Dirty Rush (37 page)

“So Meg texts you, you go into the house and then to the basement, watch the video, get locked up all night, leave the house, and you never see Colette?”

“Correct.”

“That's a little weird.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, have you ever known Colette to not be involved in something about the house? Last year she'd barely let me send out a chapter email without her proofreading it first. It doesn't strike you as odd that a Beta Zeta sex video comes out and Colette's nowhere to be found?”

“No, you're right. It's definitely weird.”

“Something else is going on here, Tay. This is not adding up. Colette just disappears and then reappears with a resignation letter with your name on it?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“No. This is her. Colette is behind this somehow.”

“That's what I'm starting to think. But what am I supposed to do, Kel? She's a kingpin and the video is everywhere.”

“Of course it is. Why wouldn't it be? People love this kind of shit. Colette knows that better than anyone. She's pinning this on you. I can just feel it.”

“But why? You already paid the dues for last year. Can't she just leave me alone?”

“Well, maybe she's hiding something else. Maybe there's something else going on here that we don't know about.”

“Fuck! I don't know what to do.” I welled up.

“Just hang tight. Let
me think about this some more and I'll call you later.”

“Thank you, Kelly.”

“You don't need to thank me, babe. I'm probably the reason you're in this mess to begin with.”

“Love you.”

“Love you too, Tay.”

As I hung up the phone it occurred to me that almost everyone in the dining hall was staring at me and whispering to their friends. Maybe I was just used to it by now, or maybe I was slightly relieved from my conversation with Kelly, but I wasn't really bothered.

“Taylor,” I heard someone say from behind me. I turned to see that girl Sarah I'd met at orientation. The same girl I'd had coffee with who told me all those crazy/terrifying hazing stories.

“Hi. Oh my God, Sarah. How are you?”

“I'm fine, how are you?”

“I'm okay. I mean, I'm kind of a mess,” I said forcing a smile, “It's been a long fucking week.”

“You mean 'cause you blew all those guys and they filmed it?”

“That's definitely part of it.” I smiled and got up to leave. I didn't feel like dealing with this.

“Fuck 'em.”

“Fuck who?”

“All these ASSHOLES,” Sarah said loudly, gesturing to a table of bitchy-looking girls who were clearly staring right at us. “They all WISH they could suck that much dick. They're just haters. It's your body and you can do whatever you want with it. Who are they to judge?” she continued, speaking directly to them.

“Sarah.
I really appreciate your very modern and nonjudgmental approach to my current predicament. But it's not necessary. It's not me in the video.”

“Um, it's not?”

“Swear.”

“It really looks like you.”

“I guess it does.”

“People are saying it's you.”

“I know. But it's not.”

“Oh, fuck. Really?”

“Swear on my unborn children.”

“Oh my God. Ew! Then who is it? I thought you had to be a pledge to get those shorts or something?”

“I don't know. But I need to figure it out, like now. One of the older sisters wants me to admit guilt publicly and then resign because of this whole thing.”

“Wow. What are you going to do?”

“I don't know anymore.”

“Is it that girl Colette?”

“Yeah, you know her?”

“Not really but I've heard things.”

“From who?”

“I'm kinda friends with this girl from your chapter who I sit with in chem lab. Kenadie?”

“I know Kenadie. She said something about Colette?”

“Well, she came to class one morning right after break, still drunk from the night before, and went on and on about what a shitty friend Colette was, and how bossy she can be.”

“That sounds about right.”

“You know she's still a virgin?”

“Um . . . yeah. Ostensibly.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing. Don't worry about it. Sarah, thanks so much for coming over here and talking to me like I'm a normal human being.” I gathered my coat and my bag.

“You are normal, even if it was you in that video. Normal human beings do crazy shit sometimes. One time I let this guy dress up as SpongeBob SquarePants while we had sex.”

“Okay, wow. Yeah, thanks for sharing. And I agree, we're way too judgmental of other people's lives. You seeing me as normal is a big deal right now. I see you as normal too.”

