Dirty Rush (15 page)

“You're literally my sister now!” I screamed into Meg's ear. Mouth filled with ice from the vodka cran I'd just downed.

“I know! That's like what I've been trying to tell you. I fucking hate this song.”

“I mean, before it was like we were close friends and you had my back and stuff. But now . . .”

“It feels different, doesn't it?”

“Exactlyyyy.” I was drunk.

“You see, this . . . this right here is what no one on the outside will ever understand. We are blood now. And blood is thicker than water.”

“And vodka!”

“So whatever happens, we're in it together.”

We hugged for a really long time before both breaking into laughter.

I'd lain in the same coffin as all of these girls. I'd signed my name in the same member book as generations of Beta Zetas who came before me. I was a part of something bigger than myself, and bigger than anything I'd ever been a part of.

“There's no going back now,” a deep voice said from just behind me.

Jack looked amazing, smelled amazingly good, and tasted even better when he kissed me.

“I hope you didn't go to all this trouble just for me,” I said to him, gesturing to the party.

“Well, that's where you're mistaken.” Jack grabbed me by the waist and pulled me into his big, warm body and proceeded to sing “All for You,” that Janet Jackson song.

“You shouldn't have!”

We kissed.

“What a difference a month or two can make in your life, huh?” Meg semi-awkwardly interjected. “Look at you now! You're a Beta Zeta, your tits have never looked better, and you even have a frat-boy boyfriend.”

“Sorry for dry humping in your face, Meg,” Jack said, still kissing me.

“It's all good,” Meg replied. “We should all be celebrating our mutual love for one another.”

“Are you, though?” I asked Jack.

“Am I what?”

“My boyfriend.”

“Yeah, Jack. Are you?” asked Meg.

“That depends on whether or not Miss Bell wants me to be.”

I'd thought of Jack as my boyfriend, but we'd never talked about it.

“Of course I do!”

“Then that's exactly what I am.”

I
jumped up onto Jack, wrapped my legs around him, and squeezed. I didn't give a shit. I was that girl.

“Yay! It's, like, almost creepy how much you love each other already,” squawked Meg.

“I'm really fucking happy right now,” I whispered into his ear.

“Me too, Tay. Me too.”

T
he next two weeks flew by as I did my best to catch up on research for papers and group projects. My life as an Active had officially begun, but unfortunately, I'd focused so much energy on Beta Zeta activities leading up to the initiation, I was buried under a mountain of schoolwork that I'd been blowing off. I wasn't in danger of failing any classes, but I also wasn't going to get that 4.0 GPA I'd had in mind when I got to school.

I had, however, agreed to be on the planning committee for the upcoming Children's Hospital Benefit, an event that the CDU Beta Zeta chapter threw annually. I was included in a group text from hell.

It began as I was leaving the women's studies building, where my head-warpingly boring female Russian lit class is held . . .

M
eg 11:35AM
Hello friends/bitches/sisters/planning committee! It's time to get going on the children's hospital fund-raiser. :)

M
eg 11:36AM
let's save these cancer kids!!

Colette 11:41AM
Let's never refer to them as cancer kids again people

M
eg 11:42AM
sowwy

M
eg 11:45AM
kinda :/

Stephanie 12:04PM
But for reals can we talk about our first meeting? I'm offering up our place and this weekend is looking good. Definitely need to meet before xmas break which is in less than TWO WEEKS WTF!

Stephanie 12:07PM
ugh I can't believe finals are next week. I'm failing bio

Stephanie 12:08PM
again

Taylor 12:10PM
Hey, just seeing these. I could do this weekend, what works for people?

Olivia 12:12PM
This weekend is going to be hard for me as I have eight finals next week and a thirty-page essay to finish

Olivia 12:12PM
side note: is anyone else's Adderall not really working recently

Olivia 12:13PM
do we have to have it our place, Steph?

M
eg 12:14PM
oh get off me Olivia. Can't you let yourself live for once?

Olivia 12:15PM
I don't appreciate that

M
eg 12:15PM

Olivia 12:16PM
I don't appreciate that either, Meg

Colette 12:20PM
Ugh shut up please. So saturday afternoon, say 3?

Taylor 12:21PM
works for me!

Jane 12:22PM
me too

M
eg 12:26PM
LOVES IT. I'll make my guacamole

Kenadie 12:30PM
Ooooh and I'll make my queso

Kenadie 12:31PM
FUN!

Olivia 12:34PM
Does there have to be food at every function? Jesus. No one even eats at these things

Kenadie 12:35PM
I do!

Colette 12:37PM
We know you do.

M
eg 12:39PM
Sooooooooooo just to get our head in the game a little, should we divvy up the roles before the meeting?

Stephanie 12:40PM
great!

M
eg 12:42PM
I have the twins on guest list and invitations and was thinking that would be good for Taylor too cause you're such a legacy

Taylor 12:44PM
Alright

Olivia 12:45PM
Can I design the invitations again, or are we just doing an ecard this year? What's the budget?

M
eg 12:46PM
Well I think most of the budget (which we have saved from last year) should go to the musical guest

M
eg 12:46PM
Jack Johnson or Ellie Goulding????!!!

Olivia 12:49PM
What's the budget for the event?

M
eg 12:50PM
Liv are you being a cunt?

Olivia 12:51PM
I am not meg. Am I?

M
eg 12:52PM
It certainly seems that way. But sometimes I can't tell if you're being a cunt or you're just being your normal self

Olivia 12:55PM
So you're saying I just AM a cunt?

Olivia 12:56PM
all the time?

M
eg 12:57PM
I'm not not saying that

Colette 12:59PM
No one has time for this shit

Stephanie 1:02PM
Yea I don't

Kenadie 1:03PM
Y'all

Stephanie 1:04PM
Get your shit together you guys

Kenadie 1:08PM
Y'all are we fighting?

Jane 1:11PM
Did any of you see my iPad at the house?

Kenadie 1:15PM
I hate it when we fight! This should be about the cancer kids! Can we not put our differences aside. Olivia needs space to study y'all, we need to respect that, so why don't we have the meeting this wknd at mine?? I'll make my dead Meemaw's deviled eggs. Colette I know you love them eggs