The Wanderers Beginning: The Wanderers, Reborn, & Unforgiven (8 page)

             
The second message was my mom again.

             
“Hey honey, Jade just called me and told me what happened to Josie. I hope you aren’t having any issues and why haven’t you called yet? Please call me so I know you’re okay.”

             
And the third was from Dean

             
“Christ Ella, would you please call mom back. She’s threatening to make me drive there to check on you and I do not have time for your petty games. I have better things to attend to.
‘Dean hurry up.’
I heard a girl’s voice in the background and then Dean hanging up the phone.

             
I shook my head and right away called my mom. “Ella! Are you alright? Why haven’t you called? What’s going on?” She bombarded me with questions.

             
“Yes mom, I’m fine. Sorry I haven’t called. Josie and I went to look around the campus and I forgot my phone.”

             
“Well you scared me. Don’t do that again.” I could just see her sinking down into a seat with her hand over her heart. Her tone relaxed as she continued the conversation. “I wanted to tell you I packed a few extra items in your suitcase just as a precaution. Did you get them?”

             
“No. I haven’t gotten that far yet, but thank you.”

             
“Your father and I have been talking and we think it would be a good idea for you to have a car while you’re there. I’ll feel safer knowing you’re not walking everywhere.”

             
“Okay mom, I’ll look into it when I get a chance.”

             
“No worries, we already took care of it. It will be delivered tomorrow.”

             
“Thanks mom,” I said, kind of shocked but also not surprised. “Totally unnecessary, but thanks.”

             
“So tell me about your first day.”

             
“Mom, I’m kind of tired. Can I tell you some other time? I haven't even unpacked yet.”

             
“Okay sweetheart. I love you.”

             
“I love you too. Bye mom.” I hung up the phone before she had a chance to say anything else. I was thousands of miles away and she was still smothering me.

             
I immediately opened my suitcase to see what my mom had stuck in there. On top was a bag with a note that read
'Be safe honey'
, in my mom’s handwriting. I emptied the contents of the bag onto my bed.

             
There was a can of mace, a rape whistle, a mini flashlight, a first aid kit, and of all things, a reflective vest. I rolled my eyes and stuffed everything back in the bag and shoved it under my bed. “Hey, at least your mom cares about you,” Josie said.

             
“Yeah a little too much, but one good thing about her undying love and wanting to keep her daughter safe, we’ll have a car.”

             
“Sweet, I’m gonna take a nap. Wake me when you finish unpacking my stuff.” I threw a pillow at her and she yelped. “Alright, alright.”

             
Josie reluctantly got up and started unpacking. She opened up one of the boxes stuffed full of clothes, picked up the wrinkled pile, and threw everything on the floor of the closet. “One down, four to go,” she smiled.

             
“Josie, you are not leaving your clothes in a pile on the floor of the closet.”

             
“Why not?”

             
“Because the closet is on my side and I know you’ll be throwing clothes everywhere making a mess for me to clean up.”

             
“Fine.” She stomped back to the closet picking up the pile and throwing it in the corner on her side. “Better?”

             
“Much,” I said sarcastically. I forgot how messy Josie was. Maybe her being my roommate might not be as great as I thought.

             
After I finished unpacking everything I decided to attempt to put together the desk. “I’m going to go grab a soda. You want one?” Josie offered.

             
“Yes, please.”

             
“Okay I’ll be right back,” she said skipping out the door.

             
I dumped out all the materials and spread everything across the floor studying the directions. “This can’t be that hard,” I said out loud to myself. I managed to get half of it together and started putting in the next screw when the screw driver slipped and cut my hand. “Ow! Shit!”

             
“Need some help there?” I heard a strange voice say and turned to see a tall, lanky kid standing behind me. “Sorry your door was open and I heard you yell. I’m Jack,” he said, offering me his hand.

             
“Hi. Ella.”

             
He had a crooked smile, which was kind of sweet. He pointed to the desk on the floor and offered to help. “Yes please, I’m not very good at this stuff,” I said shyly as he joined me on the floor.

             
“Happy to help.”

             
I handed him the screwdriver and that’s when I noticed the cut on my hand was pretty bad. “Crap, sorry, I need to…”

             
He took my hand and inspected my cut. “It’s just a scratch, here.” He pulled a small packet of tissues from his back pocket and applied one to my cut. “Just hold this here till the bleeding stops, and then you should go clean it up.”

             
“Thanks,” I said and watched him start to put the desk together. Now that he was closer I got a better look at him. He had dirty blond hair with short wiry curls. His face was long and covered in freckles and his eyes, something about his eyes looked very familiar. They were a goldish color with violet flecks.

