My eyebrows shot up. “Are you kidding me? Come on, Carrie. We’ve known each other since eighth grade.”
“Guess who I’ve known since pre-K and care a whole lot more about?” she shot back.
“Sadie.” I could see tears of anger welling up in her eyes.
“You’re damn right. Ihateyou for what you did to her. We all do. I don’t know what happened to you, Harrison, but you’re not the type of person I would ever be friends with now. Do mea favor. When you see me around campus from now on? Look the other way. I can promise I won’t be interested in hanging out with you.”
My face was bright red. Several people at the tables around us were staring. A few of them called out “team Sadie,” and people cheered. I hurried away without saying goodbye and walked to the front to get a to-go container. My leg was getting tired from standing in line and walking around, and my limp was becoming more apparent. “Back of the line buddy.”
Fuck. I was going to have to wait in the same line again.
“I’m not that hungry after all,” I said to no one in particular and dumped my lunch in the trash. I made my way across campus back to the frat house. By the time I got back, my leg hurt almost too badly to go up the stairs. I made my way to my room only to find some guy fucking two hot chicks inside.
“What the hell?”
He looked up. “Do you mind?”
“This is my fucking room!”
“Oh, you’re Harrison?” He looked at the girls, who were completely naked. “Give me a second, y’all.” He walked over to me, not in the least self-conscious of his dick hanging out. I kept my eyes firmly on his face. “I thought they told you already. They moved you down into a basement room today.”
I looked around, and my mouth fell open. All of my stuff was gone. “You’re kidding.”
“Nope. I’m the best starting pitcher for the baseball team, and, well, now that you’re not QB1,” he shrugged, “you lost a bunch of privileges.”
The basement was for the lowest ranking members of the fraternity. What the hell? “Why the basement?”
“Ah.” He looked a little uncomfortable and ran a hand through his hair. “The girlfriend of the president is team Sadie all the way, man.”
“Yeah, so are we,” one of the girls said.
“Team Sadie,” said the other one. Both of them gave me looks of pure disgust.
“Gotcha.” I was noticing a pattern here.
I moved slowly down the three flights of stairs to the dank, dark basement. My room smelled like a petri dish. My stuff had been tossed inside with no care at all, so I spent the rest of the afternoon getting it put to rights and cleaning. I’d had to go out to the store to get cleaning products since the frat’s little sister program kept my room clean before. I asked if they cleaned all the guys’ rooms. They made it clear they were no longer interested in doing that for a person like me.
So, I’d gotten cleaning supplies. Then I had a hell of a time trying to figure out where the mold smell was coming from. I sneezed most of the afternoon, and I was pretty sure I was living in black mold.
I was feeling so sorry for myself when I finally showered and laid down to sleep, exhausted. I almost felt like crying. So, of course I did the worst possible thing. I stalked Sadie on social media. She’d had to close her old accounts and open new ones after the debacle with the sex videos. It took me a while to find her.
Then I’d finally found them.
She was clearly having the time of her life at UGA. There were pictures of her cheering on the sidelines, and multiple pictures of her with one of the wide receivers on the football team. There were pictures of them out at restaurants, dressed up for what I thought was a sorority formal, at the beach, and more. Had they gone on vacation together? How serious was she about this guy? Were they just friends? Or were they dating?
Then I committed the cardinal sin. I messaged her asking if we could talk.
Within twenty minutes I’d been blocked from all her accounts.
I rolled over and faced the wall that was probably hiding a thick layer of black mold behind it. I was devastated, lonely, and miserable.
It had not been a good day.
***
When the weekend rolled around, I was ready to party. I didn’t take pain medicine for my leg for a couple of days on purpose so I could get drunk. I felt like I deserved it after the awful return to campus I’d had. The fraternity always had great parties, and I felt sure tonight would be a night that would help me get over the hideous week I’d had.
I was just laying around getting some homework done, when there was a loud knock on my door. Excited since no one had visited me yet, I hurried to the door. I frowned when I saw a couple of freshman pledges. I was a junior, so I didn’t really hang with them. Hell, even when I was a freshman I had hung with the upper classmen.
