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“Well, do it for free then. Making sure your friend doesn’t relapse is a kindness, Eve. I’m sure I can rely on your compassion.”
She smiled at me, confident that I’d follow her edicts, and then turned away.
“Beckett never went to New York for treatment. He told me so himself.” The accusation shot out of my mouth before I could stop it.
Colette froze for a long moment, before facing me. “No, in the end, he didn’t go. Soren brought the doctor in. We thought he’d be leaving, though, that’s why I told you about it.”
“You said he’d already gone,” I pushed, doggedly holding onto the way she’d twisted everything. “When he was just upstairs the whole time.”
She let out a sigh. “Honestly, Beckett had already been very clear how he felt about you and everyone involved in the incident. I knew he didn’t want to see you, and it would only upset you both if he said that to your face. I was saving you the embarrassment, Eve. One woman to another.”
“Oh, okay,” I muttered, my cheeks on fire again. There was something so condescending about Colette’s tone, I felt smaller than small.
“Now, better get back to work. Thank you for helping his parents out, Eve. Soren will really appreciate it.”
And just like that, she strode away without giving me another chance to protest.
Eve
A few hours later,Isabelle was catching me up on the gossip around campus as we got ready to go to my first Greek party.
“Now, no matter what, we have to stick together, unless one of us gets lucky, in which case, the other one sticks around until that’s done and we go home together.” Isabelle had her arm linked through mine, and we were climbing the steps to the Omega Psi Zeta House and weaving around the drunk people sitting on them.
“Okay, who is being the grandma now?”
“It’s not being a grandma,” she protested. “Don’t you read theHerald? Another girl got attacked just last night.”
“What? On campus?”
“Yes, on campus. She was coming home late from the library, and someone grabbed her and dragged her into the bushes. She was nearly raped and probably would have been if the campus security van hadn’t driven by right then.”
“That’s horrible, I had no idea.” It seemed crazy that on a pretty, leafy campus like HHU there could be a predator who was stalking students at night and assaulting them. I shivered, suddenly cold in my Greek-inspired dress.
We stepped into the party.
The inside of the Omega Psi Zeta house was packed with bodies. Keeping to a Greek theme, everyone was dressed in white. For guys, “Greek theme” seemed to mean a sheet around the hips and body oil on the chest – oh, and not to forget the gold masks everyone was sporting.
Most of the girls had managed more elaborate costumes. My hair was wound in braids and swept up. I was in a borrowed white bandage dress from Isabelle that was one wrong move away from being totally indecent. After the week I’d had and the bewildering run-in with Colette Anderson, I was allowed to cut loose…or so I told myself.
I followed Isabelle through the house to the kitchen, where she set to work making us drinks.
I took a long swig of the cocktail she made for me and wrinkled my nose at the strong taste. “What is this?”
“I don’t know, I created it…Let’s call it the Isabelle Special.”
“Delicious and highly flammable,” I laughed. I watched with amusement as she pulled a laminated card out of her bag. “What is that?”
“Freshman experiences bingo card…X-rated edition.” She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively at me.
“A bingo card?” I read out a few of the squares. “‘Flunking an exam.’ ‘Streaking through the quad.’ ‘Getting handcuffed to a bed.’”
“Freshman rites of passage. Someone was giving them out, and I thought they were fun.”
My gaze scanned down the paper. “‘Ride a jock’s face’! Isabelle!”
“I told you it was an X-rated version. Here, I got you one, plus some party favors to make it easier to cross things off,” she laughed. Reaching back into her bag, she grabbed a brown paper bag and handed it to me, and another card and a pen. “I came prepared to cross one off.” She pointed to a blue square on the card.
I peeked inside the bag and spied the silver curve of what looked like handcuffs, then quickly closed it and stuffed it into my backpack. Isabelle was way wilder than I’d given her credit for.