             
“Done,” he said, drawing my attention back to the desk.

             
“Wow, thank you. It probably would have taken me another hour to finish it,” I laughed.

             
“No problem,” he said smiling.

             
“Hey, they only had diet is that alright?” Josie said, coming back into the room. Jack brushed his hands on his jeans and stood up.

             
“Josie, this is Jack.”

             
“Hi,” Josie said with her best flirtatious smile. He shook her hand and proceeded towards the door.

             
“Thanks again.”

             
“No prob. I’m just down the hall if you’re ever in need of my insistence again…and don’t forget to clean that cut.”

             
I smiled politely at him as he exited the room.

             
Josie shut the door. “I’m gone ten minutes and already you have a boy in our room.” She teased falling on her bed.

             
“Shut up. You forgot to close the door and he heard me cursing and came to see what was going on.”

             
“Uh huh…” she smiled.

             
I rolled my eyes at her and stood up. “I’ll be back. I’m going to clean this up.” I made my way to the bathroom and rinsed off all the blood from my hand. I knew I would have plenty of supplies to properly clean it and bandaged it back at my room.

             
“So how about we go through these flyers and see which ones have the best offers and best parties,” Josie said, spreading all the papers across her bed. I threw my stack into her pile and one by one we went through them making three piles - one for yes’s, another for the maybes, and another for the no’s.

             
Josie based most of her decisions on how hot the guy was who handed her the flyer. I told her that was not a valid reason for picking a club to join, or whatever the flyer was offering. We also separated them according to what they were for; parties, clubs, sororities, petitions. Josie focused on the party and sorority flyers, while I focused on the clubs and petitions. “What about this one?” I asked handing her a flyer about Greenpeace.

             
She automatically tossed it in the ‘no’ pile. “Those people are grungy. Hello it’s not gonna kill you to take a shower. Besides, doesn’t your mom already work for a Greenpeace?”

             
“Yes, but it would be nice if we helped do our part.”

             
She stood up from the bed with her empty soda can and threw it in the empty trash can. “Recycling, there I did my part.” I just shook my head at her knowing it would be a lost cause. “Besides, I don’t think we should get too involved in extracurricular activities until we know what our schedule is like.”

             
“Now that is something I can agree on,” I said, picking up the flyers to throw them away in our new ‘recycling’ can.

             
Josie grabbed my hand. “Except these,” she smiled. “I’m sure we won’t be too busy to check out some parties.” I stifled an eye roll and let her go. “So which one do you want to check out tonight?”

             
“I don’t care. You pick.”

             
She closed her eyes and reached blindly into the pile of party flyers. “Okay, this one it is,” she said holding up a blue flyer that read Jell-O shots in big print. “I remember the guy who gave me this. He was really hot.”

             
“Where’s it at?”

             
“Some fraternity.”

             
“That helps,” I said sarcastically. “What time does it start?”

             
“Not till ten.”

             
“Well if you don’t mind, I’m going to take a little nap.”

             
“Sounds great. I think I’ll do the same.”

             
I got clean sheets out of the closet and placed them on my bed. Josie lay down on her mattress not even bothering to put sheets on it first. The second I lay down and closed my eyes I was out.

Chapter six

I woke up feeling refreshed and ready to party. I rolled over to check on Josie, but she was already gone and the door was wide open. We are definitely going to have to work on some ground rules.

              Rule no. 1 – Don't leave the door open.

             
I got up and made my bed and put fresh sheets on Josie's knowing she wouldn't do it herself. Then I headed out into the hall to try and find her. I passed an open door at the end of the hall and heard someone call my name. “Ella!”

             
I stopped and turned around. “Oh, hey Jack Have you seen Josie?”

             
He pulled open the door to his room and there she was sitting on his bed. “It's about time you woke up,” she whined taking a sip from a red plastic cup. “Want some?” she offered holding the cup out to me.

             
“No. I just came to see where you were.”

             
“I ran into Jack in the lobby and invited him to come with us to the party tonight,” Josie said with a sly grin.

             
“I'm not much for parties, but Josie insisted I go,” Jack said shyly.

             
I'm sure she did, I thought to myself. “Well I'm going to take a quick shower,” I told Josie.

             
“Okay hurry up. I wanna get there before all the Jell-O shots are gone,” Josie replied.

