At First Hate (Coastal Chronicles)

“Hell yes!” Lora said.

I nodded as we followed Hilary back into the stands next to the band. “Absolutely.”

We cheered the rest of the night through the Blue-White scrimmage, beaming from ear to ear to be back in Cameron. I was a junior at Duke, and the Dancing Devils were the best thing that had ever happened to me. I’d rushed a sorority solely because Brinley was rushing and Lora was already in the sorority. I never in a million years would have thought that I’d be in a sorority, but here I was. Not that sororities at Duke were the same as everywhere else in the South. Definitely not like what Lila had said it was at UGA.

The game finished late, and we all decided to leave on our stage makeup and head to the party. I’d packed a tight black dress and heels. We all stuffed our pom-poms and bags into the back of Lora’s car. I didn’t have a car on campus, because parking expenses were out of this world. It sucked not being able to get to and from where I needed to go. Luckily, Lora had a Chevy Tahoe that was nearly the size of my old minivan, and her rich Filipino parents didn’t mind paying for it. She parked the beast outside of the frat, and we piled out like her kids coming from soccer practice.

“Have you heard from Samar?” Brinley asked. She checked her brown complexion in a mirror and applied another coat of red lipstick.

I grumbled and pulled my phone out of my purse. “He’s being unresponsive.”

“My desi brother is going to get his ass kicked,” Brin said, snapping the mirror closed. “If his mother knew how he was treating you.”

“We are not bringing his mother into this,” I said hastily.

Brinley and Samar had grown up together in DC, and their families were close, spending Diwali together every year. We’d been dating for just over a year, and while his father and sisters were supportive, his mother was less so. Though he claimed she was like that about everyone.

“I thought he was going to be at Countdown,” Lora said, brushing the waist-length black hair back off of her face as we entered the house.

“He was.”

But he hadn’t shown. He was working in the Chem lab, where we’d met sophomore year. We had the same advisor, and he’d been pissy ever since I had been pushed into a more advanced program than him.

I jotted out yet another text. He hadn’t responded to any that I’d sent before the game.

Are you still coming to the party?

When there was no immediate response, I stuffed the phone back in my purse and decided to ignore the issues with Samar.

We grabbed punch from the kitchen. It had been a long time since I’d turned my nose up at crappy punch. Now, I drank cheap liquor all the time. Though I was seriously planning to start liking some better shit when I turned twenty-one next weekend. Maddox was driving up with Josie and Lila for my birthday, and I couldn’t wait.

“Watch out. Bekah alert,” Lora hissed as the president of the sorority walked by.

Bekah Bridges was every reason that I had never wanted to rush a sorority. I didn’t get along with everyone in the organization, but most people I could at least tolerate. Bekah ran the thing like a dictator. She was primly Southern perfection and drove me up the fucking wall.

“Ladies, don’t forget who you’re representing while you’re here,” she said with that big, fake smile that made me want to scratch her eyes out.

I put on my best fake enthusiasm. “Oh, bless your heart, Beks. Were we disrespecting the organization?”

She sent me a scathing look. “Marley, one, I know what bless your heart means. I’m from Atlanta. I grew up in a country club.” God, didn’t we all know that? She talked about it all the time. “And two, I am just reminding you. So, keep the snark to yourself. If you even can.”

I couldn’t. It was my defining trait.

Lora grabbed my arm to keep me from digging myself into a deeper hole. “Isn’t your brother here this weekend?”

Bekah’s smile brightened, and her eyes moved across the room. “Y’all remember Ramsey?”

We sure as hell did. He was three years older than us. He’d been a senior while we were freshman and head of the frat that Ash Talmadge was now a part of. We’d all swooned over his blond hair, great smile, and even greater ass. He came back every now and then to visit his sister and hang with the fraternity.

My phone buzzed as he and Ash came over with a few other frat brothers that I didn’t remember. Ash nodded at me. I nodded back. That was usually the extent of our interaction after the shit that had gone down with Lila.