“But what are you going to do with all those clothes she got you?”
I grin. “You and I will wear them to the dining hall.”
Liv actually returns the smile. “You’re still going to the other two tonight, aren’t you? GKA and DRB?”
“I don’t know.” This disaster has soured me on the whole business. I’m not sure I want to be a sorority girl, even a DRB.
“Go. For me,” she pleads. She’s been crying so hard she’s hyperventilating and sucking in her bottom lip.
My heart squeezes. “I’ll think about it.”
Insisting she needs something to do, Liv helps me pick out my round three outfit. Then I let her curl my hair into flawless beach waves.
On a whim, I hand her the faerie pin. “See what you can do with this.”
“Ooo, pretty. Where’d you get it?”
“Christmas gift.”
She slides it into the hair beside my temple. “It goes with your necklace.”
I don’t explain why.
After a quick dinner, I walk along East Main Street in my boots and pencil skirt, on my way to meet Jeanine. Maybe it’s the bobby pin, or maybe it’s the thought of the guy who gave it to me, but as I approach the meeting spot, I feel more and more empowered.
I stop to shoot a quick text and before I even get a reply, make a U-turn and head back to campus.
Leo’s exactly where he said he would be, in the library pacing anxiously between the fifteenth and sixteenth century American history shelves. The moment he sees me, he reaches for me, and I step unquestioningly into his arms. Anyone could see us, but I don’t care. Nor do I care that less than a week ago I wanted to throttle him for showing up at O-Chi. Yeah, he badgered me about the company I was keeping, but only because he knows me. All of my layers.
And that’s why I want to be with him right now.
“What’s wrong?” he asks. “Your message scared me.”
My text was simple and brief:Are you busy? I need to see you.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. My fingers were too cold to type more.”
He leans back to study me. “What’s going on? Aren’t you supposed to be at Rush?”
“Yeah.Supposedto be.”
“What happened?” He tucks my hair behind my ear, his eyes drawn to the faerie at my temple. “Are you okay?”
I nod as we go further into the stacks and sit on the floor. I kneel beside his upraised knee and, at his insistence, tell him the story of the past three nights and what happened to Liv.
“So you never wanted to join KPT?”
“No. Never. I was just infiltrating them.”
He chuckles as he stretches out his legs and crosses them at the ankle. I smile inwardly at the familiar pose, and at the jeans and Doc Martens.
“I’m not all that shocked,” he says of Peyton’s actions. “It sounds like the selection process lends itself to those sorts of abuses.”
I wish I could disagree.
“And Liv still wanted you to go tonight?”
“Yeah. I told her there was no way I was gonna go to KPT, just the other two. And I was on my way there, but then…” I shake my head. “I just couldn’t.”
