Rushed (The Rushed Series) (6 page)

Mom yelled at the boys to calm down, but her tone was hardly reprimanding. More like amused and thrilled with them. When she turned her attention back to me, her tone hardened. "What do you want?"

"I need you to forward my last paycheck from the summer. I can't pay my credit card bill without it."

"Zach, what have I told you about overspending? Cut down on the partying. Pare back on the social life so you can afford to pay for your responsibilities. Anyway, I thought you had direct deposit?"

Pare back? Like shit! What social life? If I cut down any more, I'd starve. The bitch didn't pay for a thing, but she had the nerve to rag on me about how I spent my money.
 

Without my job at the house and my scholarships that covered most of my tuition, I couldn't afford to go to college. Neither she nor Dad contributed a dime toward my education. Though both of them were rolling in dough. A half-assed decent mother would have sued my dad for child support and college expenses. Out of revenge, if nothing else.

My bitchy mom hadn't cared enough to fight for me. She claimed Dad had suffered enough. I thought she took perverse pleasure in seeing me struggle. She wanted me punished and in purgatory forever for what I'd done to our family.

I tried to hold my anger and frustration in check. "I did. They screwed up after I quit and cut a check for my last paycheck instead of depositing it. They should have sent the check to the house. Can you look through my mail and make sure it's there?"

She let out an exasperated huff, like I had just asked her for the world's biggest favor. "
Hang
on."

I heard her heavy footsteps. She called out to the boys again. Then I heard her riffling through paperwork. "Found it."

"Will you put it in the mail tomorrow? I need it, badly."

"I have a busy day tomorrow, Zachary. Mondays are always bad. The twins have practice and work is an absolute zoo."

"Mom, please? I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important."

The heavy sigh again. "Okay. I'll
try
."

"Thanks, Mom."

She grunted.

"I have to run." I didn't want to talk to her a minute longer than I had to and waste her precious time. The feeling was mutual. "It's bid day and I have a ton of work to do."

"Work, Zach? Or screwing one of the girls." Her tone was full of disgust and embarrassment. "I can't believe my son lives in a sorority house. Is a servant in a sorority house!"

I cut her off before she could launch into the usual tirade. "It's honest work, Mom. I don't touch the girls. I'm like a big brother to them. That's all."

She snorted, like
right
. "Big brother? I'm glad to hear you're a big brother to
someone
. You could show more attention to your
real
brothers."

There was the accusation again. She was always laying a guilt trip on me. She knew exactly where to place her knife and how to twist it. Like she would ever let me near the twins. She didn't trust me around them. Whenever I was anywhere near them, which was as little as possible, she hovered, acting like I was a bigger threat to their safety than strangers with candy. But she liked to pin shit like that on me. Everything that was wrong, or imperfect, in her life was my fault. She was never going to let me forget what I'd done.

"Thanks, again, Mom. Just mail the check. And say hi to the twins for me. Talk to you later." I hung up, hoping she would follow through on her promise.

Shit, the woman was hard.

I headed upstairs and found Kayla Lucas, my favorite Double Deltsie, trying to lug a heavy box full of T-shirts to Kelly's car. A senior, Kayla was the prettiest, sweetest girl in the sorority. She'd been my first friend at the house when I started as a houseboy my freshman year.

"Hey, what are you doing with that heavy thing?" I grabbed the box from her. "Where are Seth, Dillon, and Paul?"

Kayla relinquished the box without a fight. A cute bead of perspiration was already sparkling on her pert nose. "Out at the car with Kelly. This is the last box."

"Why aren't you using a hand truck?" I headed toward the door.

She held it open for me and followed me to the parking lot. "What's a hand truck? I don't think we have one."

I shook my head and grinned at her. "Sure we do. We used it last year. Remember?"

She followed me to the parking lot, where the rest of the guys and Kelly were loading her car with the picnic coolers and the other box of shirts.

Kelly's eyes lit up when she saw us. "Great! We're running behind. Hey, Zach." She slammed the trunk of her car shut and opened the back door for me to slide the box in. "Coming to the beach with us?"

I cocked an eyebrow. "As your slave?" I looked at the other guys.

Kelly laughed. "Haha! No, as our guest, silly. We'd love to have you join us."

I glanced at the guys as I hesitated and tried to come up with an excuse to bail out of it.

Kelly shook her head. "Come on, Zach. Live a little and have some fun! The rest of the guys are coming."

I hesitated. I was flat broke. Until I got that last paycheck from summer, or the first paycheck from the house, I couldn't afford to waste the gas to go to the river.

"You can drive my car." Kayla jumped in as if she'd read my mind.
 

"I see. You're looking for a designated driver and someone to set up," I said.

"Maybe." Kayla winked at me. "Or maybe we just want you to have some fun for once."

Kelly was great about inviting us along to house events and parties. Partly it was protection for the girls to have some guys around. Partly they enjoyed our company.

Kelly made a point of batting her eyes at me. "Please, Zach, please? You'll have fun and it will be a great chance for you to meet our new pledges."

"Shit, you too?" My gaze bounced between them. "How can I say no to that?"

Kayla hugged me. "Thanks, Zach." She handed me her car keys. "You can head out now if you guys want. We'll meet you at the river after the bid meeting."
 

Their trip to the river beach was a big surprise, the important first bonding event meant to impress the new pledges. If most of the girls hadn't been incoming freshmen, the event wouldn't have been a surprise at all. The majority of the frats and sororities took their pledges to River State Park and the cliffs every year after the bid meeting.

