Jess
“I’m so obsessed with your new haircut, Little,” Skyler says, pulling on one of Cassie’s curls and letting it bounce back into place.
“Same. Makes me want to chop mine,” I chime in. “But, you know, that means less to pull on when I’m getting banged from the back. So… priorities.”
The girls all laugh at that, Ashlei tossing a handful of popcorn at me.
“I’m going to miss this,” Cassie says, leaning her head on Skyler’s shoulder.
We’re all piled together on the sorority couch, enjoying one last movie day before we split up.
Cassie and I are both sticking around for the rest of the summer, but the other girls are leaving, and it’ll be two months before we see them again.
“I love summer,” I say. “But, I wish I could spend more of it with you girls.”
“Me, too. It’s been an… interesting semester.” Erin’s cheeks flush. “Thank you for not completely disowning me after the major bitch I’ve been.”
Skyler shifts uncomfortably, not saying anything, so I lean over and pull Erin under one arm. “Ah, we’ve all had our period before. Rest assured, we’ll pay you back sometime in the future.”
She smiles, leaning her head on my shoulder.
“So, Cassie, you’re sticking around here for summer classes… and Adam is here, too?” I waggle my brows. “Bow chicka wow wow.”
She flushes a deep red, pulling her blanket up to her chin. “You just can’t go a day without trying to get me to divulge the details of my sex life, can you?”
“My lady blue balls need rubbing, Cass.” I flex my hips toward her and the girls all laugh while she swats me away.
“Thought Kade was rubbing those balls for you,” Ashlei points out.
“Oh, please,” I scoff. “More like I’m trying my best to teach him how to even get a girl to talk to him for more than three minutes. We’re so far away from bang town, it’s not even funny.”
“I still can’t believe you agreed to train him,” she says.
“Yeah, well, I can’t believe you’re officially dating the hottest, richest CEO this side of the Florida-Georgia line.”
“Seriously!” Erin chimes in, smacking Ashlei. “How the hell did you keep that a secret from us for almost a year?”
Ashlei just smiles, popping a kernel into her mouth. “Some things are too good to share, my friends.”
“Selfish whore,” I murmur, and the girls all burst into laughter again.
“Skyler, are you going up north with Kip?” Erin asks, and the weight of his father’s illness settles over us like a cloud.
“I am,” she says, eyes on her hands as she picks at a stray string on her blanket.
“I’m a little nervous, a little scared, but mostly, I just want to be there for Kip.
It’s going to be weird, meeting the man who sent him here to take me down, but at the same time, I understand him.
And at the end of the day, being a support system for Kip is what matters most to me. ”
“He’s lucky to have you, Little,” Erin says, sincerity in her eyes. And when she reaches over to grab Skyler’s hand, Ashlei and I exchange a worried glance.
For a moment, Skyler just stares at it, like she’s debating flicking Erin’s hand away and immediately flipping her off. But instead, she sighs, squeezing her Big’s hand with a soft, resigned smile. “Thank you.”
I let out a breath of relief.
“And what about you, G Big?” Cassie asks. “What are your plans for the summer?”
Erin swallows, her gaze finding the television screen. “Therapy.”
“What?” We all gasp in unison, eyes locked on Erin as we wait for her to explain.
“There’s a lot I’ve been through in the past year that I haven’t talked to anyone about…” she says, her voice soft. “Not even you girls. And, it’s time. I need to work through it if I’m ever going to move forward.”
“What happened?” I ask, leaning into her. “You can tell us.”
“I know, I know I can,” she says, finally returning our gazes with a slight smile. “But, it’s not the right time. When it is, when I’m ready, I’ll come to you. I promise.”
Ashlei leans over my lap, squeezing Erin’s knee as I try to search her eyes for some sort of answer.
“Well, when that time comes, we’ll be here.”
“Thank you.”
For a while, we’re just silent, staring at the television screen without even registering what’s on it. Finally, Skyler jumps up, clapping her hands together.
“Alright, enough of that shit.” She skips away and up the stairs, returning moments later with a half-empty bottle of whiskey. “We’re ending this semester on a high note. Time to belly up, bitches.”
“Oh, God. I can’t even think about alcohol right now,” Erin says with a wince.
“You don’t have to think about it,” Skyler says. “You just have to drink it.”
“I’ll grab glasses!” Cassie sprints off to the kitchen, and when she’s back, she lines up five shot glasses as Skyler tops them off with the amber liquid. We each grab one when they’re full, holding them together over the coffee table with a mixture of sadness and joy in our eyes.
“We only have one more semester together before you three bitches graduate,” Skyler says, eyes flashing over me, Ashlei, and Erin. “So, here’s to making the most of it — the Kappa Kappa Beta way.”
Ashlei thrusts her glass higher. “To parties.”
“To movie days,” Cassie chimes in.
Skyler pushes her glass in next. “To love — in all its forms.”
“And to sex, because… well, it’s us.”
They all laugh at my addition, and then our eyes are on Erin, hers on her glass, like her thoughts are far off in space. Finally, she blinks, swallowing a little as she joins our glasses with hers.
“To friends,” she says, her voice light. “Who are always there for us, no matter how bad we fuck up.”
Skyler’s eyes soften, and she clinks her shot glass to her Big’s. “Hear, hear.”
We toss the liquid back, me throwing my hands up in the air with a woo and Skyler joining in with a high five while the rest of the girls grimace. We all laugh, stacking the glasses and piling back on the couch just in time for a new chick flick to start.
And as another semester comes to an end, I glance around at my sisters, heart squeezing at the thought of living a life without them. I only have one more semester with them, and in less than a year, I’ll be graduated — thrust into the real world whether I like it or not.
But the truth is, I know I don’t have to worry, because I’ll never have to live without them.
My Kappa Kappa Beta sisters are my sisters for life — through college and beyond.
So, for now, I vow to make the most of the time we have left. I’ll have a kick-ass summer with Cassie, recruit some more bad-ass bitches in the fall, and when my time as officer is over and it’s time to walk across that stage, I’ll do so holding hands with the girls who matter most.
In the meantime, there are parties that need raging, kegs that need draining, and boys who need banging. Those are my duties as Jess “J-Love” Vonnegut, and I can’t wait to honor my university.
Buckle up, Palm South University.
You ain’t seen nothing yet.