Chapter 2

CHAPTER

TWO

C oach Larson wasn't going to like this.

I stood in the basement of Kappa Beta Rho with nine other new initiates and stared at the grocery bag full of jello.

This morning, Coach Larson had taken me into his office—it smelled like old socks and Bengay—and told me that I was shit. But like, in a positive way? That it didn't matter if I'd been the star player on the baseball team in high school because right now I was at the bottom of the pile again, playing with and against guys who were stronger, faster, and better than me. And that freshman year was going to kick my ass, so I had to figure out now if I was going to let it do that or if I was going to kick its ass right back. And kicking its ass right back—that was the right answer, by the way—involved turning up to strength training every day, attending all my classes, and not getting distracted by parties and drinking and girls.

Well, two out of three, in my case, and when Coach Larson had seen the rainbow pin on my backpack, he'd amended his speech accordingly.

The point was, he wasn't going to like the idea that less than twelve hours after his expletive-laden advice, I was now a newly minted member of Kappa Beta Rho, a fraternity known for its partying. And not only was I now a Kappa, but I was getting involved in pranking . And sure, jello in toilet bowls was harmless, and it was a far cry from some of the shit my older brother Colt liked to boast he'd gotten up to, but it was still the polar opposite of coach's "straighten up and fly right" advice. If anything, this was "veer sharply left and crash and burn" territory.

I was tempted to walk away, but the reality was that Kappa Beta Rho had always been part of the plan. I didn't exactly have a great academic track record, and I didn't want to be one of those guys on a sports scholarship who ended up working at a sporting goods store after college. I needed to make connections and actually put my future business degree to good use if I blew out my knee or something—and being in a fraternity would provide that.

The pledge master, Zach Everett—a guy who a week ago had literally given me a speech about how the fraternity didn't do shit like this anymore—nodded to the grocery bag and back to me. "So are you in?"

"And you're sure it's safe?" I asked, playing for time.

Zach rolled his eyes. "Of course it is. We don't wanna fuck up their pipes, just have a little fun."

"And why am I the one doing this again?"

Zach shrugged again. "Because the guys at Alpha Tau suck?"

"No," I clarified. "Why am I , specifically, doing this? Why not one of the other guys?"

"Oh! Because I put everyone's name in a hat and pulled yours out first."

I bit my lip. When it came down to it, I didn't have much choice. I wanted to live with these guys and not catch shit for the rest of the year, or maybe even the rest of my time at college, about how I'd chickened out of a dumb prank. "Okay," I said. "I'll do it."

"Awesome!" Zach slapped me on the back. "You just gotta slip into Alpha Tau, add the jello to the bathrooms, and sneak out again."

My belly swooped with nerves, and I wondered if it was too late to change my mind. I knew there was a long-running rivalry with Alpha Taus, and I didn't doubt that if they caught me, they'd be dicks about it. Getting busted doing something like this seemed like exactly the sort of thing that would get me in some serious shit with Coach Larson and the school.

"Um, should I change my shirt?" I plucked at the hem of the Kappa Beta Rho tee I was wearing.

"What for? It's not like anyone's gonna see you, right?"

I swallowed. "But what if they do? What if I get caught?"

Zach shrugged. "Make something up. Invent a secret boyfriend."

The Kappa Beta Rho guys had turned out to be surprisingly chill about me being gay, and it had been a relief. I'd braced myself for some pushback, but it had never arrived. I wasn't sure if it was because my big brother's portrait was hanging on the wall of presidents and that earned me a pass or if it was just that nobody cared enough to notice. Either way, it was one less thing I had to worry about.

No, I just had to break into a rival frat house, commit some low-level vandalism, and sneak out using ninja skills that I didn't possess.

No big deal, right?

Right.

