Rushed (The Rushed Series) (9 page)

The entire house was looking at me, the pledges with a mixture of envy and disgust. Kelly had just drawn a target on my back. I was public enemy number one. The girl to take down.

I stuttered. "I don't know what to say. I'm overwhelmed." I blinked back tears that they all mistook for joy. "Thank you."

Kelly beamed. "Alexis, as our top pick, you get to pick your roommate. Pick a pledge, any pledge."

Every girl in my pledge class turned to me. Morgan was wearing a smug look and I got the feeling she was behind this. Whoever I picked would be loyal for life and everyone else would hate me until I could prove myself to them.
 

The house leadership was watching to see to see what my strategy was. I could have done something democratic, like had the others vote. Or something random like draw names. I knew very few of the others and none of them well enough to make an informed decision.

I simply blurted out a name. "Emily! I pick Emily."

I don't know what I did right, but Kelly smiled broadly and nodded subtly to the other officers. They approved of my choice. All I knew was that if I hadn't picked her, Emily would have hated me. I would have lost the only friend I had. I still might. Emily grabbed me and squealed in my ear as she hugged me. As I bounced up and down with her, acting excited, I worried that living in the house would go to her head and separate us in the end.

"Great!" Kelly beamed. "We'll get your things and move you in tonight. Now for the other three…"

She called out three more names, but they meant nothing to me. I kept thinking this was like some kind of survivor reality show and I had just shown my strategy to the opposition. Next time someone took a vote, I was off the island.

Chapter Six

Alexis

It was a good thing I hadn't settled into my dorm room yet. I'd barely even seen my randomly assigned roommate. Both of us had been too busy with recruitment. She had pledged another house. When she saw my Double Deltsie shirt, I think she was glad to see me move out. She'd pledged a less prestigious house. Her envy was palpable.

My new sisters packed me up and moved me into my room in the house in less than an hour. They dumped all my stuff into a tiny cubicle of a room with two dressers, two desks, and one twin bed, leaving it up to Em and me to sort out the space. Mom had gone crazy and bought me every matching accessory imaginable for my dorm room, thinking I could bring back the extra when it was time to move into the house. There was no way it would all fit with Emily's in our tiny shared room that was less than half the size of my dorm room.

We flipped a coin to see whose sheets and comforters to put on the bed. I won. Then we crammed as much stuff into the closets and dressers as we could and called the houseboys to help us haul the rest to the attic for storage. I felt like a prima donna or something for asking the guys to haul my junk around. I didn't want them to think I thought of them as my own personal slaves. But I wanted to see Zach so much it was worth the risk.
 

Unfortunately, Paul showed up. While Em was preoccupied, he whispered to me, "Zach gave me hell for telling you to go to the cliffs."

I was secretly pleased. "I didn't give you up."

Paul didn't seem impressed. "I made the mistake of outing myself and teasing him about his overprotective nature." He paused and not quite scowled, but something close to it. "Be careful, Alexis. Don't lead him on."

There was an undertone of dislike in his voice, like he didn't trust the girls in the house. Like we were nothing more than cock teases to the house guys. Ways to get them in trouble.

"I like Zach," he said. "Girls think he's a charming guy. I would go to the mats for him. But he's been through a lot of crap. He has a dark side and he keeps to himself."

I didn't reply.

"If you're trying to sleep with him, you're going to be disappointed. Zach doesn't mess with the girls in the house." He grabbed my disc chair and an armful of framed posters and headed up the stairs to the attic. He didn't speak to me again.

I spent a fitful night on the sleeping porch. I was a light sleeper. Every cough and movement woke me up. In the morning, the houseboys set out breakfast. I looked for Zach. Someone said he had an early class and was already gone. Carol, our housemother, welcomed Em and me as we ate breakfast.

All the girls in the house dressed in their pledge T-shirts and skirts for the first day of class. Most of the girls wore flip-flops. I wore a pair of wedge sandals, which turned out to be a mistake as I trudged up the hill to campus.

The entire Greek system was out in their house shirts. Walking up Greek Row toward campus with some girls from the house, through the shade-lined streets, the mood was happy and hung over in equal measure. The pledges like me were excited. Em bubbled over with pride.

Em and I didn't have class together. We split in different directions when we got onto campus proper. I hoped I didn't have class with any of my sorority sisters. If I did, I was expected to sit with them. I had three classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I had sisters in the first two and sat in a clump with them, wishing for the freedom to choose my friends for myself. Resenting my mom and her insistence that I pledge the Double Deltsies.

I ate lunch at the house and headed out to my two o'clock class with fingers crossed. I was looking forward to The History of Rock and Roll as my skate class to fill one of my general education requirements, GERs. The classroom was easy to find—Led Zeppelin's "Fool in the Rain" was blasting from the inside. I loved that song. Classic rock was one of the few joys I shared with my dad.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I walked in and didn't see another Delta Delta Psi T-shirt in the room. Then I saw Zach sitting in the back by himself, wearing a Modest Mouse T-shirt, and my heart raced.
 

A Double Deltsie I actually wanted to sit by! Ignoring Paul's warning, and Zach's obvious signals that he wanted to be alone, I walked right up to him. "Is this seat taken?" I sat without waiting for an answer.

