“What? Who cares?”
“Ido.Shedoes. She had her heart set on it, and now they’re not gonna let her in. Because of stupid Braden!”
“What the fuck are you even talking about?”
I try to explain, but thanks to my wrenching heart, I’m not particularly coherent.
Zander shrugs. “So what if she can’t be a KPT? She can be a Sweetheart too.” He’s been nagging me for months to be an O-Chi Sweetheart next year instead of joining a sorority. But I’m not sure I like the idea of being the O-Chi brothers’ little pet.
I jump to my feet, hell bent on getting out of here.
“Where’re you going?” he demands, blocking my path.
“To get another beer.”
“No way. I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
Notlettingme?
I’m gaping, scrambling for words, when there’s a knock and a wail, “Betts? Are you in there? Betts?”
I shoulder Zander aside and throw open the door. There stands Liv, eyes red and cheeks streaked with mascara.
She’s sobbing so hard she’s hyperventilating. “Peyton hates me!”
I lead her to the bed where she collapses into my arms.
Zander throws up his hands and shouts at her. “We’re trying to talk in here!”
I give him a pleading look.
“I asked him,” Liv moans. “I asked him, and he said they weren’t together anymore!”
“Who? Braden and Peyton?”
She sniffs and nods. She’s getting tears, snot, and mascara all over me. I’m going to have to buy Caitlyn a new dress.
“What happened?”
“She saw us kissing.”
Considering Braden’s reputation, I have a hard time believing someone as self-assured as Peyton would be shocked to find him with another girl. Was she actually hoping he would commit to her?
I try to comfort Liv with the requisite best friend pep talk: Peyton’s insecure and jealous, she’s not as pretty as Liv, she doesn’t own Braden, blah, blah, blah. But nothing consoles her.
“It doesn’t matter,” she sobs. “She’ll never let me into KPT.”
“She’s just one sister. If the others like you?—”
“She’ll turn them all against me!”
“C’mon,” I say, getting to my feet and pulling her up with me. “Let’s get another drink.”
My stomach clenches when I notice Zander is gone. He’s probably even more pissed off now than he was before. How am I supposed to fix allthis?
Liv and I stop off at the bathroom where I clean both our faces with a musty towel. We smell a little sour, but at least we no longer look like raccoons.
Downstairs, I lead Liv straight to the laundry room and my cooler. I wish we could hide in here and finish off these beers, just the two of us alone, but of course we can’t get the caps off. In the kitchen, I choose from a sea of scattered bottle openers, pop off a lid, and hand Liv the bottle, a little curl of mist rising out of the top. After I take a long gulp from mine, I gaze at the counter where Leo and I talked, my fingers toying with the pendant under my throat. I’m tempted to run off somewhere to charge it, because right now it’s not absorbing anything. I’m drowning.