After we'd all been assigned our tasks, we trooped up out of the basement and into the middle of a game of beer pong going on in the dining room. Kappa Beta Rho wasn't as fancy as some of the other houses on the row. Like, the building itself had probably been equal to its neighbors once, but now? The exterior walls needed a coat of paint, and the green of the front lawn was littered with beer cans and interspersed with dead brown patches where various brothers had puked and killed the grass. There were a few straggly, half-dead shrubs marking the property line, but they looked like they'd fall over in a stiff breeze. Inside, there were dart holes in the wood-paneled walls, and the rugs were all stained from years of college parties. The varnish had worn off the floorboards in the main living area, and none of the furniture matched.

The shared bedrooms were tiny and dull, painted in a dirty shade of khaki that could best be classed as correctional facility chic.

If this was a college movie, we would definitely be the fraternity with John Belushi in it, was what I was saying.

From what I could tell, the members were an odd mishmash of jocks and guys who were just coasting through their degrees—Kappa Beta Rho basically took in anyone who could afford the fees. Still, it was a whole lot better than paying rent off campus or staying in one of the dorms, and since I was a legacy, I was an automatic in. At least that was one thing I could thank my pain-in-the-ass older brother for.

A Ping-Pong ball slammed into the wall beside my head, bringing me back to the moment.

"Go get ‘em, Tanner!" some beefy blond dude yelled. "Fuck those guys up!"

I exchanged a look with Kip, one of the other new guys. His expression said "I'm glad it's you and not me."

"Okay," I said, and Zach clapped me on the shoulder, shoved the grocery bag full of jello at me, and pushed me out the door in the middle of the night.

If there was a method of casually walking across Fraternity Row at night carrying a bag of jello, I sure as hell didn't know what it was. I cradled the bag against my chest for a while and then when that proved too awkward, I held it loosely by the handle— nothing to see here, just a guy and his groceries soaking up the college ambience —and then went back to clutching it to my chest when there was an ominous tearing noise.

Luckily, I was almost there, so I ducked up the alleyway that ran between Alpha Tau and their neighbors. It also gave me the chance to scope out the enemy.

The Alpha Tau house was three floors, plus what looked like an attic. The upper stories were pretty dark, but there were still lights on downstairs, and I could hear the sounds of a movie playing from what was probably a living area and occasional faint bursts of laughter. I moved forward under the shelter of a massive tree with spreading limbs, like, I don't know, it was somehow less suspicious to lurk under a tree in a dark alley than just in a dark alley alone.

I waited for a while, my nerves ratcheting up with every passing minute. Why were these guys even up? Didn't they know they were here to learn, not fuck around? (Thanks, Coach Larson.) At the very least, they should have been in their rooms, studying. Hell, I should have been in my room studying.

I drew a deep breath.

Okay. Fuck it. Let's get it done.

Clutching my grocery bag to my chest, I headed back to the front of the house. I walked up onto the porch as casually as if I belonged, opened the door like I'd done it a million times before, and stepped inside like I lived there.

Shit .

Alpha Tau was a lot nicer than Kappa Beta Rho. Like, this was some Real Housewives of 1896 shit. There was a goddamn chandelier in the entryway. And it wasn't made of beer cans or anything. It was the real deal. There was a dark glass-fronted cabinet in the hall too, like I'd walked into a fucking museum. I half-expected it to be full of fossils or the crown jewels or something, but it was mostly trophies and framed photographs and stuff. I would have stayed and gawked for a little longer, but since my only chance of getting away with this was seeming like I belonged if I was spotted, the slack-jawed tourist look wasn't a great idea.

From the entryway, a hallway went left and right. There were also a few closed doors and a wide staircase. I chose the staircase.

I figured the layout had to be at least a little similar to Kappa, which meant there would be bathrooms on every floor. When I reached the first landing, I went left, walking quickly and trying not to drop my bag of jello. I took a guess and tried the handle four doors along the hallway. It was an empty bedroom, so I tried the next one.

Jackpot.

I slipped inside and locked the door behind me.

