I huff a little laugh. Ace is the only form of opium I need. I’m still high as kite off our encounter.
“Here we go,” I mutter under my breath as I make my way over.
Warren pats a seat beside him, and I take it like an obedient child. His hair is slightly rumpled. His eyes are glazed over. The scent of whiskey permeates the air and it becomes clear that pretty much everyone here is wasted. Maybe Kennedy wants me to bitch slap them all and then take away their keys? I’d be up for a quick smack down before bedtime, with the exception of Gavin, of course. He’s sweet down deep where it counts like Ace. He’s just looking to get laid like the rest of the people here tonight, Warren included.
“So”—Kennedy holds up a finger and leans in until she falls into the lap of Charlie, her favorite protégé—“we’re coming up with unconventional ways to torment new recruits. We can’t just let anyone into Alpha Kappa.”
“Right,” I say. But judging by the bevy of skanks in the vicinity, theysodo.
Warren pushes his red Solo toward my lips, but I’m quick to bat him away. Warren smells like a bad combination of rubbing alcohol and nail polish remover. I won’t be revoking his keys since he lives within walking distance, or in his case, stumbling distance.
“What’s the lowest level of shame you think someone would be willing to stoop just to fit in?” Kennedy suddenly comes to long enough to string together a coherent sentence.
“Lowest level?” Like begging their best friend to unleash his body on theirs for the summer? Wait, that’s not low, that’s genius. I give a private smile.
Warren slips his hand between my thighs, and I graciously pluck him the hell right off.
“I guess the lowest low is being with someone you don’t really want to be with.” I shoot Warren a look, but he’s too busy checking out Charlie’s boobs to notice. Her left nipple has escaped captivity and is quivering at us like a frightened Chihuahua. Not that I’m surprised. A red Solo explosion like this one practically merits a clothing malfunction or two. It’s nights like this that unwanted pregnancies are made of. Hey, I wonder if the good people over at Solo headquarters have ever considered that as a company slogan?
“Like in a sexual sense?” Charlie’s mouth drops open at the salacious implications. And, for a minute, I have to rewind my Solo commentary just to remember the topic at hand. Oh, that’s right, the lowest of lows—being with someone you don’t want to be with.
“Yes, in a sexual sense.” I glance over at Warren as his hand migrates to the back of my shorts. “Nobody wants anyone’s sticky fingers on them unless they’re one hundred percent into them.” I slap his hand off my ass. Case in point.
“Rush is going to be brilliant.” Kennedy nods as if a life-changing event were on the horizon. “We’ll have each girl that makes it to the final phase pick a boy from Kappa Pi, and she’ll have to make out with him.”
“That’s disgusting.” Crap. Why do I get the feeling I’ve just contributed to her future sexual harassment lawsuit? Kennedy has been steadily propagating all kinds of quasi-inappropriate behavior with her cult-like group. Last year, there were talks of blowjobs being instated as a punishment. But I was quick to talk Kennedy out of it by inundating her with the plagues of prison life that would soon be upon her if she kept up the oral offensive.
I can see she’s busy clawing her way back to prison. “Do not, I repeat, donotrequire your pledges to do anything that remotely involves a bodily fluid. Maybe just have them do something you would find ultra humiliating like show up to class without red lipstick and pearls.” You can spot a girl from Alpha Kappa a mile away with those identifying accouterments.
Kennedy and her sorority sisters ashen at the thought of being seen without their signature look. Clearly my work here is done. I evict myself from the couch and head upstairs. It’s only when I reach the top do I notice that Warren has followed me, stealth as a ninja.
“There’s a bathroom downstairs.” I’m half tempted to push him down one flight to help him get to it a little quicker. Obviously he trotted up here in hopes to continue that thigh-warming action he was initiating in the living room.
His lips curl as he gurgles in my direction. Warren looks as if he could be a Ralph Lauren model. He’s gorgeous, and has his future mapped out like a constellation, but for whatever reason I’ve never really connected with him on a romantic level. God knows I’ve tried for my father’s sake.
“I’m just walking you to your room,” the words stream from his mouth like toxins. “Making sure you get to bed safe.” He walks me down the hall and opens the door to my room. “After you.”
“Well, aren’t you the perfect gentleman?” Not really. I can taste the liquor on his breath from a three-foot clearance. “Thank you and goodnight.” I slip in and start to close the door, but he sticks his foot into the room before I can shut it.
“Let me tuck you in.” Warren hedges into my dark room and wraps his arms around my waist. I hear the door shut as he inches me toward the bed.
“Let go. This isn’t funny.” He lands me backward onto the mattress, and the wind gets knocked out of me for a second.
Warren dives down a sloppy kiss over my cheek, and I squirm trying to break free from his powerhouse embrace.
“You know you want this,” he moans as he flops down over me, taking the breath from my lungs in the process.
“I don’t want this. Warren getoff.” I struggle as he jams his tongue down my throat, polluting the sweetness Ace left there earlier. I twist my face into the bed until it feels like my neck is about to snap off.
“Come on, baby.” His breath reeks as he presses in with his full weight.
“Warren, I can’t breathe.”
He shoves his hand down the front of my shorts, and his fingers brush against the most private part of me.
“Damn, you’re wet,” he pants hard in my ear.
That’s it. Every cell in my body is officially pissed.
