Yolo (31 page)

zoegirl:

huh? what? what fire?

mad maddie:

at the new Taco John's that opened.

mad maddie:

ooo! I never told you, but a new Taco John's opened!

zoegirl:

but then it burned down?

mad maddie:

no, silly. grease fire. someone used a fire extinguisher eventually. this, like, thirteen-year-old kid noticed it first. he stood there pointing and yelling at it.

mad maddie:

“eeeeee!” “eeeeee!” he said.

mad maddie:

afterward he was really embarrassed.

zoegirl:

I hope you comforted him.

mad maddie:

I didn't. that wld have been inappropriate.

mad maddie:

how was the zombie crawl?

zoegirl:

awesome. but now I'm tired. y-a-w-n.

zoegirl:

how was the lecture?

mad maddie:

not as gory as I'd hoped, but I sat next to a girl named Jordan, and she seemed cool.

zoegirl:

was she thirteen?

mad maddie:

yes, and she still is.

mad maddie:

haha. that was funny! don't you think that was funny?

mad maddie:

whatever. no, not thirteen. a freshman like me. g'night!

SnowAngel:

the Halloween mixer? not. good.

SnowAngel:

in fact, super scary, but not fun-scary. horrible-scary.

SnowAngel:

whoa. my hands literally won't stop shaking, which is making it hard to txt.

SnowAngel:

I just . . . I'll tell u more tomorrow.

SnowAngel:

but it's bad.

zoegirl:

txting from class, which I have from now till noon. plz txt as soon as you can.

zoegirl:

I'm worried about you!

SnowAngel:

can you talk?

zoegirl:

no, but I can txt if I'm sneaky. what happened??

zoegirl:

were ppl at the party mean to Reid?

SnowAngel:

omg, I'd forgotten about that part. now it seems so irrelevant.

SnowAngel:

um, my fellow pledges were mainly nice to him. Anna was nice, and so was her boyfriend. but some of the older Zetas gave me/us a definite cold vibe.

SnowAngel:

one girl, Pierce, pulled me aside and asked if Reid had dressed up like a loser on purpose, and this other girl asked fake-sweetly if we were at the wrong party. so stupid.

zoegirl:

these girls DO know they're in college, right? that they shld be above that stuff?

SnowAngel:

apparently not. but in my mind, Reid was the HERO of the night, not that anyone but me knows

zoegirl:

huh?

SnowAngel:

night started off fine, other than the occasional cold look/snide remark. party was goofy, lots of dry ice and silly-spooky music and awesome decorations. LOTS of punch/beer/hard liquor too. ppl got crazy drunk.

zoegirl:

did you?

SnowAngel:

I had two beers, tops, and Reid isn't much of a drinker. he's not *against* drinking, but he has an uncle who's an alcoholic, so he wants to be careful.

SnowAngel:

so Reid, me, Anna, and her boyfriend were laughing and having fun. then Anna had to use the bathroom, which, as I've told u, is a monumental task in a frat house cuz of long lines. and plus she was in a box.

zoegirl:

a box?

SnowAngel:

she dressed up as a refrigerator. best. costume. ever.

SnowAngel:

so she and her bf went off together—buddy system! yay!—and then it was just me and Reid. well, and hundreds of drunk ppl dressed up as vampires and sumo wrestlers and strippers and stuff.

SnowAngel:

Reid said, “wanna walk around?” and I said, “sure,” and he took my hand, and that part was tingly-happy-smiley.

zoegirl:

aw. so happy for you!

SnowAngel:

yeah, well, happy-smiley is about to go away.

zoegirl:

SnowAngel:

uh-huh

SnowAngel:

the frat house was huge and crammed with ppl, but Reid and I wanted to find somewhere private, so we kept searching and peeking into different rooms and jumping away to avoid sloshing beer. that sort of thing.

SnowAngel:

and . . . well . . .

SnowAngel:

we did find a private spot. only we weren't the only ones who found it, and we weren't the first ones to have found it.

zoegirl:

meaning what?

SnowAngel:

it was way back past the laundry room. there were stacked-up cardboard boxes and some trophies and a rolled-up rug, so maybe a storage area?

zoegirl:

I have a bad feeling about this.

