Chapter One
This year will make me or break me. Personally, I’m hoping for the former. But, as I sit in the back seat of my mother’s SUV, I have a feeling it’s going to be the latter. There’s this sense of foreboding thrumming through me as I look up at the impeccably manicured lawns and twin pillars that decorate where I’ll be living this next school year. All one hundred and eighty days of it, plus winter and spring breaks. I’m going to hate every minute.
I’m very much aware that there isn’t a seventeen-year-old out there who wouldn’t kill to leave the nest a little bit early. And trust me when I say I’m not feeling like my life is about to take a turn for the worse just because I’m moving out at the ripe old age of seventeen. What does have me feeling this way is the fact that I’m joining a sorority. Not by choice, I might add.
Sorority life isn’t my scene. And no, I don’t have any firsthand experience with sororities, and yes, I’m absolutely judging them based on what I’ve seen on TV, but let's be real, if you knew anything about me, you’d agree that me and the perfect plastics I see walking in and out of the houses on sorority row aren’t a match made in heaven.
When I applied for Sun Valley High’s running start program—a program that allows me to attend college courses and earn both college credits and the final credits I’ll need for my high school diploma, I thought,this is exactly what I need.An escape from the stupid drama that is highschool life where I never really fit in. It’s hard to relate to the people at school when all they can talk about is how Suzie made out with Jason behind Ruby’s back and other stupid nonsense, like who is asking who to senior prom.
Meanwhile, my best friends have all graduated and are planning their weddings and being moms and doing real-life things that matter. It makes it hard to relate to high-school life. Hearing the gossip and then seeing all the back-stabby antics, it’s not what I’m interested in. And don’t even get me started on the boys.
They’re so incredibly stupid in high school. The catcalling and fuck-boy flirting. Urgh. You’d think they’d find a better pickup line than, “You must be an angel, because you look like you just fell from heaven.”
Barf.
The guys I go to school with have zero game. Not that I’d be interested in anyone at Sun Valley High anyway. I almost wish I was. It’d make seeing a certain broody asshole on the regular a hell of a lot easier.
Both of us attending Suncrest U isn’t going to help, but with any luck I won’t see him any more than I have to. Suncrest University is his turf, and here he reigns supreme, not that I’m surprised. Dominique Price and his best friends ran the halls at Sun Valley High as the school's football gods, so of course their reputations would follow them to college as they continue to dominate on and off the field. I used to hate those three for what they put my brother through, but now we’re all friends. Hell, more like family. But I don’t need people realizing we know each other, especially with the unwanted attention that will bring, so I’d like to keep our association under wraps.
And since I’m in college now, Mom decided it was the perfect time to accept an out-of-state promotion and force me to join Kappa Mu—her alma mater. Guess that makes me a legacy.
Yay.
Not.
The alternative was moving with her—so not happening. The prospect of uprooting my entire life to move halfway across the country holds zero appeal, even if the alternative is, well, this.
“Ready to braid hair and paint your nails bubblegum pink?” my brother—Aaron—asks from the front seat.
I roll my eyes and flip him the bird. “Ha. Ha. You’re so funny.”
He turns to glance at me, pushing the blond hair from his face to give me a wink. “Don’t worry, sis. They’ll leave you alone once they realize what a prickly personality you have.”
I lunge forward to smack him but he swings open the passenger side door, stepping out, just in time to avoid my swipe.
“Kasey!” my mother admonishes me.
“What? He started it,” I tell her as I unbuckle to follow him. Despite the early hour, the house is already buzzing with activity—what looks to be a party in full swing. Girls in all manner of summer wear are flitting about, socializing, drinking whatever is in those red Solo cups—and let's be honest, it's not water—and carrying boxes, doing exactly what I'm here to do. Move in.
I wrinkle my nose and glance at my mom as she slings her oversized purse over her shoulder and moves to join Aaron and me on the sidewalk. “Not too late to change your mind?” Aaron mutters under his breath. “You know you wanna.”
I elbow him in the ribs.“Are we telling jokes now?”
When mom concocted this grand idea of me joining her former sorority, Aaron, being the protective big brother he is, was nice enough to offer me the spare room at his place. An offer I was quick to decline.
Under normal circumstances, I’d consider it. We were never very close growing up given the four-year age gap between us, but Aaron has always looked out for me. Most brothers would balk at the idea of living with their baby sister after they moved out, but Aaron genuinely wouldn’t mind. He’s pretty chill about stuff like that.
The problem isn’t living with my brother. It’s living with my brother’s very hot, very broody, drives-me-insane, asshole of a roommate—Dominique Price. On the best of days, we tolerate one another. On the worst, well, things can be openly hostile.
“I’ll pass on living with the devil and take door number two, please,” I tell him, and he chuckles.
“Dom isn’t that bad.”
I snort. “Are we talking about the same person, here?” Dominique Price very much is that bad. He gets under my skin in a way no one else can, and the pull he has over me, urgh. I hate it. Sometimes so much so that I think I hatehim. When we’re in the same room, I want to kiss him and punch him in the same breath. That he makes me question my own sanity is infuriating.
Aaron gives me a light-hearted shove. “Alright, sis, have it your way. But don’t come crying to me when you realize the grass isn’t greener on the other side.”
A gust of wind blows my hair into my face and I hastily push my blond curls out of my eyes. “I won’t,” I assure him. “The grass on your side is already dead and yellow so the bar is set pretty low.”
