Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
BAILEY
Me:
Icheck the message I sent earlier and am attacked by nerves again. A bunch of my brothers said they’ll be here, and now it’s almost time, I have to gather every ounce of my limited courage and surge forward. Charles has been asking me what the meeting is about, but I can’t bring myself to tell him.
Ever since Chad mentioned that he’s going to get in trouble for the whole King of Thieves thing, I’ve been thinking. I want to fix it. All of it.
Us keeping things a secret allowed people to try and use it against us. My first step is coming clean to my house, and the second is telling them everything that went down.
Carter was removed from Sigma Beta Psi last night.
It turned out he was the one responsible for gluing the windows closed, and he admitted to taking money from Lucas to leave.
Even Robbie could concede that what happened was largely on Carter and his need for pranks that walked the line of what was right.
Lucas has pissed me off, but at the end of the day, he only went through with the plan we’d all discussed—with the addition of using my relationship to get entry into the house.
After coming clean, the next step is evening the score.
My brothers start to enter the room on campus we use for meetings, and I will my hands not to be so clammy. I can totally do this.
It’s not until everyone is seated, Charles and Lucas eyeing me strangely, that I channel Dad and stand up.
“Hey, thanks for coming.”
There’re general murmurs of assent before they fall quiet again.
“I know you’re all wondering why you’re here, so I’ll cut to the chase. I want to talk to you guys about Sigma House and the prank.”
“Man, fuck those guys,” Jordan says.
I nod. “They’ve been taking it too far.”
“It was a prank,” someone else says. “They pull that shit all the time.”
“Yeah, but no one’s been hurt before,” another voice answers.
“Agreed,” I quickly say before they can keep going. “But there’s a lot of context surrounding what happened, so I want you guys to know the full story.”
Charles shifts. There’s a frown marring his face, but he doesn’t look angry. “What’s going on?”
My gaze flicks to Lucas and away again. No matter how seemingly innocent he is, he played a part in this, and he’s going to own up too.
“The prank went off exactly as you planned except for two things. The house wasn’t conveniently empty at the time you set up, and the windows actually were sealed, which is why Brandon couldn’t get out. Things could have ended up a lot worse than they were.”
There’re more indistinct murmurs.
“None of us touched the windows,” Lucas insists.
“No, you didn’t,” I admit. “That was all Carter.”
“Carter?”
“The pledge you bribed to leave the house unmanned for two hours. The one you offered money—remember him now?”
Lucas is rapidly turning red. “Whatever he’s told you, it’s a lie.”
“I don’t think it is.” I shrug. “But he’s been removed from the house now, so I guess none of us will be able to clarify.”
Charles straightens. “There’s no way Zeke would have let one of his guys go without proof. But I don’t understand, why would he have sealed the windows?”
“Because he thought Chad was in there.”
“Chad?” Charles shakes his head, but Lucas’s eyes have widened like he knows what’s coming next. “But they love him. He’s like a king to them.”
“He was, until they found out he’s dating me.”
I expect an explosion of noise to follow that, but instead, a confused silence stretches out in its wake.
“I don’t …” Charles looks around. “The two of you? Together?”
“Lucas told him the prank was planned for Chad and that you were going to leak it was me who organized it so we’d break up. It pissed Carter off enough that he glued the windows shut, and since he knew Chad wasn’t an asthmatic, he didn’t think anything of it.”
“Then it was all because of the Sigmas,” Jordan says. “They’ve been targeting us for no reason.”
“Are we all going to gloss over the fact Bailey is dating Doomsen?” Lucas pushes.
“Are we going to skip over the part where you influenced a guy to basically try and haze someone?”
That shuts him up.
“At the end of the day, someone was hurt, and we all played a part in it.”
“Okay,” Charles says. “Agreed. But what does this have to do with … anything?”
“The Kappas are going to back off how full-on they’ve been lately—”
“As they should,” Lucas says.
I point at him. “They originally wanted to refocus on targeting you since you’re the one who kicked this off, but I calmed them down.”
“Oh, I bet you did.”
I ignore the insinuation. “There’s only one thing left that’s pissing them off, and it’s why I asked you guys here. King of Thieves.”
“No.” Charles doesn’t even know what I’m about to say, and he’s already writing it off, that’s how seriously these guys take it, apparently.
