“You’re going to crush it,” I whisper.
“It’s going to crush me,” she whispers back.
I hold her tighter, kissing her neck and wrapping her up as much as I can, letting her know I have her, that she’s safe, that it will all be okay.
“I just… what if we go through all this, and they win anyway? What if we go to court and the judge rules in their favor?” She pauses. “What if it doesn’t even make it to court?”
“They won’t win,” I tell her. I don’t say anything further. Those three words are everything she needs to know, everything I firmly believe.
“I love you,” she whispers into the night, those words sweeping up on a soft breeze to caress my ears.
“I love you,” I tell her. “And I’m proud of you, for stepping forward, for speaking out against them.”
“I hope I don’t regret it.”
“No matter what happens, you shouldn’t,” I tell her. “Win or lose, court or no court — you’re an example for other victims, an inspiration for other women to tell their stories, too.”
Erin nods softly, but I don’t miss the single tear that wells up and rolls down her right cheek.
I thumb it away, tilting her chin until she’s facing me, and seal my admiration for her with a long kiss.
“So,” I ask her, knowing she needs a break in the subject. “Will we live in the city, or the outskirts?”
“City, of course,” she says. “How about that building there?”
She points at one across the city that I know costs at least a half-a-million dollars for a two-bedroom condo, but I nod anyway.
“Looks perfect.”
Erin turns, wrapping her arms around my neck. “Perfect is wherever I am with you.”
I CAN’T TELL IF Skyler wants to wrap me up in the biggest hug ever…
Or strangle me.
On the one hand, I know her heart is full that I’m taking a Little, that our family is growing, that our legacy in Kappa Kappa Beta will live on after we’re gone. Erin never took the news well that I didn’t want a Little, but Skyler supported me no matter what. Still, I know deep down she’s always wanted me to take a Little, too, and I know she was ecstatic to hear I’d changed my mind.
On the other hand, I made her dress up like Ron from Harry Potter for the reveal.
With a gold and garnet scarf around her neck, a long black robe down to her knees, an orange wig, a stuffed toy rat in one hand, and a wand in the other — she looks absolutely adorable.
And also ready to kill me.
“She should be here soon,” I promise Skyler, checking the time on my watch. “If she followed all the clues and spells correctly — which I’ have no doubt she did — we’ve got maybe ten minutes.”
“I’m fine, Little,” Skyler says, and her smile tells me maybe she is closer to wanting to crush me in a hug rather than cut off my oxygen supply.
“You really do look great.”
She chuckles. “Your hair is ridiculous.”
I laugh at that, touching the frizzy curls I pulled off to complete my Hermione look — thanks to an overwhelming amount of teasing and hairspray.
“You’re excited,” she says after a minute, that small smile holding firm.
I nod. “I really am. Tera is awesome. If anyone is going to take on our family number and reputation, I couldn’t have asked for anyone better than her.”
“She’s lucky to have you for her Big.”
I frown. “For a couple more months. Then, we both leave her.”
A light flashes in Skyler’s eyes at something behind me, and her smile grows. “Something tells me she’ll be just fine.”
We’re on one side of the reflection pond, the water backlist and spraying up into the night, and when I turn to look where Skyler’s gaze has fallen, I can’t help but burst into laughter.
I set up a scavenger hunt of sorts for Tera all across campus, giving her clues of where to find hidden mystery items to complete her Harry Potter costume — like his glasses, a gold lightning bolt tattoo for her forehead, her robe, her Gryffindor scarf, and even a stuffed Hedwig. Along with finding the objects, she had to perform “spells” to random people I had in on the event in order to get her next clue.
And the last task? Defeat the cardboard Voldemort I had printed out and staged in the middle of the pond.
It looks like a scene out of a movie, the way her hair is flying back behind her, scarf in the wind, her wand held high as she banshee screams and runs through the water toward the cardboard cutout. In dramatic fashion, she stops right in front of him, the most determined look in her eyes, and then she holds her wand right to his nose and screams, “Avada Kedavra!”