SnowAngel:

yeahhhhh

SnowAngel:

and before I even tell you the rest, I've made my decision about whether to officially join the Greek system or not, and the answer is NOT.

SnowAngel:

I'm depledging. after today, I'll no longer be a Zeta.

zoegirl:

Angela! what happened? who was already in the storage area?

SnowAngel:

I don't know names. three frat guys wearing face paint and dressed up like characters that were maybe from comic books, and one girl in a slutty nurse costume.

zoegirl:

uh-oh

SnowAngel:

she was facedown on the floor, totally passed out. I cld see that she was breathing, but she was unconscious.

SnowAngel:

and you've figured out the rest, haven't you?

zoegirl:

omg

zoegirl:

shit

SnowAngel:

it was soooooo bad, Zoe. her skirt was hiked up past her waist and one of the guys was tugging her underwear off. the lace got caught on the heel of her shoe, and I can't make that image go away. lacy underwear and a black high heel and a guy laughing in an awful drunk way.

zoegirl:

did they see you? the frat guys? what did y'all DO?

zoegirl:

I feel sick. I really really hope you called campus police.

SnowAngel:

kind of, but it was all happening RIGHT THEN.

SnowAngel:

I stepped all the way into the room and said, “quit it, you assholes! leave her alone!”

SnowAngel:

for a second they all froze, but they were super drunk, and I was wearing my stupid dead-princess outfit, and they said rude things, and it was awful. also my dress had some on-purpose rips in it already, and one of the guys just walked right over to me and jerked on the fabric to make it tear more. He was laughing like it was all a joke.

zoegirl:

Angela! you must have been so scared!

SnowAngel:

now I am, when I think about it, but right then I was just furious. I pushed the guy away and told Reid to call 911, and then I knelt by the girl and fixed her skirt. I *hated* seeing her with her skirt up like that.

SnowAngel:

she was just so vulnerable, and she didn't even know any of it was going on.

zoegirl:

jesus. thank god y'all happened to find her!

SnowAngel:

well, but a green frat boy—green cuz of his face paint—whacked Reid's phone out of his hand and said, “c'mon, let's get out of here” to his friends.

SnowAngel:

they all stormed past Reid, who was trying to block the way, but Reid did manage to get the girl's
panties back. the guy who'd pulled them off was holding them like a fucking prize, and Reid held out his hand and said, “hey. be decent.”

SnowAngel:

Reid said that, just for a second, the guy looked the tiniest bit ashamed. then he thrust the panties at Reid and shoved him hard on the shoulder before catching up with his asshole friends.

zoegirl:

good for Reid.

zoegirl:

and good for you too! sounds like *you* were the hero last night!

SnowAngel:

huh?

zoegirl:

earlier you said that Reid was the hero, but I think you both were. you did something really brave, Angela. not everyone would have.

SnowAngel:

I didn't choose to, tho, if that makes sense. I just DID.

zoegirl:

exactly

zoegirl:

but that poor girl!

zoegirl:

did someone put something in her drink or did she just pass out from plain drunkenness?

SnowAngel:

no idea

SnowAngel:

and if she was using the buddy system rule, her buddy did a crap job.

zoegirl:

thank god you and Reid came along before anything worse happened—not that what happened isn't already awful.

zoegirl:

are you going to turn those guys in?

SnowAngel:

how wld I? “three guys in comic book costumes assaulted a girl, and one of them was green?”

zoegirl:

you have to do *something*

SnowAngel:

I know. I just don't know what. I'm going to talk to Anna later today and see if she has any advice.

zoegirl:

you should talk to the girl you saved. maybe she knows who the guys were.

SnowAngel:

yeah, only I don't know who she is either.

zoegirl:

???

zoegirl:

isn't she in your sorority?

SnowAngel:

yeah, but I don't know every single Zeta. I don't even know every single pledge.

zoegirl:

you didn't recognize her at all?

SnowAngel:

um, no. as I said. are you trying to make me feel bad?

zoegirl:

no no no no no! you saved her, that's the only thing that matters. God, Angela. hugs and hugs and hugs!!!