             
I walked back to my room and grabbed my stuff for the shower. I still had to share a bathroom but at least here there was more than one shower. I hung my robe on the outside shower stall and stepped in closing the curtain behind me. I let the shower run for a few minutes, letting the steam fill up my little area. A hot shower was what I needed right now. And it felt so good.

             
By the time I returned to my room Josie was there throwing clothes all over the floor. “Uh! I have nothing to wear!” she groaned.

             
“I highly doubt that,” I said, dodging a flying blouse.

             
“Can you help me?” she pleaded.

             
“Let me get dressed first than I'll help you find something to wear.” I pulled a pair of jeans out of the dresser and a cute black top my mom had bought me last year for my birthday. Then I helped Josie pick an outfit. She went with a black mini skirt, her knee high leather boots, and a red top.

             
She turned back and forth, checking herself out in the full length mirror. “Perfect. I'm ready.”

             
“I still have to dry my hair,” I said, pointing to the dripping wet mop on top of my head.

             
“Ugh! That will take forever,” she moaned. “I'm going to go keep Jack company while you finish getting ready.” She winked at me and headed down the hall.

             
“Don't forget to close...the door,” I said too late. I sighed and walked over to close it myself. I plugged in my hair dryer and began the process of drying my long, thick, wavy hair. When I was done, I smoothed it over with a flat iron and applied some make-up. Then I met Josie and Jack in his room. “Okay, I'm ready.”

             
“Finally,” Josie whined, jumping off the bed and linking her arm in mine. Jack closed the door behind us and followed a few steps back.

             
“Where is this place, again?” I asked.

             
“Not far, just across the quad,” Jack said. He seemed to know his way around so we let him take the lead. It wasn't that hard to spot once we got closer. Students were coming from every direction and all seemed to be going to the same place.

             
The fraternity house was huge, like a mansion. I started feeling a little nervous and stopped halfway to the door. “What's wrong?” Josie asked.

             
I took a breath and smiled. “Nothing, C'mon.”

             
The inside was even bigger than I expected. It looked large enough to hold the entire freshman class. There were people and kegs everywhere. Guys were walking around in diapers carrying trays of shots. Yes they were actually wearing diapers. It was unlike anything I have ever seen before. I looked around, taking it all in. On one side there were big, burly, football players doing keg stands. On the other side there were prissy girls and slutty girls vying for attention. Almost everywhere I saw a different collection of people. The only familiar thing was all the drunken girls spread out amongst the party goers waiting to be hit on. This was nothing like any party I had been to back home. Those parties usually consisted of me watching Kyle and his brother get drunk.

             
“What do you want to drink?” Josie asked.

             
“Um...a beer is good,” I said, trying to play it safe.

             
We found a medium sized bar set up in the back, complete with bartender. The bartender was wearing tight, black spandex shorts and just a bow tie. “I definitely know I'm going to like it here,” Josie whispered in my ear.

             
“What can I get you?” the bartender asked.

             
“I'll have a...” Josie was ordering her drink when I started to get the strangest sensation of being watched. I looked over to my right to discover a strange young man staring at me. He had a cocky smile on his face, like he was the type of guy girls never said no to. I turned away letting him know I was not interested. I knew he didn't take the hint when I could still feel his eyes on me. I moved closer to Josie starting to feel uncomfortable under his piercing gaze. I refused to let him intimidate me so I untucked my hair from behind my ear letting it fall to create a dark brown veil to hide my reddened cheeks.

             
“And what can I get you?” the bartender asked me next, grabbing my attention.

             
“I'll have a beer,” I replied.

             
“The beers are over there,” the bartender said, pointing behind us.

             
“And I'm sure pledge Johnson would love to walk over there and get one for you,” said the strange young man who seemed to forget how impolite it is to stare.

             
“No. It's okay. I can get it,” I said, wanting to get away from him.

             
The bartender stood there as if waiting for a command. The creep with the staring problem nodded to him and he was off. As if that was an invitation to come talk to me he made his way over. “It's his job,” he said, leaning against the bar and looking me up and down like he was trying to envision me naked. I crossed my arms over my chest feeling a little violated as his dark blue eyes studied me. He smiled satisfied as he ran a hand through his messy black hair. Not sure what he was attempting to accomplish because it looked like he just threw some gel in it giving it that messy,
‘this is what I meant to do’
look.

             
I shuffled my feet nervously waiting for the bartender to come back with my drink. I was trying to be nice and didn't know how much longer I could keep my composure with the way this guy was staring at me. When the bartender returned with my beer I said thank you and turned to walk away, but the creepy guy jumped in front of me blocking my path. When he stood straight, he was about a foot taller than me. He was wearing a green polo shirt and jeans that hung a little baggy on his slim body.

