“So? The field’s on your way out of town.”
“Okay. I’ll stop. Love you guys.” I hugged Rob and grabbed my backpack, tote, and purse. We’d already packed everything else in the bed of the truck. I guess that was one benefit of driving the thing. I only hoped it didn’t rain.
I pulled out of the driveway, not happy about making a pit stop at the high school. It’s not that I didn’t want to say goodbye to my brother, but I didn’t feel like seeing his friends. I found a spot in the nearly empty lot and walked through the sticky August heat to the field.
Luckily, Davie was on the sidelines, so I didn’t wait long.
“Hey, Mal. Late night?” He tried to play it cool, but I could tell he was curious as hell.
“Yeah, I was with Annie.”
He put a sweaty hand on my shoulder and led me away from the rest of his teammates. He leaned in to whisper. “That’s not what I heard.”
“What did you hear?” I tried to stay calm. There was no way he knew.
“You and Colt? Wasn’t dating one of the Waters enough for you?” He was actually close with Colt, but he hated his older brother—Jack.
“Hey. I don’t know where you got the info, but it’s wrong.”
“Oh, really? Then why were people talking about him bagging my sister? Supposedly, you two were hot and heavy last night and went off somewhere. ”
“What?” I gaped at him. “That’s just gossip.”
“Is it? If it’s more than that, it’s going to get back to Rob.”
I groaned. I hated living in a town the size of a matchbox. Nothing stayed secret. “Yeah, well I guess it’s good I’m leaving today then.”
“You’re leaving?” He didn’t hide the disappointment in his voice. It made me feel a tad guilty about leaving on such short notice. I was going to miss him.
“I need to get back for rush.”
He grinned. “Can I come?”
I pushed his arm. “Hell no.”
“I’ve seen your pictures. You’ve got hot friends.” He wriggled an eyebrow.
“Hot friends that are completely off limits for your perverted daydreams.”
“It won’t be just daydreams.”
“Davie.”
“Sorry, but what’s the point of having an older sister if she can’t hook me up with girls? You never helped me when you lived at home.”
“Because you’re two years younger.”
“So? Didn’t you know that cougars were the thing now?” He gave me his signature wry grin, letting me know he was kidding.
Despite his smile, my stomach churned. I’d just slept with a younger guy. “Listen, I need to go.”
“You’ll be home for Fall Fest?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be here.”
“Cool. Have a good trip.” He hugged me, and I tried to ignore the sweat he left behind. I’d have to change before I got to campus.
“Be good, Davie.” I waved and headed to the truck. I watched him run on to the field. How had my little brother grown up so fast? He was a senior already. My senior year felt like forever ago. It wasn’t a time in my life I ever wanted to relive.
The trip to Charleston was three hours, and I only stopped once for gas. I changed into one of my Delta Mu t-shirts and got back in the truck. My phone rang just as I turned the engine on. I hoped it was Juliet, one of my roommates, calling me back. Instead, it was Colton. I pulled out of the gas station lot, waiting to see if he left a message.
He did. I held the receiver to my ear and took a breath before the message played:
Hey, Mallory. I hadn’t heard from you, so I thought I’d call. I had a great time last night. Are we still on for tonight? I’d love to take you out. Well, just let me know either way, okay?
My chest clenched. Was he asking me out to ease his conscious? Did he think he owed it to me? If so, he didn’t need to worry. There was no way I could handle calling him back, but I didn’t want to leave him waiting around too long. I pulled to the side of the road just before the ramp back onto the interstate.
Texting was always an easy way out.
Sorry. I already left town. Enjoy the rest of summer.
I hit send and tried to push him from my mind. He was probably just being chivalrous, or his version of it at least. He’d get the hint that I didn’t care.
I ignored the return message as I pulled onto the interstate. His text wasn’t worth an accident. I also ignored the next few text notifications. I hoped they were from my friends.
I finally took a look at my phone as I sat at a light a few blocks from campus.
You left town? When were you going to tell me you were leaving?
If you’re embarrassed about last night, don’t be. It was right. I’m glad it happened.
I’ve been waiting years for that, and it was so much better than I thought possible. But I don’t want it to just be about hooking up. I want to take you out too. And if this is about Jack, don’t worry. He’s cool with it. I promise.
I closed my eyes for a second. Damn it. What kind of mess did I create? And Jack was cool with it. What did that mean? He didn’t care that his brother was hitting up his leftovers? Colt had already told him what happened! My stomach churned. I couldn’t afford to go down the negative spiral of self-doubt that thinking about Jack always brought me.
I flipped over my phone so I didn’t have to look at the screen and drove the remaining blocks to campus. I turned once more and parked a block down from the house. I took a deep breath. It was time for sophomore year.
Chapter Four
“Mallory? What are you doing back so early?” Juliet nearly knocked me over when I walked into the house. The display of excitement was as un-Juliet as it comes. She usually smiled and gave you a small hug. I guess she was still on a Reed high. She’d been on cloud nine since she got back together with her upperclassman boyfriend. He was a senior, and president of Kappa, the frat we spent most of our time with. He was also sexy as hell and completely in love with her.
