“You sure you’re okay?”
He nods again and presses another kiss to my forehead. “I’ll help you study tomorrow. It’s getting late, so we should get ready.”
Sigma Chi is throwing their last party of the year. Normally, I’d skip it, but this is Nate’s last party before graduation. And if I stayed behind, I know he’d never go without me.
Loud thumping vibrates through the house, and the bass of the music almost overpowers the words of the songs.
My eyes squint, searching the party, trying to find where Nate or Leo went after their beer pong game ended.
I stay rooted in the corner, not wanting to leave my spot in case Nate comes looking for me.
Taking a sip from my jungle juice, making sure I drink this slowly since I’m a two-drink max kind of girlie, I begin to get frustrated when I don’t see them. And now, I’m getting a show from the sorority girls. Half grind on one another, trying to impress the guys, while the other half are playing another round of beer pong, also to impress the guys.
Great.
“Holy hotness.” I turn to see Meredith, my classmate, eyes popping out of her head as they rake over every inch of my body.
“Thanks,” I mutter.
Her eyes don’t leave my body.
I glance down at what I’m wearing, and I guess it’s a bit revealing, but nothing compared to the other girls weaving their way through the party.
I am wearing black strappy platform sandals, a denim miniskirt that shows off my long legs, and a crop top made from an old vintage hoodie, repping Baltimore for Mase.
The hood has been my saving grace tonight. It helped me hide in the corner, shielding me from too many interactions at the party.
My long, dark hair is down and straightened, and my eyes, I know, are glowing emerald with the amount of black eyeliner and mascara I have on tonight.
“When did you get here?” she asks.
“Who knows, this is my version of Hell, it feels like forever. What are you doing here anyway?”
Meredith is similar to me. She would rather stay home watching a movie or studying than subject herself to the debauchery around us.
“I’m kind of dating the kicker on the football team.”
“What? No way.”
She nods. “Yeah. He’s nerdy like us but feels obligated to come to these things sometimes.”
Her voice quickly dies, and her eyes widen in fear. A guy, rivaling Mase’s size, stumbles backward into me, the red punch in my cup splatters across my chest and face.
“Oh my god. Are you kidding me?” I splutter.
“Oh hell. Sorry,” he slurs and begins patting my chest to help clean me up.
I push him off, despite his size. “I’ve got it.”
He squints, then recognition hits. “Oh shit. You’re Cunningham’s sister.”
I freeze at the mention of Mason.
I’m used to being asked about Nate at school, but I thought I escaped Mase’s shadow despite his notorious reputation nowadays. But I shouldn’t be shocked by this guy’s size alone; I should have guessed he was on the football team.
“Who’s Cunningham?” a girl whines beside him, swaying slightly every time she moves.
“Best quarterback the pros have seen in ages.”