Man, even their bathrooms were nice. This one had three shower stalls and three toilet stalls and smelled like vanilla. There were a couple of bath sheets hanging over a heated towel rail. I ran a hand over them, unable to resist, and they were like clouds. I briefly contemplated stealing them, that was how nice they were. But then I got my head back in the game and pulled out the jello packets. I spent a few seconds squinting and trying to read the instructions before rolling my eyes at my own dumb ass and just opening a bunch of them and dumping them in the toilet bowls. I wondered if I should swirl the water around a bit to help the gelatin dissolve but decided against it. Then, flushed with success—I needed to remember that for later—I darted out of the bathroom and headed up to the next level of the house.

I tried a door more or less in the same spot as the bathroom downstairs, but when I opened it, it was a dark bedroom.

"What the fuck?" someone mumbled from under their blankets.

"Sorry, bro," I whispered, my heart racing, and pulled the door shut again.

The bathroom was down the hall a little way.

I dumped more jello and congratulated myself that I hadn't been caught yet, then wondered if I should go for the jackpot—they must have had a bathroom on the ground floor too, right? Though it'd be stupid to try for that when there were guys awake downstairs. And it wasn't like Zach and the others would know I hadn't. When word got around about this, nobody was going to be counting the bathrooms.

No, what I needed to do was get the hell out of here and make it back across the street to Kappa Beta Rho.

I tipped the last few packets of jello into the closest toilet and shoved the empty packaging into the paper bag. Then I opened the door as quietly as I could and checked that the coast was clear.

The hallway was deserted, so I slipped out of the bathroom and headed for the stairs. I'd barely taken half a dozen steps when a clattering sound came from the direction of the stairwell, followed by… a bark?

Oh shit. The Alpha Taus had a dog.

A long, thin tan streak came flying around the corner at the top of the staircase and bounded toward me, letting out a low growl.

"Good boy," I whispered, hoping against hope the dog would lose interest and I could get past him.

He stopped growling, and his tail started wagging frantically, and I heaved a sigh of relief.

"Good boy," I repeated, which turned out to be a mistake. His tail wagged even faster, and he leapt forward and jumped up, backing me against the wall. He wasn't trying to knock me over or anything, I could tell that. He just wanted to play. But then he let out a series of short, piercing barks that echoed all up the hallway.

Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck.

The door nearest to me opened, and a shock of red hair popped out, followed by a familiar face—one I'd never thought I'd see again.

"Tanner?"

" Charlie? "

We stared at each other for a few seconds while my heart did weird things in my chest, like it wasn't sure if I was terrified or overjoyed right now, so it didn't know whether to burst from excitement or clench in fear.

Same, heart. Same.

"Charlie, I found you!" I blurted out.

His expression grew hard. "I wasn't lost, asshole. If you didn't want my number, you shouldn't have asked for it."

"No, that's not what?—"

He slammed his door, just as someone called "Squirrel?" up the stairs. There was the creak of a stair riser and the heavy tread of someone approaching, and a guy in a Hawaiian shirt and cargo shorts appeared on the top landing.

"Hey, who are you looking for?" he asked as he came closer and grabbed the dog's collar. "I mean, I guess you're visiting someone." He didn't seem too bothered by who I was, more interested in petting the dog, and just for a second, I thought I might be able to slide right on out of there. But then he looked me up and down, and his eyes narrowed when he saw the logo on my shirt. "Wait a second!" He threw his head back and bellowed at the top of his lungs. "Trey! Scout! We've got a fucking Kappa in the house! Emergency!"

A door slammed open downstairs, and there was the sound of rapid footsteps.

Well, shit.

The dog barked and bounced like an excited pup, pulling out of his grasp, and while the guy was distracted trying to grab his collar, I took my chance.

I pushed past him and ran like hell down the stairs. I didn't slow down for the two dudes I passed on their way up or for the pretty, dark-haired guy in leggings and Doc Martens on the first-floor landing who stared at me open-mouthed when I darted past him with Hawaiian Shirt Guy in hot pursuit.

I didn't stop running until I'd made it out that front door and all the way back to Kappa Beta Rho.

"Well," Bart Langstrom, the president of Kappa Beta Rho, said the next morning as he turned back and forth in his squeaky office chair and stared down me and Zach, "it ain't fucking ideal , is it?"