“Don’t you ever check your phone?” I set down the bag that she hadn’t knocked out of my hand.
“Oh. It’s upstairs. I’ve been cleaning.”
“Cleaning?”
She pointed out one of those Swiffer duster things. “I didn’t realize cleaning was part of what I signed up for when I agreed to help with rush prep, but it was worth it.”
“I wonder why,” I teased. I knew she’d been dying to get back to campus to see Reed. He lived in Charleston year round, but her parents made her go home for the summer.
“How have you been the past few weeks? We’ve been playing phone tag.” She tied up her long dirty-blonde hair into a bun.
“Pretty good. I’m glad to be back though.”
“I’m glad you’re back early.” She got a gleam in her eye.
“For a reason other than the fact that you’ve missed me terribly?”
“I’ve got someone you have to meet. He was abroad all last year, but he’s completely your type.” She picked up one of my bags and walked toward the stairs.
“My type?” I grabbed a bag and followed her.
“Yeah. Tall, dark, and sophisticated. He spent all of last year in London for Junior Year Abroad.”
“What’s his name?” I stopped to readjust the strap of my duffel. The worn out fabric was cutting into my shoulder through the thin cotton of my t-shirt.
“Tanner.” She started down the hallway.
“Okay, cool. You’ll have to introduce us.” Tanner was exactly what I needed, a distraction from the idiotic thing I’d done the night before.
“Welcome home.” Juliet stood back so I could step through our doorway first.
“Ahh!” I ran into the room unable to contain my excitement. Living in a triple with my two best friends was pretty much a dream come true. Juliet’s bed was already made up on one side. She’d left the bed by the window open, and I happily tossed my stuff down. “I have to get more bags, but this is going to be awesome.”
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br /> “I know! I’m going to call Cara and see if she can come back early too!”
“Is anyone else here? Where’s the rest of the rush committee?”
“They get here tomorrow.”
“Haven’t you been here a week already?”
She smiled. “I may have told my parents I needed to be back here earlier than absolutely necessary.”
I laughed. “I’m sure Reed was happy about that.”
“Thrilled. The summer apart was really hard. I spent so much time on the phone with him, I’m lucky the thing didn’t fuse with my face. He came up to visit a couple of times, but it wasn’t enough.”
“What did he do to celebrate your return?” I sat down on my mattress.
“Took me to dinner at Peninsula Grill, and then we went airplane gazing.”
“Ah, airplane gazing. I really need to try that sometime.”
“You do… maybe with Tanner.” She grinned. Juliet and Cara were desperate to set me up with a Kappa. They spent so much time over at the house that I think they felt bad leaving me out. I’d gone on a date with a Kappa once, and it had ended with him crying about missing his ex-girlfriend. That was the aforementioned failed random hook-up. “Any boys this summer you forgot to tell me about?”
“Nothing worth discussing.”
“But there was something.”
“Maybe.” The last thing I wanted to discuss was Colt. If I mentioned his name, she’d be all over me for details.
She squealed. “Spill!”
“No, thanks.”
“Come on. You can’t hold out on me.”
“All right, so I might have hooked up with someone I knew from high school.”
“Might have?” She wrinkled her nose.
“Okay. I did, but it was just a one night thing. It didn’t mean anything.”
“Where does he go to school?”
“USC.” For most people, that would mean the University of Southern California, but around here, everyone knew that stood for the University of South Carolina, home of the Gamecocks. Colt hadn’t actually started there yet, but that’s where the Gasden paper said he was going.
“What’s his name?”
I figured it couldn’t hurt to share the details. “Colton.”
She laughed. “Seriously? That’s such a country boy name. Does he let you call him Colt when you ride him?”
“So uncalled for. And it was one time, remember?”
“I couldn’t resist.”
I looked out the window. “Whatever. I need to get the rest of my stuff.”
“I’ll help.”
We went back down and outside.
“Where are you parked?” She looked around.
“Over there.” I pointed to my slate gray truck. I might as well get the mortification over with.
“You have a truck?”
“Yeah… it was my stepdad’s.”
“Oh. Cool. I’m sure Reed will appreciate that I don’t bug him to borrow his every time we need to move something.”
“Because we move things all the time?”
She shrugged as she waited for me to open the tail gate. “Sometimes.”
“You brought your car, right?”
“Yeah. It’s my Nissan from high school.” She pointed to a light green Sentra parked in front of the house. At least her car wasn’t new either. But Juliet never pretended to have money. She never pretended about anything. She was so cool and confident about things like that.
We pulled out the last of my bags and dragged them toward the house. “I wish I’d gotten your message. We should be making Reed do this.”
“I’ll make sure to call his phone next time.”
She opened the front door. “Do that.”
We lugged my bags upstairs. I hadn’t realized how heavy they were before. Probably because Rob had been the one doing all the lifting.
“You’ve got missed messages.” Juliet picked up my phone from where I left it on the dresser. She let out a surprised noise and read from the phone.
Ignoring me? Are you really going to be like this? Just call me.
“Are you sure Colt knows it was a one night thing?”
“Colton knows.” I didn’t like her calling him Colt. It was like she knew him, and I didn’t like thinking about my two lives colliding like that.
