Palm South University Season 1 Omnibus (15 page)

“I’m fine.” Cassie slips on the heels as she hops into the bathroom. “Just let me put on some lipstick and I’ll be ready.”

“Perfect. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for a drink. You have your fake, right?”

“Yeah,” she says, finishing the last coat of red on her lips. She packs the lipstick in her clutch and turns back to me, a new determination on her face. “And I don’t just need
a
drink. I need ten.”

“Now you’re talking like a KKB!”

I throw my arm around her shoulder, steering her out the door. Just as we reach the bottom of the stairs, the front door flies open and Ashlei stumbles through.

She’s still in her initiation dress, but the white fabric is wrinkled and stained in several places now. Her skin is covered in a light sheen of sweat and I can tell without a second glance that she’s been crying.

“Oh my God. Ashlei, what happened?”

Ashlei’s eyes are empty as they meet mine. She gazes around the foyer for a moment before closing the front door behind her and stumbling toward the stairs. “I’m fine. I’m skipping Ralph’s.”

She starts making her way up and Cassie and I exchange worried glances. “Ashlei,” I call out, following her. Cassie is on my heels. “You’re clearly not fine. What’s going on?”

“I said I’m fine!” she screams, turning on me. “God, Erin, you’re not my mother. Back off!” With that, she runs the last few stairs and a few seconds later I hear the door to our room slam shut. Swallowing, I turn back to Cassie.

“Do you want to stay with her?” she offers.

“No, no. She won’t talk to anyone when she’s like that. Let’s just go. I’ll talk to her in the morning.”

Cassie offers a soft smile and nods.

Regardless of the tension at the house, Cassie and I loosen up once we get to Ralph’s. Jess and Bo are already there and Skyler joins us not too long after, looking satisfied and ready to party. Jess high fives her when she finds out what happened and Bo buys her a shot. I can only shake my head.

Initiation is over. The semester is halfway over, too. Looking around the bar at my sisters, I feel the heaviness of that settle in on me. Something is going on with Ashlei, Skyler’s hiding something with Bear, Jess is skating on thin ice with a teacher and my parents are on my ass more than ever. Sighing, I sip on my shitty college-bar martini. I don’t have much time to think on all the drama, though, because Jess and Skyler jump up on the bar and start pouring shots straight out of the bottle into the mouths of students lining the barstools. I let out a laugh and raise my glass.

The KKB girls may be kind of crazy, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

IT’S STRANGE HOW SOME MEMORIES are fleeting, almost gone the moment they happen, and others are burned into our brains and locked on replay. The kiss I shared with Adam just a little over a week ago is one of the latter. Lying in the hot South Florida sun right now only seems to sear the impression of his mouth onto mine even more. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to lick my lips again without tasting his.

“Seriously, why would anyone want to live anywhere other than Florida?” Jess asks with a sigh, leaning back into her beach chair further. “It’s a Tuesday. In late October. And we’re on the beach.”

“One of the many perks of Palm South,” Erin adds, sipping on the vodka water mix she has in her Kappa Kappa Beta tumbler cup. Jess, Erin, and Ashlei are still tan from the summer and each little bit of sun they’ve managed to catch since fall hit. My skin, on the other hand, never seems to stray too far from a pale white. Sometimes I get tan lines, but usually they’re more like
peach
lines. I don’t ever get truly tan.

“Where’s your Big, Cassie?” Jess asks. I steal a glance at Ashlei through my shades. She’s been quiet all day, barely saying more than a few words. She just keeps steadily sipping on her own tumbler and staring out at the waves.

“Skyler had to practice for that tournament she’s in this weekend. I’ve barely seen her since initiation.” I gulp, remembering exactly the way I saw her that night – tangled up in the sheets with Adam.

“Boo,” Jess resolves. “I don’t think I’ll ever understand her obsession with that game.”

“I think there’s more to it than she tells us.” I notice Erin avoiding the conversation when I hint to Skyler holding something back and it only confirms it. There’s something she’s not telling us.

Seems to be a lot of that going on around here.

“I’m going in the water.” Ashlei doesn’t wait for anyone to respond before she’s up out of her chair and halfway to where the gentle waves are rolling in.

“Is she okay?” I ask, not really pointing the question to anyone directly.

“She hasn’t really talked to me since we ran into her before Ralph’s on Saturday,” Erin answers, her mouth pulled to the side. “Ashlei is really private, though. She’ll tell us what’s on her mind when she’s ready.” Erin turns to me. “How’s the situation with your roommate, G-Little?”

I groan. “Awful. I can’t wait to move into the sorority house next semester. I don’t want to lose my relationship with Paris but I swear she couldn’t care less if I was eaten by a shark.”

“What’s her deal, anyway? Weren’t you best friends in high school?” Jess asks, reapplying lotion to her shoulders.

“That’s what makes it so difficult. She’s completely different and we’ve only been here two months. I don’t understand it.” I frown and sip on my own drink, enjoying the buzz of day drinking in the sunshine. It’s an entirely different kind of tipsy than a bar at night.