I took my cue from Zach and didn't answer.

Bart was a towheaded, snub-nosed guy with thin sandy hair that already looked like it was receding, the poor bastard. He was a business major and liked to read books by millionaires and talk about crypto. He wasn't a total asshole though, which was surprising because... well, see above.

He let out a long sigh. "What did I say, Zach? What were the exact words I said?"

"‘Don't start that bullshit up again.'"

"That's it. I said, ‘Don't start that bullshit up again.' And what the fuck did you do?" Bart shook his head. "You started it up again. I've had Trey Montgomery on the phone this morning, telling me that it's lucky they don't file a report for trespassing. With the police . They'd do it too—they're a bunch of fucking wannabe lawyers. The fuck were you were thinking, messing with them?"

I felt like shit. I mean, I'd known it was a dumbass idea the whole time I'd been walking over there, but I'd still done it. And Charlie was there! He was at Lassiter, in Alpha Tau, just across the street from me! Which should have been good news, but he apparently hated me, and nothing I'd done last night was likely to change his mind in a hurry.

"And don't think for a fucking minute that I don't know you chose Colt's little brother to stir shit up!" Bart said, jabbing his finger in Zach's direction. "Do I need to remind you that Colt almost got this chapter disaffiliated because he was such a fucking douchebag?" He looked at me. "No offense, bro."

"Oh, none taken," I said honestly. He was absolutely right. Colt had hated the Alpha Taus when he was at Lassiter. I'd thought his stories about frat wars had sounded kind of funny, but, really, given that I knew my brother, I probably should have guessed he'd taken it too far. That was Colt all over.

"It was just a prank, bro," Zach said, spreading his hands. "It's not my fault those uptight rich boys can't take a fucking joke."

"We are not starting this bullshit up again," Bart said firmly. "Yeah, they can't take a fucking joke, which is the whole fucking point , you dick. Don't give them any ammo."

"But O'Brien lets his dog shit on our lawn!" Zach said. "Like, every fucking day."

The chair squeaked as Bart leaned forward and planted his elbows on the desk, glaring at Zach. "We do not mess with O'Brien."

Okay, there was a story there.

Bart pinched the bridge of his nose. "The two of you are going to go over to Alpha Tau after breakfast and make nice to the chapter executive. Zach, you can apologize, tell them it was your dumb idea, and promise Trey it won't happen again. Tanner, you say nothing and act like you're just a dumb freshman who didn't know any better and doesn't want any trouble."

I nodded. That wasn't going to be a problem, since I was a dumb freshman who didn't want any trouble.

"Now, get the hell out of here," Bart said.

We got the hell out of there.

After breakfast, Zach and I walked down to Alpha Tau together, where we apologized and stood with our hands behind our backs and our heads bowed while Trey Montgomery read us the riot act. Although mainly, he read Zach the riot act. As Bart had predicted, they figured me for the poor sucker who'd gotten dragged along for the ride.

Still, I squirmed uncomfortably when Trey turned his attention to me and said, "Colt's brother, right?"

"Yessir." I kept my gaze fixed on the carpet.

"I'm gonna let this go just this once, because I remember what it's like to be new. But you pull anything like this again and there will be consequences, got it?"

"Yessir." Relief flooded through me. Part of me had been convinced I'd get called to the dean's office and expelled, but it looked like I'd managed to avoid that. Still, I was treating this as a wake-up call.

No more frat war bullshit, and no more dumb stunts.

My plan for this semester was simple. Make good grades and play ball. That was it—no exceptions.

Except when we were being walked to the front door, I caught a flash of vivid red hair out of the corner of my eye. It was Charlie—who else could it be? He had his back to me, and I couldn't drag my gaze away from his long frame. A shiver ran through me as I remembered the heat of his skin, how he'd tasted, and the way my insides had lit up when we'd kissed.

I wanted to do it again.

Okay, new plan.

In between getting good grades and baseball training, I was going to find a way to apologize for the whole misunderstanding over not calling and then I was going to convince Charlie to date me.

I mean, how hard could it be?