Chapter 4 #2
“Alcohol metabolizes at 0.015 per hour… I should be fine.”
Ellis rolls her eyes as I inhale the aroma.
“Thank Caliphylla. You went all the way to Quad Café for me this morning?”
“Sure did. But the payment is to tell me what happened with Apollo Griffin last night after that insanely hot kiss.”
“Oh no.” I sit up, head dizzy and vision spinning. My stomach lurches. “I… Oh gods.”
“Did you fuck him?” She squeals and jumps on her bed with her ice latte in hand. Criss-crossing her legs, she leans forward, eyes bright. “Tell me everything.”
I moan, hand slipping down my body to scratch at an itch. “I got a tattoo! I—” I almost slip and confess everything I did. But the shame hits me like a spotlight snapping on in a dark room. It was so unlike me. If anyone found out about my evening…
Reputation ruined.
I lick my lips. “I hung out with Deltas.” It comes out in a disgusted murmur. “And Marauders.”
But the real horror is knowing that…I enjoyed it.
“That motorcycle gang? You’d better get checked for syphilis.”
My eyes widen. “I’m making an appointment. But for a clinic outside of this city. Just in case.”
She shrugs and purses her lips in a smug grin. “Have your mom run the tests at the hospital.”
I toss a pillow at her head as mine pounds. “I hate you. Seriously.”
My body aches in both good and bad ways as I scramble to get ready for class, stumbling over Ellis’s high heels I wore last night.
“We gotta motor. I have never been late.” I wave my foamy toothbrush around like a lecture pointer.
“I figured you were shirking all the rules now.”
I glance at my tangled brown hair hanging down my back. Black bags sink in under my eyes. And my skin is paler than ever. What the fuck did I do?
Hurriedly, I dress in my usual NU sweatshirt, jeans, boots, and a thick coat. As I rush out the door, I tuck my knitted beanie low and remember my evening in vivid detail.
Brothers. Oh gods. I almost fucked both brothers. If they’d asked me to, I would have.
I swallow hard, trying to keep up with Ellis as we speed walk across campus toward the science building.
They’re probably normal-length strides, but I’m short.
“I think if I completely ignore what happened with Ayan last night, I’ll let him make some sort of apology, then I could smile and save face. ”
Ellis stops short. “Are you kidding me right now, Scout? You’re not taking him back.”
Lips pursed, I nod. “Right. That would be bad.”
“It would be pathetic. Tragic.” She shakes her head, short brown hair waving. “And you’re not tragic.”
“Correct. He and I are done. Completely.”
I don’t know what I was thinking. It’s not like I care about Ayan. In fact, he drives me crazy. His constant need for attention and admiration when he’s done nothing to deserve it. The way he turns everything into a competition. Fortunately, he’ll be gone next year.
The terrifying thing is that I could still get appointed to him.
There’s a new committee at Northview University that determines which fraternity brother each sorority sister will be assigned to for life: the Pairing Oversight Tribunal.
They now determine which senior man I could be bound to. To serve loyally as my Viscount.
If I don’t accept the appointment, they’d kill me. My family. My friends.
I don’t care which man it is, as long as he understands one thing: I’m leaving this town to attend my top choice medical school. If I get in. He can stay here or come along if he chooses.
Our society’s pairings aren’t traditional marriages where the couple is strictly monogamous. Typically, the Viscounts share their wives with each other. Then get their rocks off wherever they choose. Some keep long-term mistresses.
I’ll be too busy with my career to pay attention. Love isn’t something that I’ve ever thought much of. But being in Greek life at Northview University has its benefits. Money, fame…and the in at most schools I would choose to attend to study medicine.
“Look at him. He’s faking remorse. I hate his face,” Ellis says as we find our regular seats in Cell Biology lab. Unfortunately, they’re directly in front of Ayan. “Even G looks smug.”
Next to my ex-boyfriend (Yes, he’s your ex, Scout.) sits Ayan’s friend, only known as ‘G’. He continually hits on me awkwardly whenever Ayan isn’t around. I’ve always rejected him because he was Ayan’s friend. But today?
I raise my hand and give him a coy wave and a wink.
He laughs and snaps his gaze to Ayan, whose brown eyes darken before narrowing at me.
“He left you another apology gift,” Ellis says, shoving the red lollipop at me.
We’d never discussed the treat, but I assumed it had something to do with us becoming doctors and handing out suckers to patients.
He regularly started leaving them on my desk in different classes whenever he said something stupid.
Or if I got a little too suspicious of his extracurricular activities. Seeing it now? I get a bellyache.
I pick it up and throw it in the trash can at the end of the aisle.
“I’ve always hated those suckers,” I say, and Ellis nods with pride.