Better Off Red Read online

  popularity. There hadn’t been a single girl at their table when we

  walked over, but it looked like every single freshman and sophomore

  girl on campus had signed up to rush ABO. Not sure what to make

  of it, I gripped the pen, ready to sign my week away. Before I could,

  my phone rang. I pulled out my cell and looked at the display.

  “Excuse me. I gotta take this.” I handed the pen to Amy and

  tucked myself out of the way, under the shade of a nearby tree. “Hi,

  Mom.”

  “Hi, sweetie. I just wanted to check on you. How’s my baby?”

  • 15 •

  reBekah WeatherspOOn

  “I’m fine. Amy’s trying to drag me through rush week with

  her,” I said loud enough for Amy to hear, forgetting that the girls of

  ABO could hear me too. Thank God they waved my comment off as

  a joke before dragging Amy into more pointless conversations about

  mascots and themed parties.

  “Are you going to join a sorority?” Mom asked.

  Keeping my voice low, I replied, “Probably not, but I’ll keep

  Amy company until rush is over.”

  “Aw, honey. You’re such a good friend. Oh! Toddy’s here. He

  wants to talk to you.” I heard my mom tell my brother I was joining

  a sorority as she handed him the phone. Not my exact words. Linda

  Carmichael had a special sort of short-term Mom memory I had

  grown accustomed to.

  “What up, Gingey?”

  “Hey, Todd.” I didn’t fight the smile that spread across my face.

  My brother was twenty-three and still never turned my mom down

  when she offered to cook for him in exchange for manual labor

  around the house. I loved him. He made it so easy. He knew me so

  well, knew that I hated my mom’s salmon cakes, her favorite thing

  to make for us. He knew I secretly loved my freckles, and although

  our parents were great people, it meant a lot to me that the both of

  us were adopted. Todd knew exactly what it felt like to know that

  your birth mother was dead, and he knew the way your heart ached

  once you realized you’d finally found a real family. My brother was

  my best friend.

  Our dad was out of the country, lending his surgeon’s hands to

  the Red Cross in a coastal region of Brazil that had just been hit by

  an earthquake. He would be gone for several weeks, and I was glad

  Todd was still around looking after our mom.

  “What’d she break?” I said flatly.

  “Nothing. Dad got her a new DVD player, but he didn’t install

  it before he left. I’m hooking it up for her.”

  “You’re such a good boy.”

  “That’s what she keeps telling me. So you’re joining stuff

  now?”“No. My roommate wants me to, but—”

  • 16 •

  Better Off red

  “You should.” I didn’t bother holding in a burst of laughter.

  “Easy now. Just listen. You move into the house. All those girls are

  walking around in their jammies, taking showers together, making

  breakfast naked. It’ll take about five point five seconds for you to

  figure out which ones are muff divers and which ones aren’t.”

  I would have been eight shades of red having this conversation

  with anyone else, but Todd also knew I liked girls. He’d caught me

  kissing our neighbor, Kristen Lander, over the summer. I wasn’t

  exactly sure whether I was bisexual or what, but he knew I was

  trying to figure it out. After Paige’s little nipple maneuver, Todd

  may have had a point. A sorority might be a good place to start.

  “That simple, huh?” I kicked a rock at my feet. I could feel

  Amy’s eyes on me, but I wasn’t ready to rush off the phone just yet.

  “It is.”

  “I don’t know yet. I could still totally like guys.”

  “Well, sister, college is a great place to find out. It’s where I

  discovered my love for Sam Adams in the ongoing battle of liquor

  versus beer.”

  “Yeah, thanks, Todd. I gotta go. Kiss Mom for me.”

  “Will do.” Then Todd shouted, “Come here, Linda! I got a kiss

  for you!” I hit end, shaking my head. I hadn’t been away from home

  for very long at all, but I missed my family like crazy. Amy, on the

  other hand, seemed perfectly at home with the girls of Alpha Beta

  Omega.

  “Sorry about that,” I said bashfully as I walked back toward

  the table.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Danni said sweetly. “We were just

  telling Amy more about the mixer we’re going to have tonight. You

  two should stop by our house around nine?” She quirked her head

  in Cleo’s direction.

  “Yeah, nine.”

  I picked up the pen, turned to the thirteenth page, and wrote

  down my information. We said our good-byes and Amy finally

  agreed it was time for lunch.

  “See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Amy handed me a black

  pamphlet. On the cover of the tri-fold was the red silhouette of a

  panther below the script of ABO.

  • 17 •

  reBekah WeatherspOOn

  “No. They seemed pretty cool.” I tucked the info page in my

  bag and headed off toward the cafeteria. As we walked, I looked

  back toward the Alpha Beta Omega table. The info sessions on the

  quad were supposed to go until four that afternoon, but the girls of

  ABO were already packing up to leave.

  ❖

  I wanted to kill Amy. All in, she’d planned to visit six information

  sessions, which meant I had to stop by six sorority houses.