“Oh my God.” Jess fumbles with her drink, trying to pull her large, floppy beach hat over her face. “Shit. Shit shit shit.”

“What?” Erin and I ask in unison.

“It’s Jarrett. Fuck! How is it that this guy is everywhere I am?! I know our campus is small but Jesus Christ.”

Just as she says the words, I spot Jarrett down the beach. His bald head is covered with a baseball cap pulled on backward and his eyes are shielded behind thick black sunglasses. Even from this distance I can see a plethora of tattoos sprawling up both of his arms.

“Damn, Jess,” Erin says, shaking her head. “I have no idea how you’re resisting that hotness. I kind of want to pour my drink on him and lick it off.”

Jess pegs Erin with the bottle of tanning lotion she was just using and Erin laughs, the sound echoing off the waves. Jarrett turns toward us and we all snap our mouths shut and face the water again.

“Tell me he did not just see us,” Jess whispers. “Oh my God, he’s coming over here.”

Erin and I are giggling when Jarrett reaches us.

“Jess, can I talk to you?” He frowns, tucking his hands into the pockets of his forest green board shorts. “Please?”

“Is it Wednesday night?”

Jarrett looks confused. “What?”

“If it’s not Wednesday night, then I’m not in my Scope and Methods class,” Jess asserts, lifting herself from her chair. Even with sunglasses on it’s hard for Jarrett to hide the way his eyes are taking in Jess’s body now that she’s standing. “Therefore, we have nothing to talk about.”

“I beg to differ,” he starts, but Jess is already halfway to the water.

“See you in class!” she calls out behind her before joining Ashlei. Jarrett sighs, gives Erin and I a slight nod of his head, and then makes his way back up the beach.

“Poor guy,” Erin says. Jess and Ashlei are wading waist-deep in the water, but neither of them say a word. They just stare out at the boats passing by in the distance and let the ocean breeze roll through their hair. As Erin drifts off in her chair, I fall into the comfortable silence and my thoughts settle on the one person who seems to haunt them most nowadays.

Adam.

My stomach twinges and I shift in my chair. No matter how much I tell myself I need to stop, I can’t quit thinking about our kiss. More specifically – what the kiss was to him as opposed to what it was to me. When his lips met mine, I felt a spark – an electricity I’ve never experienced before. It caught at the point of contact and spread like wildfire through my entire body within seconds.

But then he pulled back and brushed it off like it was nothing to him.

And maybe it wasn’t.

That’s what kills me most.

Friends. That’s what he wants to be. And now that I know Skyler is interested in him, too, I’m doubly screwed. Is there a protocol for Big/Littles liking the same guy? Do I tell her I like him? Would that be selfish since he essentially said kissing me was weird?

Sighing, I fall deeper into my chair and pull my psychology textbook from my beach bag. Our chapters this week cover the signs and psychology of social acceptance and unrequited love. Though I know what I’m feeling is far from love, the coincidence isn’t lost on me.

We stay on the beach until the sun sets and then pack up our bags and head back to campus. The girls drop me at my dorm on their way to the house and Paris is home when I arrive.

She looks up at me, assesses the beach gear I’m still holding, and then looks back down at the fingernail she’s painting. She doesn’t even acknowledge me and I can’t decide if it pisses me off or just feels like a punch to the gut.

“Hey, Paris.”

“Hey.”

“Going out tonight?”

“I have a sorority event at the house in an hour.”

“Oh,” I say softly. “Okay. Well do you maybe want to hang out tomorrow night after your late class?”

“Sorry, can’t.”

“What about Thursday?”

“Busy.”

“Friday?”

She sighs, tightening the lid on the bright pink polish and blowing on her fresh coat. “Honestly, Cassie? I really don’t want to hang out. No offense, but I’ve got a lot going on with Zeta right now and I know you probably do with KKB, too.” She wrinkles her nose a bit as she says my letters and I clench my teeth.

“I’m not too busy to hang out with my best friend. Or has that changed and I’m just unaware?”

“We’re in college now, Cassie,” Paris says, resigned. “Aren’t we a little old for the best friends thing?”

Shaking my head, I don’t even answer her question before storming back to my room, silently thanking my parents for getting me a dorm with separate bedrooms. I slam the door and toss my beach bag in the corner before falling face first onto my bed. I want to cry, or scream, or anything that will help get the emotion out of me but nothing comes. When my phone’s beachy ringtone fills the silence, I reach for it and answer before even checking caller ID.

“Hello?”

“What are you doing?”

I bolt upright when I recognize Adam’s voice on the other end of the line. “Just got home from the beach.”

“Are you hungry? My class just ended and I’m starved and could use a beer. Want to hit The Plaza with me?”

I swallow. “Uh, sure. What time do you want to meet?”

“I’m heading there now. Just come to Pie Heaven when you’re ready.”

“Okay. See you in a minute.”

I don’t even bother changing and within fifteen minutes I’m walking into the pizza place. The Plaza is a casual little shopping center with a few restaurants, two bars, and a dozen little Mom and Pop shops ranging from a nail salon to a custom t-shirt shop. When I walk into Pie Heaven, Adam is already there. He waves at me from a booth in the very back.