“There’s still two and a bit months until Harmony Week, and where we’re currently sitting, there’s no challenge.”
“Good,” Jordan says. “We want to win this year.”
“But that’s my point. With how you guys got all that stuff, stealing it while Brandon was having an asthma attack, there won’t be a King of Thieves this year.”
“Fuck off, we didn’t break any rules.”
I turn to Charles because even though he doesn’t like the Sigmas, he’s always seemed to grudgingly like Zeke.
“I know we’re rivals. I know they piss you guys off. But at the end of the day, the rivalry only works because there’s a level of mutual respect. Do you really want to be the heartless guys who won because of what happened?”
No one answers. I watch each of my brothers glance at the guys sitting next to them.
“Can we trust that you’re not throwing us under the bus?” Jordan asks. “You’re dating Doomsen, for Christ’s sake. How do you know he’s not using you?”
“He’s not. We’re serious. And you can believe that or not, it’s up to you.
This isn’t about me and my boyfriend though.
It’s about your relationship with those guys.
At the moment, the animosity is way too heavy for anything fun like this competition.
If you still want it to go ahead, my suggestion is that we give back the things stolen during that prank.
Only those things. It’ll be like an olive leaf, and then we move forward and this whole thing is finally put behind us. ”
“And my laptop?” Jordan throws back.
“You replaced it that day, didn’t you?”
“Well … yeah, but it’s, you know, the principle.”
I lift my eyebrows, and he slumps in his seat.
“Charles?” I turn to our president to find him rubbing his jaw.
“I don’t know, Bailey … They’re right. We didn’t break the rules.”
“So you’ll be okay with Zeke being shitty with you for the rest of the school year? For being the president in charge when King of Thieves ended?”
Charles glances at his phone, then crosses to stand next to me.
“Okay, vote. Hands up for doing the honorable thing and giving the items back, along with smoothing things over so we return to the status quo.” He hesitates.
“I also think we should all put in to cover the cost of the ambulance. Keep your hands down to keep the items despite the warning that they might mean nothing if King of Thieves doesn’t go ahead. ”
I bite back a smile. Way to be on board without coming right out and saying it, Charles.
There’s no way anyone could say no to that.
And when we take the vote a couple of minutes later, some people keep their hands down, but at the end of the day, majority rules, and it looks like we’re giving their stuff back.
As the room starts to clear out, a few people stop by to chat with me and make sure that the Chad thing isn’t going to interfere with our competition, and I point out that if anything, it gives me an edge.
Which I fully plan to take advantage of now that our relationship is out in the open.
Charles waves Lucas over to us, and I watch him approach, shoulders hunched and wary expression on his face.
“What’s going on here?” Charles asks.
Lucas nods at me. “You’re not pissed he’s dating the enemy?”
“Enemy?” Charles presses his fingers to his eyes.
“You know the rivalry is all a big joke, right? I mean, yes, we like to compete, but at the end of the day, they’re a group of guys, and we’re a group of guys.
At the end-of-year boozer, no one cares about who’s from where because none of it is serious. ”
The fight sags out of Lucas’s shoulders. “I know that, but Chad Doomsen rubs me the wrong way.”
“Is that my problem?” And maybe I should be nicer and try to smooth the whole thing over, but it’s not until I’m looking at him that I realize I’m freaking upset about what happened.
He pretended to be my friend when it was all a lie.
I don’t owe him anything just because he supposedly has feelings.
“I guess not. I just … I don’t understand.”
“You don’t need to. It’s my relationship.”
I can feel Charles’s stare ping-ponging between us. “Will things be okay with you two?”
Lucas looks up hopefully. “Will it?”
“I’ll be civil, but we won’t be going back to being friends. Friends don’t try to break up each other’s relationships.”
The hope slips off his face. “Okay. I deserved that.”
I turn back to Charles. “You want to message Zeke to meet us?”
“Nope. The three of us are going to head home, collect it all, and deliver.”
“Sweet.”
“But, Bailey.” Charles grabs my upper arm before I can leave. “I’m counting on you to get as much of it back as you can.”
“Like a secret agent?” I grin. “Creeping around behind enemy lines? I can do that.”
“Good. Make sure you do.”