The guy smiles at me. “I am, actually. My name’s Ezio. I graduated a few years ago. After Zayden disappeared, I got asked if I wanted to take over the day to day fraternity operations.”
“So you’re that old and don’t have a full time job? Kind of sad,” I say, purposefully ignoring his dig about Zayden.
“Yeah. I’m kind of pathetic like that.” Ezio waves to me. “It was nice meeting you, Pandora. Maybe I’ll see you around.”
I shake my head and keep walking.
Halfway down the block, I realize I hadn’t actually introduced myself to him.
Well, maybe Blaze told him who I was.
Yeah, that must have been it.
Fucking Blaze.
14
ASCH
There’s another missed call from my mother.
I glare down at my phone, then stuff it into my pocket and heft my backpack so I can shuffle out of the classroom with everybody else.
I have no idea where to go now. Normally I’d be grabbing lunch with Blaze, but that’s obviously out of the question. I don’t know where River is, and I don’t know what we’d even talk about even if we did meet up for lunch.
“Oh my god, did he really say that?” a woman says nearby. “The piss thing?”
The guy with her nods. “Yep. And he wet his pants too. Fucking embarrassing.”
My eyes narrow when I realize he’s an older Kappa Alpha brother. “Should you be talking about that?” I snap at him. “He’s still one of us, asshole.” For how much longer, I don’t know, but we shouldn’t be spreading gossip about our own brothers. “You gossip like a teenager.”
Nathan rolls his eyes at me. “Everybody’s heard it by now. Somebody even shared a vid on the Dyschord U socials. Maybe Tate should’ve kept his mouth shut about his watersports fantasies.”
But he hadn’t had a choice, and this fuckhead should know that.
That was something he’d said during our hazing night, secrets to be shared only with our brothers, proof of our trust and commitment to the fraternity. I’d heard it, that night we’d all slept in the basement in hopes of becoming successful pledges.
I wonder what other secrets are being leaked now.
I wonder if mine is next.
I haven’t heard from Blaze since the day with Pandora, and I’m not sure what he’s going to do. He wouldn’t tell anyone; that would mean admitting he’d been overpowered. But that doesn’t mean he can’t make my life a living hell.
The fact that he hasn’t done more than glare at me from across the room is troubling, and the fact that I haven’t heard from Pandora since the party is even more so.
I shrug. “I guess someone having access to Tate’s secret doesn’t bother you since you don’t have any of your own,” I tell him. I can’t exactly come out and remind him that the frat has a secret fromeveryone.
When it comes down to it, brotherhood really is a crock of shit — and he’s forgotten all about mutually assured destruction.
I haven’t.
I can’t. Not when Pandora knows what I’ve done.
Nathan’s eyes widen and his lips part. He swallows, casts a glance at his friend, then shrugs like he didn’t realize the implication.
“Yeah, well. It’s out there. And if he’s into drinking piss… I don’t kink-shame, man.” Nathan puts his arm around the woman. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
I watch him as he walks away, shaking my head. How many other idiots out there think that their secrets are safe? They obviously don’t realize that they’ve all been compromised, butI’m not going to go out of my way to remind every single one of them.
