Chapter Twenty
Football Buddies - Grace
“Okay, ladies, listen up! Emberlyn has lined you up exactly in the order you will meet your football buddy,” General Kaitlyn says, commanding her troops from the foyer.
“You will greet your buddy with a gracious smile and cheerful hello, even if he looks like a tomato frog or has the personality of a can of greige paint. Your buddy will escort you to Phi Sigma, and you will be seated with him through dinner, and you will be EXCITED about it. And I sincerely HOPE you all will not be a bunch of dicks and ditch out as soon as dinner is over. We are with the hottest fraternity on campus, and I want them to be happy. Does everyone understand the assignment, or do I need to repeat myself?”
I pause for a moment, still stuck on the first part of Kaitlyn’s sentence about a tomato frog. Kaitlyn knows what a tomato frog is? I don’t, so I kind of want to google to see what it looks like. It’s a rather impressive speech from our leader for that fact alone.
I also love that she called us dicks. She’s such a treat.
“Now I’m going to open the door, and I want everyone smiling!” she barks, giving us the once-over before she welcomes our guests.
Kennedy and Danielle, two girls standing next to me, are whispering about their hopes for a football buddy.
“I need for mine to be hot and available,” Danielle whispers.
“I want Asher Ryan,” Kennedy says.
“Right? I want him, too!”
“I think everyone does.”
Well, not everyone, I think, biting my lip.
“I HEAR TALKING, SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Kaitlyn roars.
Now I have to choke down a burst of laughter. I can’t imagine my mom or Natasha leading like this. If they could see this, they’d be beside themselves.
The foyer falls silent. Kaitlyn goes to the massive door, composes herself into the image of sweetness and joy, and pulls it open to a large group of guys, every single one standing outside in nice outfits and holding a single red rose in their hands.
“Gentlemen, welcome to Phi Mu Phi, we are so excited to join you for our first football-buddy event of the year,” Kaitlyn says.
We all clap and act excited. Or at least I’m acting. A lot of girls, however, are excited about this pairing this season.
If Asher hadn’t made his declaration to me, this would have been fun. I know him already, and we could have worked off that vibe to become friends. But now it’s all weird, and it pisses Wyatt off.
Despite myself, my heart does a flip at the thought that Wyatt might be a tiny bit jealous of Asher. I mean, most likely he’s not, but sometimes I think he is and that gives me a slight flicker of hope that maybe, just maybe, we could turn into something real.
Maddie is first in line at the door, and she looks lovely in a pale pink one-shouldered minidress, her long brown hair straight and cascading down her back.
Then I see the first guy coming up the walk, rose in hand, and my mouth drops open.
It’s Sebastian!
I’m almost giddy. He’ll be good to her because she’s a friend of mine.
Wyatt told me he’s all about the hookup, and Maddie is all about Thad—unfortunately—but they can at least be good buddies.
Maddie smiles and accepts the rose, and they walk out of the house, beginning their trek down the steps to the pavement, where we will all begin our walk to Phi Sigma.
I glance down the row at the girls in front of me, and some of them are wearing this eager, hopeful expression for a good partner. I’m sure a lot of them are crossing their fingers that they might get Asher.
GAH, if I could trade, I would. Even for someone with the personality of greige paint. We move up as girls are meeting their partners, and finally, I’m at the front of the line. As soon as Asher begins his walk, I hear gasps and murmurs go around the room.
Emberlyn, our social chair, smiles as he reaches the threshold. “Asher Ryan, your buddy is Grace Walsh.”
Asher moves in front of me, wearing gray pants and a white dress shirt. He flashes me a huge smile and extends the rose to me. “Grace,” he says, his pale gray eyes locking on mine. “You look beautiful.”
He takes in my outfit. I’m wearing a long-sleeved black minidress that has these amazing, ruffled cuffs that nearly cover my fingertips and a deep ruffled V-neck. I love the dress, and the strappy heels that I paired with it.
“Thank you,” I tell him.
“Ready to go?”
“Yes,” I say, accepting the rose from him. “Thank you.”
He offers me his arm, and I link mine through his, just as the general has commanded us to do, and we begin navigating the steps down to the sidewalk. His cologne drifts toward me, and it’s spicy.
Not that sexy, woodsy, citrus cologne that Wyatt wears.
“Imagine us ending up together,” Asher says, smiling down at me.
“Amazing how that happened,” I quip.
“If you think I leveraged my status as the quarterback of the football team to get this, you’d be right.”
Well, at least he’s honest about that.
“But you know I’m with Wyatt. We are, one hundred percent, only going to be buddies,” I inform him as we continue down the steps.
Finally, we reach the bottom, and Asher stops and looks down at me.
“Just in case you’re under an impression something else could potentially happen between us. Because it won’t.”
Asher blinks. I don’t think he’s used to this kind of reaction from women. He pauses for a moment, digesting my rejection, and then clears his throat.
“I hear you. Buddies. Understood,” he says.
Hm. I don’t think I believe that, but since I’ve made myself clear, Asher will hopefully wrap his head around the idea that I’m serious.
Maybe he can wrap his head around being buddies, and who knows, maybe down the line we can be friends.
Having guy friends can be a part of my OCU journey this year.