             
I pushed my shoulders back preparing for whatever he was going to throw at me. He was in for a sore surprise if he thought he could woo me with his charm the way I was sure he had every other girl. He smiled cockily at me and extended his hand. “I'm Tristan,” he said.

             
“Ella.” I shook his hand and he didn't seem to want to let it go. “Can I have my hand back?” I asked, annoyed.

             
He smiled and pulled my hand to his lips. “Stella piu bella.”

             
“I don't speak Italian,” I said, narrowing my eyes at him.

             
“Enjoy the party Ella,” he winked and walked away.

             
“What a creep,” I said to Josie after he left.

             
“I think he's hot,” Josie said.

             
“You would.”

             
“And you don't?” she asked, surprised.

             
“That doesn't matter. He's a player,” I said, watching him work the room and flirt with every girl he passed.

             
“Ella, not all good looking guys are dicks.” Josie rolled her eyes.

             
“Josie, let's not forget I've spent the last eighteen years living with the world's biggest player. I think I can spot a jerk when I see one.”

             
“Well forget him then, let's mingle,” she said pulling me along.

             
“Wait, where's Jack?” I asked. We've only been here ten minutes and I already lost him.

             
“Bathroom...I think?” Josie shrugged, not in the least bit concerned. Josie was quick to move on when she lost interest.

             
Jack showed up about fifteen minutes later confirming he was in the bathroom. “Sorry there was a long line,” he said.

             
“That's okay. You want something to drink?” I asked him.

             
“Sure,” he smiled. We walked over to a different bar than before and got Jack a drink.

I spent the rest of the night watching Josie socialize. I wasn't too much in the mood anymore. I kept to myself and talked to Jack most of the time. Every now and then I would catch the creep, Tristan, staring at me from across the room. No matter where we moved he was there, still staring. This was bordering on stalking. I was about to put a stop to it by telling him to drop this charade because there was no way in hell I would ever let him touch me, when Josie interrupted. “Ella this is Cadence. She's one of the sisters of Theta Kappa.”

             
“Hi Ella, it’s nice to meet you. Would you like to meet some of the other sisters?” Cadence asked.

             
I wanted to say no, but from the look on Josie's face I knew she wanted me to do this for her. I smiled politely and said, “Sure.”

             
We followed Cadence over to the other side of the house. “Ella, Josie, this is Cassidy, Bailey, and Skylar.” Of course they were all blond and dressed like they were entering a fashion show. I put my best face forward and politely greeted each one of them. That was one of the first things my mom taught me. To always show respect and be considerate even if the person you're entertaining is an ass.

             
“Don't you think they would make a perfect addition to our sorority?” Cadence said addressing the girls. Bailey smiled wide agreeing; Skylar gave me a look of distaste, not approving of Cadence's decision while Cassidy seemed to care less. I wasn't sure I so much liked the idea of being 'sisters' with these girls.

             
“Ella? Hello Ella?” Josie said, snapping me back.

             
“Oh, I'm sorry,” I said, getting a humorless laugh from Skylar. I fought the urge to glare at her.

             
“Cadence would like us to pledge their sorority,” Josie said.

             
“Oh, um, thank you but I don't think I'll be pledging this year.” I generously declined. Josie looked at me like I was crazy. “I just want to concentrate on my school work first before I get involved in anything else,” I explained.

             
“I completely understand,” Bailey said. “I felt the same way you did until I met the sisters.” And here comes the sales pitch. “We always put our studies first and have a handful of sisters who are always willing to help out.”

             
“Let us tell you some more of what we're about before you say no,” Cadence said, putting her arm around me, pushing Jack aside, and leading me to a couch by the wall. We sat down and Cadence went into more detail about the sorority. She explained that, yes, while they were known for their parties, they also did a lot of charity work around the community. Sisterhood was the most important thing to them and all the sisters looked after each other. She went on and on. I spaced out somewhere around the different levels of sisterhood.

        After several looks of disapproval from Josie, I made a solid attempt to make it seem like I was paying attention, but was having a hard time. I kept getting this weird feeling in my stomach. It was a strange kind of fluttering. Almost like a magnetic pull to something or someone. I looked up and noticed Tristan was making his rounds. I watched as he greeted each person he passed. A different smile for each of them. He had everyone eating out of the palm of his hand. I could see how easy it was for the naive to fall for his charm. He knew how to work the crowd. It seemed all it took was the flash of his pearly whites or a wink from those intense dark blue eyes.