  The night went a little something like this: Amy and I would

  walk up to the front door of any particular house. We both wore

  white shirts with our fitted jeans. Amy wouldn’t let me wear green.

  Giggly Girl A and her sidekick, Giggly Girl B, would greet us at

  the door and quickly invite us in. Over-anxious Girl would ask us

  to repeat our names and ask us our majors. Amy was undeclared,

  so she’d just bite her lip and shrug. I’d explain to everyone within

  earshot that there was actually a lot you could do with a degree in

  exercise science. Then I would repeat exactly what kinesiology was

  to the girls who had stumbled into the middle of the conversation.

  After these in-depth analyses of our true personalities, we

  would be given a brief tour of the whitewashed living room and the

  granite topped kitchen. We’d accept a drink and a snack, then stand

  around with three dozen other prospective new members and talk

  more about classes and, of course, boys. I’d met thirty-four girls

  named Jessica, twenty-two named Kaitlin, sixteen Jennifers, and a

  very interesting girl with one arm named Parnin, who I suspected

  was admitted to a particular sorority for karma points.

  I was on upbeat overload, and if I was being honest with

  myself, seriously considering giving up my quest for a female who

  could be more than a friend. I’d had enough estrogen to last me a

  few lifetimes. If the Alpha Beta Omega house hadn’t been our last

  stop on this slow tour through hell, I would have ditched Amy the

  moment I heard how much it cost to join a sorority. Screw Todd’s

  advice. There were other wa
ys to meet girls.

  • 18 •

  Better Off red

  At the Xi O house, I had to give myself a break. Amy was

  talking another Jessica’s head off about how skinny jeans didn’t

  flatter anyone, and all I could think about was what time I should

  meet my lab partner on Saturday. I excused myself to the restroom,

  then wandered out the front door. I texted Amy, telling her where

  to find me when she was ready. She showed up a few seconds later.

  “Is it that bad?” she asked, closing the door behind her.

  “Yes, it is. Do you want to hang out with these girls? I mean,

  really?” If the answer was yes, I might have had to rethink the terms

  of our friendship.

  “So far, no, but we haven’t gotten to know them yet and they

  haven’t gotten to know us.”

  “Right, but why do we have to go through all this and pay to

  get to know them better? I’m perfectly happy just meeting people

  the normal way. You know, study groups, hanging out at the gym, at

  the cafeteria, crap like that.”

  “No. I know, you’re right. But, Ginge, we only get to do this

  sort of thing once in our lives. Let’s just get through this week. If

  you get any bids, just turn them down. I promise, if I do end up

  pledging, I won’t let it affect you at all.”

  “We live together. It’ll affect me.”

  “Look, it’s only eight thirty, but let’s just head over to the ABO

  house now and we can get the night over with.”

  “Deal. And then we need to find food. Cheese and crackers do

  not a meal make.”

  “Deal,” Amy said with a firm nod. “Let’s go.” She grabbed my

  hand and I let her drag me down the street.

  ❖

  You could spot the Alpha Beta Omega house from a mile away

  because the ABO house wasn’t a house at all. It was an enormous

  colonial mansion. You could have seen it from the moon. The other

  houses on the Row were nice, big enough to accommodate all their

  members, plenty of room for entertaining, but this place was amazing.

  A wide brick path rose up the front lawn to the front door, framed

  • 19 •

  reBekah WeatherspOOn

  with several white columns. The brick facade stretched for yards and

  yards in either direction, and it would have taken me a few minutes to

  count all of the black shuttered windows that covered the three visible

  floors. In the center of it all, the seven-foot high Greek letters for

  Alpha Beta Omega sat molded to the face of the vaulted porch roof.

  “Wow,” Amy gasped.

  “Yeah,” I said breathlessly.

  “You planning on going inside?” We turned around to see Cleo

  coming up the path, her arms loaded down with several boxes of

  pizza.“Yeah. Of course,” Amy replied.

  I held out my hands for the boxes. “You need help?”

  “Nah. Can you just grab the door for me?”

  We scampered ahead up the steps and opened the heavy white

  door. The house was filled with girls, but the mood was strangely

  subdued. Pop music was playing from one room, and from another

  we heard an episode of the hot new 90210 coming from the TV.

  “Look what I found lurking on the front lawn,” Cleo yelled.

  Danni came walking into the foyer. She looked great in a simple pair

  of jeans and her ABO colors.

  “Hey. You’re early.”

  “Yeah, we just—” I started.

  “Ginger was getting bored at the Xi O house so we just came

  over here,” Amy finished.

  “Shut up. I wasn’t bored. I just—”

  “You missed us, didn’t you?” Danni said, winking at me.

  “Something like that.” I swallowed when she took a step closer.

  Danni gently pinched my arm. “Well, come eat.”

  We followed her into the kitchen where a bunch of girls were

  already diving into the pizza Cleo had spread out on the counter.

