all the way up the stairs before turning to us. “I got a call while I was out.”
“Yeah?”
His jaw ticks. “Yep. I know who planned this whole thing.”
“The Kappas. We already knew that.”
“Yeah, but it was all one guy’s idea. And he’s officially made my shit list.”
Zeke and I exchange a look. “Who?”
“That new guy. Bailey Prince.”