“So fucking what?” I snap back. “What if I was dating him? You’re not my fucking boyfriend! And you did that. You walked away. After—” I slam my mouth shut, my eyes widening as my brain catches up with it, horrified that my eyes just refuse to stay dry. But that feeling of waking up alone—it’s just too raw right now.
“You’re not my boyfriend,” I say more calmly. “You don’t get to judge who I spend my time with or how I spend it. David was in my life long before you, and he’s the one who stuck around, Brian. Not you,” I remind him. I notice the strain grow around his eyes, but I ignore it. “If I want to dance with David—”
“Dance?” Brian scoffs, his eyes narrowed in derision. “If you weren’t wearing clothing he would have been inside you!”
“Because I’m such a fucking slut?” I say slowly.
Brian glares at me, his jaw tight like its holding in a cutting retort. And I don’t know why. He didn’t bother to hold back last night.
“Is that it, Brian?”
He huffs out a sharp breath, shaking his head. “No! No, that’s not fucking it! Goddamn it!” He shakes his head.
Suddenly some guy is wedging himself between us, and I recognize him as someone I’d noticed while Toni and I were walking from our building. Actually he looks familiar from before then, too. “Is there a problem here?” he demands of Brian, who looks dumbfounded.
“And who the fuck are you?” he spits.
“Who the fuck are you?” the stranger counters.
Brian takes a step toward him in challenge, but the guy seems all too ready for a fight, and for a moment I wonder if I really come off so goddamned helpless that random men feel the need to come to my rescue. But then my brain makes the connection.
“Rectum?”
The guy throws me a look over his shoulder, and I realize he doesn’t appreciate my using his pledge name just now. I bite back a very small smile.
What was his real name again? Or his full pledge name at least?
Rectum Ralph, I recall.
Lovely.
“What are you doing, Ralph?” I ask.
“Who the fuck is this, Beth?” Brian demands. Demands—like I owe him fucking anything.
Ralph blanches. “Uh…I just…” He forces a sheepish smile. “I was just doing a pledge task.”
My fingers come up to rub my temples, my head practically vibrating with the consequences of last night’s indulgences. “And what pledge task would that be?” I ask dryly.
But I’ve already deduced the short of it, and I’m already furiously telling David off in my mind. Because seriously? This is his response to my complaining about him babying me? Enlisting his fraternity pledge to do it for him?
“Christ, Ralph, you don’t have to follow me around.” I roll my eyes. “Don’t you have class or something?”
He shrugs. “Not for an hour.”
I struggle to keep my patience. “Ralph, I’m fine. I can handle Brian.” My eyes hold his over Ralph’s shoulder. I want Brian to know he doesn’t intimidate me. “You can go now, Rectum.”
Ralph shifts uncertainly on his feet. “I can’t really—”
Oh for God’s sake! “Ralph, you can risk your BEG bid or I can report you to campus security for stalking.”
His eyes go wide.
“What the fuck?” Brian murmurs, pissed off for sure, but not actually doing anything about it, I note.
Ralph holds up his palms in surrender.
“And you can tell whoever assigned you this task,” I add, not wanting to say too much in front of Brian, “to leave me the hell out of your stupid frat bullshit.”