Journey! Natasha is going to be so pleased that thought came organically to me.
We continue our walk down Greek Row, and Asher and I manage to make small talk.
Phi Sigma comes into view, a large white stucco house with multiple levels, and a red clay-tiled roof.
Asher ushers me inside. Music is blaring from the dining hall, and I can see a pizza buffet has been set up for us.
As we get plates, we’re quickly joined by Sebastian and Maddie.
“Can Madelyn and I join you guys for dinner? I know you two are roommates,” Sebastian says, smiling easily at me.
Oh my God. Is he being Wyatt’s wingman tonight?
And why does a happy shiver run through me at the thought?
“Sure, Sebby,” Asher says, smiling a little too brightly at him.
HA! Now I know Sebastian and Asher aren’t tight, and Sebastian is definitely working on behalf of Wyatt tonight. I’m so going to tease Wyatt about this later.
And tell him he doesn’t need a wingman with Asher.
Or anyone else, my heart whispers.
Asher and Sebastian begin talking, and Maddie steps beside me. “I’m going to hate this football season,” she murmurs into my ear.
“Why?” I ask, trying to decide if I want a slice of sausage and mushroom or pepperoni tonight.
“He won’t talk!” she hisses. “And he calls me Madelyn. Nobody calls me that!”
I lift my gaze from big slices of New York-style pizza to Maddie’s face, confused. “What? He talks to me.”
It’s true. At the dining hall the other night, all of Wyatt’s roommates talked to me. Sebastian was funny and actually asked me some questions about myself, and I felt like he truly wanted to know me as Wyatt’s girlfriend.
“And I didn’t say anything offensive!” Maddie continues as I decide on a slice of sausage and mushroom pizza, setting it on my plate. She retrieves a slice of cheese pizza for herself. “In fact, I tried to bring him out of his shell.”
Ooh. The light bulb flips on in my head as I juggle my rose and my plate and wait for Maddie to pick up some napkins for us.
Maddie is sweet and always wants to make sure people are noticed, and she loves to talk when she isn’t sad about idiot Thad.
Maybe she overwhelmed Sebastian with questions. I’ll observe when we sit down together.
Maddie and I reach the table where Sebastian and Asher are sitting, and we each sit next to them.
“What can I get you to drink?” Asher asks, rising from his chair.
“A water, please,” I say. “Thank you.”
Sebastian gets up, too, turning to Maddie. “Madelyn?”
She crinkles her delicate nose. “My friends call me Maddie.”
Sebastian’s mouth curves up. “Yes, I’m sure that’s true, but we’ve just met. So you’re Madelyn to me, until we get to know each other better.”
Is he teasing her? Flirting? Or is this dislike?
No wonder Maddie is confused, because so am I.
She stares back at him, knitting her brows together in confusion. “Fair, I guess.”
“What do you want to drink?”
“A Diet Coke, thank you.”
Maddie turns to me. “See? He’s weird!”
“He is being weird,” I agree.
McCall pulls out the chair next to me. “Two things before my buddy sits down,” she says in a rush. “One, I’m meeting Luca Andretti for an interview on Sunday! We finally got our schedules to align, and you are the freaking BEST and so is your boyfriend!”
“Oh! I’m so glad that’s happening!” I say excitedly.
“Me, too. If I get a good interview, that will help me get a spot on the magazine, so fingers crossed.”
“What’s number two?” Maddie asks.
“My football buddy is the worst,” she hisses, screwing up her face. “He’s drowning in a vat of heavy cologne, and every sentence begins with ‘Phi Sigma’ or “my brothers.’”
“Ew,” Maddie says. “Maybe I need to appreciate silent Sebastian more.”
“You should! Because Sigma Stephen is a bore!” McCall whispers.
I crack up, and so does Maddie. The guys return with our drinks, and Sigma Stephen takes a seat next to McCall.
And oh my God, she was not exaggerating.
His heavy cologne drifts over this end of the table like a cloud, and when you mix the scent with pizza, it’s nauseating.
I end up pushing my plate back, suddenly not hungry.
McCall introduces us to Stephen, and we all say hello. He smiles knowingly at us. “I bet you all were relieved to be paired with Phi Sigma this season,” he says, looking cocky. “Because Phi Sigma has the best parties at OCU.”
He is Sigma Stephen! I’ve counted two Sigmas already, and he’s just sat down! If we were to play a drinking game with his Sigma usage, we’d all be drunk before dinner was over.
HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
I have to look away before I begin to laugh. I see Sofia is at another table with her buddy, who is cute. We’ll have to get a debrief later.
Of course, Sigma Stephen has to bring up football and how great it is that a Phi Sigma is one of the top quarterbacks in the nation, but I give Asher credit.
He moves the topic away from football, and into areas that everyone can talk about, like majors and classes.
Eventually we talk about who is where on Friday night, and Sebastian takes out his phone and begins typing on it.
Sweet Maddie, bless her, is engaging with Stephen, and I think the Sigma count is up to ten.
Within minutes, my phone vibrates in the tiny purse I have draped across the back of my chair. I do a quick look around, since General Kaitlyn doesn’t like when we whip out phones at events, but I’m willing to risk it.
I remove it, put it into my lap, and flip it over.
And I see it’s a message from Wyatt.