The bid meeting made me edgy. The bid list was supposed to be top secret, but I'd overheard Kelly and Morgan and the selection committee—Alexis Turner was getting a bid. But something about it had angered Morgan.

Alexis puzzled me. And the way my body reacted to hers scared me shitless. I was certain the first time I saw her that she would have rather been anywhere but here. But in the powder room, she'd been so sure about her VIP status. And now it was the thought of her that convinced me to swallow my pride and take Kayla's BMW to the river. Even though it was a fucking terrible idea.

Alexis

As I walked into the senior ballroom at the SUB with Em for the bid meeting, I didn't know what scared me more—getting a bid from the Double Deltsies or not. We found an empty spot on the floor in the middle of our Rho Gam group and sat cross-legged next to each other as the houses filed in.
 

The meeting was simple. The coordinator passed out the bids. Girls who accepted their bids ran to join their houses, where they were each given a house T-shirt. Those who declined, or didn't get a bid, left. From the horror stories I'd heard, generally in tears.
 

As the bid slips were handed out, Em grabbed my hand. "Friends forever?"

It was becoming our mantra. I nodded. "Friends forever."

I caught Molly's eye and smiled at her. Maybe it was my imagination, but she frosted me out and looked away like I'd betrayed her. They called Em's name before mine. My heart felt like it was going to burst from my chest as she took her bid.

She read her bid aloud. "Delta Delta Psi!" she screamed, and ran to join her new house while I sat, stunned. I had thought her chances of getting a bid from them were only fifty-fifty. No more than mine would have been if I hadn't been a well-coached legacy.

How could Em be so happy about it? She hadn't even hesitated. Within seconds, they had tossed her a shirt and she'd slid it on over her cutoffs and crop top. We had all dressed casually for the occasion, like we'd been instructed.

Girls and girls and girls were called in no particular order. Screams and screams and screams. Tears and tears. The Double Deltsie house was rapidly filling up. Morgan, the girl who'd interviewed me, flashed me an angry, wicked look. I had disobeyed her. I lost my courage. She'd probably tanked me. Mom was going to kill me and then get me into the house under a cloud of shame and suspicion. I should have gone willingly, I realized now.

Finally, as the bids were winding down and it looked like I was going to be among the bid-less girls, I heard my name. I popped up and took my slip with my hands shaking so badly I could barely grab it. My eyes blurred as I read it.
Delta Delta Psi.

I was grateful and horrified at the same time. Regretful that I couldn't be in a house where I belonged. But I knew better than to show a hint of remorse or disappointment. Or weakness. I squealed and bounced up and down like I was the happiest girl on campus as I ran to join my new house.

The house president handed me the last shirt in their pile and hugged me.
 

Em grabbed me. We bounced up and down together while I tried to pull my shirt on. Morgan gave me an evil, satisfied look that warned me not to defy her again. It was clear that she had made me sweat on purpose, making it look like I was their absolute last choice. We recited the house motto and ran from the SUB after the members, following them to a group of waiting cars.

"Get in a car! We have a surprise for you!" Kelly pointed to our waiting cavalcade.

Em and I slid into one together, driven by a girl who introduced herself as Leah. She drove us to our dorms. "Get in there. Get into a bikini, grab a beach bag, and get back out here! We're going to a beach party! Keep your shirt with you."

I ran into my room as Leah honked the horn and the other girls leaned out the window screaming at me to hurry. I changed into my pink bikini and grabbed a bag with a towel and sunscreen. As I locked my dorm room, two girls walked by and saw my sorority bid shirt. I heard them sigh heavily and whisper comments about stuck-up Double Deltsies. And so it began—being judged by the house I was in.

We stopped at Em's dorm next. Made two more stops and we were on the road to the river, rocking out to loud music, generally high from bid day.

The drive took over half an hour through wheat fields to barren desert until the road wound along the river. I barely noticed as I tried to fit in with the girls. Everyone was in full makeup with hair styled to perfection. That was a Double Deltsie rule—no going out without full hair and makeup. Leah blasted the air conditioning, when I would have loved to feel the wind from an open window through my hair. We pulled into a parking lot next to another car from the house and tumbled out.

Leah ran a cool eye over us. "Girls!" She sounded like a housemother. "You're Double Deltsies now!" She pulled her T-shirt off and stashed it in a stylish beach bag she pulled from the trunk, revealing a bright yellow bikini and a perfect body. "Follow me. The house guys saved us a spot."

She led the way, walking with the confidence of a model. The park pulsed with music. Smelled like beer, suntan lotion, and hot bodies. And radiated with life.

Off in the distance, people were jumping off the cliffs into the river below.
 

As we walked through the grass to our party spot, it became clear what being a Double Deltsie meant—total hot-girl status. Dating a Double Deltsie was prestigious. Groups of independent guys, Geeds, and frat parties with their new pledges turned to leer at us. They whistled and called out lewd invitations like construction workers on a job site.

We followed Leah's lead, walking with confidence. Ignoring most of the attention as too far above it. Leah knew her way around the park and the social strata. She also seemed to know someone in every frat group. She called out to some. Flirted with others and ignored the rest.
 

"The guys from Sigma Upsilon"—she rolled her eyes and made a disgusted face—"animals. All hands. Watch out for them."