“That's like the sweetest thing another girl has ever said to me.”

I gave Sarah a hug and started walking toward the door of the dining hall.

“Oh! Taylor!” Sarah called out, running toward me. “Um, if you happen to see Kenadie . . . will you tell her that I should have her money by the end of the week?”

“Okay? Not sure she's going to want to talk to me at this point, but if I see her I'll give her the message.”

“Just say it's Sarah from chem.”

“What's the money for? If you don't mind me asking.”

“For Adderall, obvi.”

“I'm sorry, what did you say?”

“Yeah, there are like four of us in class that buy from her. I assumed all you Beta Zeta girls bought from her too.”

“Oh . . . no, I didn't know.”

“What?! Yeah, her prices are so cheap 'cause supposedly she
orders it in bulk from some online generic prescription sites in Brazil or something? I don't know, I just heard that.”

“Oh . . . my . . . God!” It was like I'd been in a dark room and Sarah flipped on the light switch.

“What?”

“Those evil bitches,” I said. How had I not seen it until now?

“You okay?” Sarah asked. “What bitches? Kenadie?”

“This makes perfect sense,” I said. “Thank you, Sarah. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

A million thoughts were running through my head: BZs were still selling Adderall. Colette must've been dealing this whole time. But she's having Kenadie do all the dirty work this year. Kelly was right, there was something else going on here. Colette freaked out when she realized I knew about last year—she still had something to lose, so she just put my name out there as the girl in the video. This whole time I thought Colette cared about what the school said and thought about her, but I was wrong. It's not about reputation. She's a businesswoman, and I was the one with the power to fuck with everything that she'd built. Holy shit! She wasn't just trying to drag my name through the mud, she was trying to get rid of me.

Jonah had called twice and I texted him to meet me at his dorm room. I was coming over with big news.

I
sat on Jonah's bed for a few moments and explained what had happened at the Omega Sig house, and how Jack was the biggest asshole on the planet. Then I went on about what Sarah had told me and what it meant.

Jonah got up and started pacing around the room.

“First of all, fuck Jack. Second of all, they're still selling?”

“Kenadie is Sarah's dealer. Colette has to be involved, because I don't think Kenadie's capable of pulling something like that off on her own, bless her heart. So, yes, that would mean Colette is still definitely in business.”

“So, if they get caught she's gonna do the same shit to Kenadie that she did to your sister?”

“Yup. Don't you think?”

Suddenly, Jonah stopped pacing, and turned and looked at me with a funny look on his face.

“So, wait—she knows you know.”

“Yeah, what?”

“And she's ruthless . . .”

“Yes, definitely. What?”

“What if she made the video?”

“What?”

“What if she didn't just put your name out there. What if she fucking made it? She could do that, right?”

“Holy shit, Jonah. You're fucking right.”

“Yeah,” he said, smiling. “You're welcome.”

“Holy shit, Colette made the fucking video! That's it! She made it look like me, so she could get me kicked out of the house and maybe even the school. She wants me out.”

I let out a huge guttural scream.

“Is that a happy scream or an angry scream?” Jonah asked.

“Both . . . I don't know. I just feel like we're getting closer to the truth.”

“Okay, so if
Colette made the video, then we need to see her copy of it. We need Colette's computer.”

“Give me a sec to think,” I said, putting my forehead in my hands.

“Yes. That's it,” Jonah yelled. “We get into that computer, we find out who the real girl is and expose them all!”

“So you think I should go public with all this?”

“You have to.” Jonah sat there for a second staring at me. “Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to call Meg and get her to come over here and you're going to tell her the whole thing. Then we will go from there. Good?”

“Great.”

“Are you sure, Tay? Once you tell Meg—”

“I'm sure,” I said looking right at him. “Let's do this.”

“Okay.”

“H
eyyy, Meg. It's Jonah . . . I'm fine, thanks . . . Yes, I'm still gay.”

