14
AVA
The unease the day had brought was washed away as soon as Micah and I set foot on Greek row. I had been hiding away, not realizing how much Livy’s death had meant to everyone here. There were a few instances that brought the Greek system to mind, and this was one of them. We could mess with each other, but no one else could.
How many of us could see ourselves in Livy’s shoes? A drunk girl is having the time of her life at a party, only to end up dead by sheer bad luck.
“No one’s out,” I said as we headed toward the ZGT house.
“It’s close to curfew,” Micah mumbled next to me as he looked from house to house.
Every house had a mourning wreath on its front door. It was a beautiful way to display solidarity, but I couldn’t help but think how macabre it all looked. I halted my next step and held on to Micah’s arm. “What curfew?”
“Guess you haven’t checked your school emails.” Micah said it offhandedly, but I still felt myself blush in embarrassment. “The school wants students off the streets by ten. The librarywill be closing early because of that, and no students or TAs are allowed on the main campus on Sunday.”
I opened my mouth, but Micah shook his head slightly. I immediately closed my mouth. It was probably best not to talk about this in the open.
We arrived at Zeta’s lawn, and we both stopped. The day of the memorial was the last day I had stopped by at the house. The biggest mourning wreath was at our house, along with hundreds of flowers piled up along the sides of one of the pillars. Not only flowers, but there were also photos of Livy. They all showed her happy, free, and very much alive.
Micah grabbed hold of my hand and led me toward the door. “Let’s go inside.”
I could hear the worry in his tone and decided not to comment on it. They had just gotten me out of a bad place, and he probably didn’t want me to go back to it.
Stepping into the house was like nothing had changed. This house had been the same way for the last eighty-seven years. The same walls had stood the test of time, but to the girls who lived here at this point in time, nothing would ever be the same.
“Ava!” one of my sorority sisters shouted, and a bunch followed. Pretty soon, Micah and I were surrounded by most of my sisters, who pushed him out of the way so they could embrace me.
I stood there in shock because I had not expected that. I guess a part of me expected them to blame me for Livy’s death, but they didn’t know the things I did. The only one guilty of it all was me.
“We missed you around here.”
“I’m sorry I blew you guys off,” I stated.
“We are still in shock, too,” someone else said.
I no longer had a room here, but my membership allowed me to come and get meals at the house. So that had been myexcuse. Since Micah was with the hockey team, no one would have really said much about him tagging along with me, but it seemed like that excuse wasn’t needed. What I needed to do was start investigating.
We all started moving toward the TV room. It had the most couches and places to sit down.
“So…what have I missed?” I asked once everyone was seated. “I’ll be honest, I haven’t checked my messages. I wasn’t sure if I would be allowed in the house.” The last part was said in a broken laugh, trying to play it off.
I had really fucked up. I wondered how many mandatory meetings I missed.
“Girl, everyone has been a mess.” Hailey waved me off. “No one has stepped up into Livy’s spot. National sent us an email giving us some time before they step in.”
All I could do was nod along because at the end of the day, this sorority was a business, and we couldn’t mourn forever.
Amelia stepped toward the front. She was one of the sisters who had been a Rho Gamma for the last two years. “You didn’t hear it from me…but, Panhellenic is doing its own investigating. They are going to start calling in anyone they know who was at the party.”
I couldn’t help but look at Micah, and he looked as bewildered as I felt. Everyone in the room knew what that meant. For Panhellenic to get involved, they probably thought the murderer was in the Greek system, or they had some other evidence that wasn’t shared with the public.
“It’s so fucked up,” I said. Then the word vomit just happened. “I feel so fucking guilty.”
I didn’t expect anyone to question me. Hell, I didn’t know why I even said the words. But the question that came from the entrance of the room had us all turning our heads.
“Why? Did you kill her?”
My sudden intake of breath was sharp and loud. For a second, it felt like I was looking at a ghost. I wasn’t sure if I should be relieved that maybe this whole thing had been a nightmare, or that fate had come back to make things right.