Zach

Getting out of the house and going to class was the freest time of my days. When I was on campus, I wasn't a servant. I wasn't beneath anyone. I was just me. I was looking forward to The History of Rock and Roll as a break from my science-heavy schedule of the past few years. And time away from the girls and their drama. I'd been lucky and had had only a couple of classes with any of them over the years. When I did, it was always awkward.

I settled in the back of the classroom. When I looked up, I caught a glimpse of a Double Deltsie light blue pledge T-shirt, nicely filled out by a pair of perfect breasts.
Shit.
Then I lifted my gaze, saw Alexis' face, and cursed my odd combination of good and bad luck.
 

I hoped she didn't see me, afraid if she did, she would diss and ignore me. And even more worried she wouldn't.
 

I don't know why I cared what the girls thought. In high school, being the star jock had been enough to impress any girl I wanted. But being the houseboy was enough to make me beneath the Double Deltsies. As I began my third year in the house, I still had my pride. Though I didn't know how I'd managed to hang on to it. Seth, Paul, and Dillon helped.

I didn't miss the way the other guys in the class watched Alexis as she strode to the back of the classroom and took the seat next to me. Double Deltsies stood out wherever they went. She'd already mastered their confident walk. She probably came preprogrammed with it.
 

"Is this seat taken?" She slid into it without waiting for an answer.

"You're supposed to sit with the Double Deltsies." I wasn't about to encourage her. She made my pulse race too damn fast.

When she smiled, her eyes danced. "I am."

"Do I look like one of your sisters?" I said.

Her gaze slid over me like she was taking full measure of me, letting it linger on my shoulders and chest. "In that Modest Mouse T-shirt? No." She grinned. "I like Modest Mouse."

"Shit." I couldn't resist teasing her. I reached for the hem of my shirt.

"What are you doing?" She laughed.

"I can't wear this now. It's tainted. I'll to have to burn it when I get back to the house." I pulled it over my head and dropped it on my desk, waiting for her reaction.

Her mouth fell open as she stared at my naked chest. "Why?"

"By the time one of the girls from the house likes a band, they've gotten way too popular. They're tainted with the stench of pop and mainstream music."

She grabbed my shirt and stuffed it in my hands, smiling appreciatively. "Stop showing off and put that back on before the prof shows up. No shoes, no shirt, no class."
 

I'd gotten the reaction I wanted. "This is the history of rock and roll. Which is notorious for shirtless guys. There's a better than fifty-fifty chance the prof shows up shirtless."

She laughed again and made a disgusted face. "I hope not!"

I shrugged and pulled the shirt back on.

She shook her head at me. "You've got me all wrong, Zach. How do you know I'm one of those pop music girls? You don't even know me."

I raised one eyebrow. "Yeah, you really look indie. You're a Double Deltsie. They don't get into the indie music scene."

She shrugged. "Stereotyper. I guess I won't show you my signed Thermals event poster, then. I was at their August fifth concert on Capital Hill."

"You listen to The Thermals?"
 

She'd surprised me, pleasantly. Listening to The Thermals was about as Seattle indie street cred as you could get. I had been dying to go to that concert, but I'd had to work. And I needed every penny I could earn.

She shrugged. "Don't judge a book by its cover."

The prof walked in, interrupting our conversation. He was a graying, aging rocker with long hair, a beard, and a love for music. And, yeah, he was wearing a shirt—a well-worn, classic Pink Floyd
Dark Side of the Moon
T-shirt that looked like it had been around since the seventies.

He turned off Led Zeppelin just as "Stairway to Heaven" got going. "Welcome to The History of Rock and Roll. This class is going to blow your mind. I'm not here to flunk you out or tank your GPA. My goal is to give you an appreciation for the best music on the planet.

"The term 'rock and roll' emerged from the rhythm and blues fusion music in the nineteen fifties. Most white Americans have no concept of the original meaning of the term. 'Rock and rolling' was originally used in the African American community of the day to mean 'having sex.'
 

"'Sex, drugs, and rock and roll' is, therefore, a redundant statement." He laughed. "Disc jockey Alan Freed coined the term, naming his radio show, where he played a collection of rhythm and blues albums, 'The Rock and Roll Show' with full knowledge of its sexual connotations. And yes, that will be on the test."

Sitting next to Alexis, the last thing I needed to be reminded of was sex. Like it wasn't on my brain constantly when she was around. Crap. Now I was in a class with her that was essentially named "The History of Sex." It was burned in my brain with the music.

Near the end of the period, the prof sprang a joint assignment on us. "Pair up! I have a playlist I want you to listen to, discuss, and write a joint paper on what you experience when you listen to it."

Alexis turned to me. "I choose you."

Shit.
More dangerous territory. There was no way to turn her down. "You sure? You don't even know me. I could be a slacker and not do my part."

"I'll take that chance." She paused. "Besides, I know where you live and how to make you pay."

"You're an evil woman."

She grinned.

The bell rang. The prof dismissed the class.

Alexis grabbed her backpack. "Let's go to the College Grind and get a head start on our assignment."

I froze. Until that check came, I didn't have money for three-dollar cups of coffee. "What kind of a Double Deltsie are you, overachiever?"

"The kind who likes music and good company."
 

I grabbed my backpack. "I should get back to the house—"

"And what? Study? Isn't that what I'm asking?" She started down the aisle. "My treat. I'm buying. If you can resist free iced coffee, you are not the man I thought you were."