“You sure?” She looked at me skeptically.
“Yes, I’m sure.”
“Need some help unpacking?”
“No. Go see your man.” I could tell Juliet wanted to see Reed, and at least there wouldn’t be any more questions about Colt.
“My man?”
“Yeah. That’s how we talk in Gasden.”
“All right then. Are you going to text back your man, then?”
“Colt’s not my man. He’s just a boy I used to know.”
“Cold… even for you. Come by the Kappa house when you’re done.”
“I’ll call first to make sure you’ve left Reed’s room.” I nudged her shoulder. I refused to dwell on what she meant by “even for you.” Did she secretly think I was a bitch? It wasn’t worth reading into. Juliet wasn’t passive aggressive like that.
“Do you really think I’m going over there to have sex with him?”
“Yes.” I unzipped the first bag.
“I’m not. I actually have my period.”
“However are you guys going to survive the week?” I asked with exaggerated drama.
“Cuddling. Lots of cuddling.”
“You make me sick.”
“Glad to hear that.” She stopped in the doorway. “You’ll come by later, right?”
“Yeah. I’ll come by.”
“Good.”
I unpacked slowly. I wasn’t in a huge rush to get to the Kappa house. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against frat guys, but talking to Juliet about Colt kind of put me off. Thankfully, he hadn’t texted again. I had no idea what to do. I had no desire to talk to him, but maybe I owed it to him. Maybe Juliet was right, and I was being an ice queen. I was only trying to make things easier for both of us.
After a lot of deliberating I picked up the phone and called. It went to his voicemail. I let out a sigh of relief and pocketed my phone.
I finished hanging up my dresses, feeling grateful we each had a separate closet. Three girls sharing one closet would have been pushing it.
Twenty minutes later, I had my bags all stowed, my bed made, and my determination to have fun back.
I texted Juliet to make sure she was still at the Kappa house before heading over.
I walked to the Kappa house in a good mood. I was back at Harrison, where I belonged. How I managed to live in Gasden for eighteen years was beyond me. I missed my family, but that was the only thing to miss from my small town.
I reached the large brick house in minutes. Although not quite as well up kept as the Delta Mu house, it had a similar look, complete with a front porch. I pushed open the partially ajar door. I took in the spacious open room that looked a lot like every other frat house I’d been in. Littered with a few beer bottles and furnished with an assortment of couches, a beer pong table (I’d never seen anyone use it for anything but that), and a pool table, it looked exactly like it had the year before.
“Took you long enough,” Juliet teased when she saw me. She was sitting right next to Reed on a black leather couch. His hand rested on her leg.
“Hey, Mallory!” Reed got up and came right over to hug me. It says a lot about a guy when he cares about his girlfriend’s friends.
I returned the hug. “Hey. How was your summer?”
“You know. Lonely.”
“She’s back now.”
“Oh, I know. Sorry to say your roommate won’t be around too many nights.”
I patted his arm before stepping away. “You’re not sorry about that.”
He grinned. “No, I’m not.”
I spotted Cara’s boyfriend, Aaron. “I’m guessing Cara won’t be around much either?”
Aaron smiled an almost lopsided grin. “Not if I can help it, but you know she freezes me out sometimes.”
“Only when you deserve it.”
“I’ll tell her you said that.”
“Good. Get me points.” I sat down next to Juliet. “So what have I missed?”
“Absolutely nothing. We’re trying to figure out what to do tonight.”
“Oh yeah? You mean the guys aren’t planning to sit around drinking and playing cards?”
“Hey, I take that personally. We do other things.” Reed sat down on the other side of Juliet.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I guess you could play beer pong.”
Reed smiled. “We only have a few days of quiet before the rush parties start.”
“I’m looking forward to them. We were so busy with sorority rush last year that we didn’t get to come.”
“It’s a fun time.”
“Hey, no one told me we had company.” A male voice came from the other side of the room.
“Tanner, this is Mallory. Mallory, this is Tanner.” Reed gestured to a tall, athletic looking guy I hadn’t met before. He had dark brown hair that he wore short.
“Hey.” He strode over confidently. When he reached me, he leaned over and took my hand. “Nice to meet you.”
I accepted the handshake. “Same to you.”
“Mallory’s my roommate,” Juliet supplied.
“Is that so?”
“She spends a lot of time here.” Juliet smiled at me.
“Good to know.” He sat on the arm of the couch next to me, forcing me to look up at him.
“She’s also roommates with Cara,” Aaron answered.
“So, in other words, you guys were busy with the Delta Mu pledges last year.” Tanner smirked.
Reed put an arm around Juliet. “Mallory’s single.”
I glared at him. “Thanks, Reed.”
“Just saying.”
“Also good to know.” Tanner blatantly checked me out, and I tried to ignore it.
The next few hours were kind of a blur. We ordered in pizza and spent a few hours drinking and playing beer pong. It wasn’t great, but it was better than the parties I’d been to over the summer. At least this one didn’t involve a field or hay.
“We need to do something fun.” Max, a sophomore I knew, drank another cup after losing the round of beer pong.
The Hazards of a One Night Stand Page 3