He put his hand over the phone. “She sounds drunk,” he whispered.

“Anyways, I'm calling because I wanted to see if you could help me with something,” I listened as Jonah started to slowly pace around his room.

“Okay,” he said to Meg, “you know some major shit has been going down and basically Taylor's getting eaten alive out there. Jack is literally the biggest pussy that ever lived—”

“Jonah!” I screamed. “Just ask her to come over here. Jesus.”

“Sorry!” he mouthed back, “Anyway, if you're free, swing
on by my room for a sec. Greenberg Hall, room 344. That'd be awesome.”

Her response seemed to be taking a long time and Jonah wasn't saying anything, just mindlessly staring at the wall, then, “Yeah, I have some beers,” he said, “okay . . . okay.”

“So, she's coming?” I asked, sitting up.

“Yeah, I'm texting Jane now.”

T
hirty minutes and a shower later, Meg, Jane, Jonah, and I sat in a circle on the floor of Jonah's dorm room like some sort of
Little Rascals
episode. Except one of us, Meg, was drunk. But she was cute drunk, not “Meggy drunk,” which is what we call it when Meg drinks vodka. Vodka turns her into a monster. I guess it does that to some people.

I told them everything.

Everything I knew and everything I thought I knew. I told them about Colette and the drugs, and the resignation letter, and what Sarah had said to me in the dining hall about Kenadie, and the money, and my theory about the video, and all of it.

“So . . .” Meg said, “Colette's been holding out on me all year? After everything I do for her? She knows how much I love Adderall.”

“Jesus, Meg,” laughed Jane. “This is not a joke.”

“I don't think she was trying to let anyone in the house know about her business,” I told them. She's leading a separate life and she wanted to keep it that way.”

“Oh my God, Colette is the devil!” Meg shouted.

“Literally, my first thought. But I just don't get why Taylor is the target here,” Jane added.

I caught Jonah's
gaze; he was looking right at me. Both of us knew that I'd have to expose Kelly if I was gonna fully explain this. I hadn't thought it through and now I was in desperate need of a good cover-up. Kelly had taken the fall to spare all of her sisters and it'd worked. I couldn't sabotage my sister and let all of her sacrifices be in vain.

Shit.

“It's Jack,” Meg said plainly.

“What's Jack?” Jonah asked.

“Of course!” Meg continued.

“What? I'm lost,” said Jane.

“Colette is trying to take you down because you were with Jack.”

“Meg, what are you saying?” I asked.

“Okay, I've only heard this story from two other semi-reliable sources, so who knows how accurate the details are, but when Colette was a sophomore and Jack was a freshman, Colette allegedly had a huge crush on baby hunk Jack Swanson. Which she drunkenly admitted to him publicly at an Omega Sig party when he was still a pledge and people laughed at her. I know that sounds crazy, but that's Colette. And I don't know if you know this, Taylor, but you're the first girl to pin him down. And with basically no effort.”

“Are you serious? Colette liked Jack?” I asked, attempting to sound totally genuine.

“That's the story I've heard,” confirmed Meg.

“And when was he a hunk? I thought he was kind of a loser when he joined?” I
remembered sitting with Jack on his dad's boat. “He told me that.”

“Okay, first of all, Omega Sig only offers bids to hot guys. Second, Jack Swanson has been a babe since he walked onto this campus three years ago. He told you that he was a loser?”

“Yes.” I put my head in my hands. Now I genuinely felt like an idiot.

“Clearly he was just trying to get you to pity slash fuck him with a fake sob story,” Jane added.

“They all do that,” Meg added, “don't feel bad about it, Tay.”

“I can't believe he didn't tell me about this Colette thing, though.”

“Probably because it was no big deal to him.” Meg took a swig from her beer can. “Jack Swanson was like this cute freshman guy and he was wasted and ended up fucking this other girl that night who was pledging Beta Pi. It was just some little thing, but apparently Colette was completely devastated about being the scorned lover—clearly that had never happened to her before.”