Tonight, Mia will straighten my hair and I’m going to wear purple contact lenses.If I look different from the woman who disabled him in the library, I’ll have half a chance.
But that hope doesn’t stop me from feeling extremely nervous.
Keep your head still or I’ll burn you,commands Mia.I sit straight and immobilized.
She circles me, crimping my hair from different angles.There’s no mirror, so I measure my progress from the expressions on her face.Her forehead furrows when I’m not up to standard and the corner of her mouth lifting means success.I like Mia best because of all her kindness to me.
While Mia’s doing your hair, I want to go over flirting again.Because it looked to me like you didn’t get it,Angelica says.Everyone is in Mia’s room but Des, who had an executive meeting.
I can’t nod, so I blink my eyes in agreement.She’s not wrong.Angelica is the scariest and most critical one here.
Think of flirting as verbal foreplay,she begins.
I blush immediately.I’ve never imagined any kinds of foreplay outside kissing.
You want to do things that make a guy think about having sex with you.So, draw his attention to your body.Play with your hair, lick your lips, smooth out your jeans.Then she glares at me since I’ve been unconsciously acting everything out.God, not all at once.
I sit on my hands.
And remember, Viktor doesn’t like anything that comes too easy.Women who are too available bore him,she states.
Jordan frowns.What’s the point of being unavailable once you’re actually together?If you can’t go anywhere with him, he’ll just ask someone else.
Angelica releases a long-suffering sigh.Oh my god!Am I going to have to explain every little thing to you too?The most important thing is to have an elusive soul.
I know both these words, but not together.What is that, exactly?
Don’t be too eager.Even when you finally agree to go out with him, you keep an essential part of yourself untouchable.He has to be unsure of your feelings, your heart.That’s what will really make him fall.
Jordan whistles in admiration.That’s so deep and wise.I wish you had told me that before I dated him.
Angelica sniffs.I did.I warned every single one of you, and nobody listened.
Mia is now putting some product on my hair, so I can ask something I’ve been wondering about.Why didn’t they believe you?Then maybe he wouldn’t have hurt all of you.
A voice rings out.That’s easy to explain.
Every head turns towards the door, except mine because Mia is back to follicular torture.Des is here now.
Each of us thought that we would be different.We’re used to getting the men we want, so we assumed that we were smarter, hotter, or sexier than the previous one.
She sits down on the side of her bed and points at me.But that’s where you’ll have the advantage.You’re not going to fall for him.Because you already know exactly what he’s done.
Angelica mutters,And you realize that he would never have even looked at you without everything we’ve done here.
That’s a little harsh,Mia chides.I thank her silently.But I’m familiar with the concept of breaking down someone’s ego to make them susceptible to learning, so I’m not really offended.Besides, she’s right.I would never have considered going out with Viktor because he’s genuinely out of my league.
I’m not sure if it was part of Destiny’s plan, but everyone here has privately told me how Viktor hurt them.He broke up with Jordan just before a big group date with her friends.He broke up with Mia when she asked him to attend an Alpha Z formal, and the very next night she saw him dancing with another woman at a party.She cried for three days straight.Angelica told me nothing about her own breakup, but said that he kicked Des out of bed,naked.That’s diabolical.
Am I going to the party with you guys?I ask.
Des shakes her head.No, it would be totally sus if you rolled up with all his exes.I’ve arranged for you to go with the other new pledges.It’ll be a chance for you to get to know them.
It’s a good reminder of my real goal: becoming a genuine part of this sorority.
Okay, time for the big reveal.Mia turns me around to face the mirror.
I blink.Is that really me?