  There were a handful of prospective new members mingling in

  with the sisters, but not as many as I’d expected. At all the other

  houses I felt like a cow being packed shoulder to shoulder into

  the slaughterhouse. Not at the ABO house. I could breathe, move

  around, find a seat. Everything was just so casual. I wondered for a

  moment if we’d missed a big crowd earlier.

  • 20 •

  Better Off red

  After we grabbed our slices, we followed Danni into the living

  room. A few would-be pledges were playing cards with a few of

  the sisters at a round cherry wood table behind the huge sectional

  couch. Other girls were parked around the TV. Some were talking,

  answering questions, and giving out actual information about the

  sorority while others were just vegging out. It felt…normal.

  Paige, the beautiful stern-faced brunette we’d met that

  afternoon, was there on the couch. It turned out she was the chapter’s

  vice president, a role that didn’t quite seem to fit with her penchant

  for stroking other people’s nipples in public. She made room for us

  on the couch before liberating a slice of pepperoni from Danni’s

  plate. “You ladies pick your house yet?” Paige asked.

  “That’s it, Paige. Get right to it,” Cleo said. Amy blushed

  uncontrollably, glaring at me for support.

  “Oh no, don’t give me that bug-eyed look. This is your party,”

  I said.

  “It’s okay, Amy,” Danni said as she reached out and touched

  Amy’s hand. “It would be kinda hard to keep a sorority going if no

  one new wanted to be a member. Tell us where else you guys have

  been looking.”

  Amy swallowed nervously. “Well, we went to a few places, but

  my mom was a Xi O, so—”

  “Bitches,” Cleo coughed.

  “They flat out told Layna over there”—Paige pointed to a

  caramel skinned black girl with blond streaks in her hair who was

  playing cards—“that they didn’t take her kind.”

  “Wow.” Amy gasped. I bit my tongue. There was no way we

  were going back there.

  “You look pretty pissed about that, Ginge.” Cleo’s eyebrow

  went up as she looked at me.

  “My brother’s black,” I said. “We’re both adopted. I don’t

  know what I would do if someone talked to him like that.”

  “I knew I liked you.” Cleo chuckled, swatting my thigh. I

  let her encouragement calm my rage as Amy filled them in on the

  • 21 •

  reBekah WeatherspOOn

  other houses we’d visited that night. In return, they gave us their

  honest opinion of each sorority, pointing out legit pros and cons and

  throwing in bits of gossip that would interest anyone whether she

  gave a crap about rush or not.

  The big-chested Asian girl, Barb, joined in halfway through

  our conversation. She was the chapter president, but in a refreshing

  twist, Barb didn’t walk around with that same “I can’t wait to make

  you wear adult diapers to class” attitude the other chapter presidents

  wore proudly.

  “I’m supposed to ask,” she said, “Have you picked a major

  yet?” This time the question didn’t annoy me. Barb’s tone made me

  feel like she actually c
ared.

  “I’m going for a BS in exercise science. I’m trying to get

  prereqs out of the way.”

  “What are you going to do with that?” Paige asked, looking at

  me with the same bored expression she’d worn all night.

  “Teach gym,” Amy said.

  “No,” I shot back.

  “It’s okay. Heather is majoring in gym too.” I looked in the

  direction Cleo nodded. A pretty girl with chestnut brown hair greeted

  us as she plopped on the floor between Cleo’s legs. Cleo leaned over

  and kissed her gently on the forehead. Thoughts of how close they

  really were had me shifting in my seat.

  “I want to be an athletic trainer in the NFL. MU has a good

  relationship with the Baltimore Ravens.” I was from Massachusetts

  and admittedly a bandwagon Patriots fan.

  “Oh, wow. That’s cool,” Barb said.

  “I know,” I said, playfully glaring at Amy.

  A while later, I excused myself on a legitimate search for the

  bathroom. When I came back into the room, I noticed immediately

  that the number of people had grown by one.

  A stunning girl, dressed all in black, had pulled Barb into

  the corner and was talking quietly in her ear. I’d never considered

  whether I had a type before, but looking at this girl with her spiky

  midnight black hair made me think I had one now. The black tank top

  she wore showed off her perfectly toned arms and the low-cut front

  • 22 •

  Better Off red

  showed off a generous amount of cleavage. The bright red lipstick

  that would have screamed five-dollar whore on anyone else looked

  amazing against her golden skin. The shade matched perfectly with

  the ruby studs in her ears. The shape of her eyes, her nose, and her

  high cheekbones said she had some sort of Hispanic blood flowing

  through her veins. Her bright hazel eyes that were focused directly

  on me said something else.

  She continued to whisper to Barb, but her eyes stayed on me.

  For a moment, I noticed her nostrils flaring as if she were trying to

  catch a scent in the air. My face grew hot. My stomach tingled, and

  I didn’t miss the fact that my underwear had suddenly become wet.

  I swallowed nervously, all the while trying to catch my breath. I’d

  never had that sort of reaction to anyone.

  It was the perfect moment for Barb to catch me staring. Feeling

  the heat of embarrassment crawl up my neck, I scampered back over