Ezio smiles, and I bet he’s trying to appear disarming, innocent, but I can see right through that.
He’d known my name at the party.
“I am. I’m here as the new fraternity leader. Well, house manager, really. It’s a logistical nightmare, trying to get everything ready for the rebuild. They’ve only just finished clearing off the old property. It’s a real shame about the fire.”
“Is it?” I say, smiling back at him. “I don’t know. Some of the things I’ve heard about Kappa Alpha… Didn’t one of your own frat members die only a few nights before the fire?”
Ezio shakes his head. “No, he was only a pledge. Which is still a tragedy, but he wasn’t a full fledged member yet.”
Carly inhales sharply. “He was still a person. And it was apreventabletragedy.”
Yay, good job, Carly! I knew there was a reason I liked her.
“What she said,” I say, pointing to her. “Poor Franklin didn’t deserve all that.”
“But the other fraternity members deserved to be caught in a house fire?” Ezio counters. “They could have died.”
“Well, maybe they shouldn’t have microwaved a tin can or whatever it is they did to start the fire,” I argue back.
Accelerant, mostly.
Everybody thinks starting a fire is so easy, but if you don’t do it right, it burns fast and goes out because it doesn’t have enough fuel. Thankfully the Kappa Asshole Orifice house was from the right era to be mostly made of kindling.
“Is that what happened?” Asch’s voice.
I glance at Asch, who’d arrived sometime during the conversation, and I immediately notice that he’s standing right next to Blaze. Well, well. I guess they’ve made up.
“Hey, Ezio,” Blaze greets. “What are you doing on campus?”
“I had to meet with some of the university admin to figure out permits for the new building.” Ezio sits back in his chair. “You were right that it’s a lot of work. Not something a student with a full work load can handle.”
Blaze bristles, but he manages to keep a smile on his face. He pulls a chair from a nearby table. It has a jacket and a backpack on it, and he dumps both of them back onto the table he stole the chair from.
The person sitting there starts to protest, but a single glare from Blaze has him shutting up.
Blaze sits down next to me, stretching one arm over my shoulders.
“Glad you’re here to help, then,” Blaze says breezily. “I do have my hands full with group projects and maintaining a social life.”
Asch stays standing, though I’m not sure if it’s because there are no empty chairs within easy reach or if it’s because he’s back to playing bodyguard for Blaze. The look he’s giving Ezio is bland, but I recognize something deeper.
He doesn’t like Ezio.
Good. I don’t currently like him much either.
Carly is getting visibly agitated though, so I turn to her. “Hey, thanks for catching up with me. Let me know when you want to do the movie night.”
She gives me a very pointed look. “Do you want to walk back to the dorms with me?”
It’s sweet of her to look out for me, but I can take care of myself.
Mostly.
Definitely.
“I’m fine,” I say, waving her off. “See you later. Say hi to Reaper for me!”
Carly still lingers for a few seconds before grabbing her things and bidding us farewell. I’m glad she took the hint. There’s no reason she needs to get caught up in all this Bouchard bullshit.
