Living at the Frat House - A College Romance

The glare she gave me could kill someone. “Don’t worry, I’ll be out of your way shortly.”

“You’re getting more stuff for Juno?”

“The obvious answer to that question would be yes,” she said, tossing a suitcase on the bed and grabbing clothes from drawers.

I hate myself for asking, but I still can’t stop it. “How is she doing?”

“Is that a thing that you’re actually asking right now? How the fuck do you think she is, asshole.”

Her tone grates on me. “You don’t know the full story.”

“And neither does Juno,” she says. “Why? Because you haven’t fucking told her. You dumped her on her ass and she has no idea why. So no, Juno isn’t doing great. I’ve never seen her as happy as when she was with you, and you took that all away in one fell swoop. You’re a fucking jackass, Malcolm.”

“And she’s a liar,” I say. That’s it. Renewed anger flows from my veins. If Juno wants to know why I said what I said, let Bailey fucking tell her. I don’t care. “You want to know what happened?”

She slams the drawer shut. “Yeah. I do. And I’m glad you brought it up, because I wasn’t planning on leaving here until I got some answers.”

“Juno almost killed my brother,” I say, letting the words hang in the air.

Everything seems to go still, and Bailey stiffens. “What did you just say?”

“You heard me. They went to the same high school. I guess the same one that you did, and a couple years ago at a party Juno dared my brother to drink, and she got him to drink so much that he got alcohol poisoning and nearly died. I haven’t touched alcohol since and neither has he. The promise we both made to each other after almost losing him. And I take my promises seriously.

“So yeah, I’m fucking pissed that I ever touched the woman that almost killed him.”

Bailey looks at me, blinking slowly, and her face doesn’t contain the shock or anger that I expected it to. “John is your brother?”

“I’m guessing you’ve heard the story.”

She shakes her head. “Yeah of course I have. I was just talking about it the other day. Juno didn’t have anything to do with your brother drinking. I think she threw up the first time she tasted beer and hasn’t had any since.” Bailey runs a hand across her face. “Who told you she was responsible?”

“Taylor Thomas.”

Now Bailey looks anger. “Fucking hell. Of course it was Taylor. Look, Juno didn’t make your brother drink anything. She called the ambulance that saved his life. Taylor begged her not to so that she wouldn’t get into trouble for hosting the party, and she did it anyway. Taylor has never forgiven her for it.

“She was so broken up about the fact that John was maybe hurt that she brought flowers to the hospital just to see if he was okay, even though she didn’t really know him.”

My whole body is numb, and I feel weak. “Tell me you’re lying.”

“Trust me, I’m not,” she says. “She told you about her aunt?”

“Yeah,” I say, voice rasping.

“Her aunt had just died. That was fresh. The only reason she was even at the party was she went with a pseudo-boyfriend who was a bad match and thought that getting her to a party would help.”

I huff a laugh. “I’m betting that didn’t work.”

“No. It didn’t. But if he hadn’t gotten her to that party, your brother might actually be dead. So get the fuck off your high horse and own the fact that you screwed up. Massively.”

Oh, fuck.

The guilt and regret falls onto me like those two-ton weights in the cartoons. I crouch down on the balls of my feet, unable to stand. “Oh shit.”

“Yeah. Asshole.”

“I’ve got the picture, Bailey, thanks.”

I didn’t ask her anything. I automatically assumed that she was guilty. Because I was still so angry about almost losing John that I couldn’t see straight. It’s possible that I haven’t forgiven him for doing that to himself.

And I accepted it as truth from Melody’s sister. I knew what Melody was capable of, and I believed it anyway. I was so…blinded by everything. It all made sense.

“She told me that Juno loved dares. That that was the reason she came to Granite House.”

“Oh, it was a dare, but the only reason she did it was because Juno had this idea of having a kind of sisterhood, and the Tri Deltas are a good kind of club for that. From the outside. She was scared out of her mind and it was like pulling teeth to even get her to put on the dress.”

Yet another lie.

All the pain that I’d been going through the last days was nothing compared to this. That look that I’d put in her eyes was real and completely unwarranted. I fucked up on a truly colossal scale, and I didn’t know if there was a way to come back from it.