Sweet Rome (Sweet Home 1.5)

Rolling back my head, I groaned, throwing the ball at the second-string QB’s head. “Fuck, Reece, you need to get laid by your own efforts. I’m sick of your randy ass needing me to hook you up. You’re a football player. Fuckin’ use it for the perks! What’s the point of playing for the Tide if you can never get your own chick?”

He ducked, ignored my jab, and smiled. “I’ll take that as we’re going! Let me change.”

I rubbed my hands down my face in exasperation, hearing the door close as Reece left the room. As I looked back up, I noticed Austin staring at the floor and Jimmy-Don, my only other close friend, flicking his head at me, hinting that I should speak to him.

Shit. I hadn’t even noticed anything was wrong.

“You okay, brother?” I asked.

Austin darted his eyes up response. The three of us were tight. I’d known Austin my whole life, the two f**ked-up kids from opposite sides of the tracks, finding each other through football. Jimmy-Don came along during our freshman year. He was a big Texan cowboy and the most genuine guy I’d ever met. Fucking hilarious too. Reece didn’t know us too well yet, and Austin didn’t fully trust him, didn’t trust anyone much. It was obvious Austin was preoccupied with something, and the minute Reece left, he’d dropped his shield.

“It’s my brothers, man,” he said in a tight voice. “Levi got roped into the crew, and f**king Axel let him do it, saying it was necessary to pay for my momma’s medical bills. Levi’s fourteen. He’s too young to be caught up in that crap! I ain’t got no money to give. Axel’s telling me to keep up football for the payout and they’ll handle everything in the meantime. I need to be drafted this year so f**kin’ bad.” He tipped his head to the ceiling, then dropped it again, his damn tortured eyes meeting mine. “Let’s go to this initiation tonight, Rome. I’ll go crazy if I stay here thinking about it all. I need to get out, need to forget all this shit for a while.”

I could see he was hurting. His younger brother Levi was a good kid. Axel, his older brother, not so much. Austin had fought to keep Levi out of the gang that had long ago sucked in Axel, and I could see how it pained him to know that Levi had now gone down the same road.

“You know I’ll give you the money, Carillo. Just say the word,” I said quietly. Austin’s eyes darkened with embarrassment.

“Rome, I know you mean well, but there is no way I’m taking a hand-out from you. I’ll deal with it. I always manage to work something out.”

Yeah he does, but it ain’t often legit.

“You need us to pay your brother a visit? Talk to him, figure out a way to get him out of all that shit?” Jimmy-Don offered.

Austin shook his head. “No getting out once you’re in. Hell, look what they still expect me to do.” He placed a hand on Jimmy-Don’s shoulder. “I appreciate it, though, but this is family business. I’m not involving you two.”

Shifting impatiently off the couch, Austin asked, “We going?”

“Done deal. Let’s go,” I replied.

Jimmy-Don stood and offered his hand to me. He pulled me from the couch with a huge, happy grin, and once Reece got his ass back downstairs, we headed out the door.

“Hey, guys! They’re all waiting for you in the back room,” Ally said as we walked through the door of the sorority house, my cousin looking bored out of her mind as she sat on a stool at the entrance, acting out her role of “welcoming committee.”

She walked over to me, rolled her eyes, and kissed me on the cheek. “Didn’t think I’d see you here. It’s not exactly your thing.”

“Yeah, kind of forced to come.” I watched as the guys filtered into the room, then tipped my chin to the door. “What’s Shel having them do this year?”

Ally shook her head in disgust. “Kissing a brother and guessing what they’ve just eaten.”

I ran my hand across my head. “Shit, how old is she?”

“I know, right? Anyway, there’s all ages pledging this year. We needed upperclassmen. Well, that and transfers. Even bagged ourselves some genius Brit or something. Most of the girls are happy with that acquisition, seeing as though all the other charters wanted her with them to fill their quotas. I haven’t met any of the newbies yet, though. I’m just hoping they’re not all mini-Shels and at least one of them has a brain and doesn’t get all tied up in her games.”

Running a hand through my hair, I asked, “Genius Brit?” I tried to sound casual, but, yeah, I came off sounding like a douche.

Ally’s eyes narrowed and she tilted her head, regarding me shrewdly. “Yeah, she’s on a master’s program or something. Apparently she’s a TA in our philosophy class too. I don’t know. Why you being so weird all of a sudden?”

I sniffed and crossed my arms across my chest. “No reason.” I pointed to the room. “Pledges in there?”

Ally stepped back and crossed her arms, mimicking my stance. “You’re going in?”

“Yeah.”

As I walked past my annoying cousin, she grabbed my arm tight, wrenching me back. “You’re going in?”

“Yeah! What’re you not getting?” I bit out, jerking out of her grip.

“Mr. I f**king hate all the Greek shit—direct quote!—suddenly wants to get involved in Shelly’s messed-up initiations?”

“I’m just curious,” I answered, trying to sound casual, but she just continued to look at me with an unnervingly suspicious glint in her brown eyes.