Page 62 of Five

“But… you were a member of the Locke House Eating Club.”

“I know. They didn’t like that much.”

“Who?” I ask.

“Palladium.”

“What didn’t they like?”

“That I turned them down, Rory. I never wanted Tera to be part of Palladium, but she was so excited. And you got accepted too, so…” He shrugs. “I never thought it would be like this.”

“Like what?” I ask, my curiosity in overdrive now.

“I gotta get going,” he says, changing the subject. “Law school, remember?”

“Yeah,” I say. “I remember.”

That awkward silence between two people who were in a relationship, but are no longer, sets in.

“So…” Cliff says.

“Yeah,” I say back.

“OK, then,” he says. “I guess I’ll leave you to it. But Rory,” he says, lowering his voice. “Call me if you need anything, OK? And I do mean anything.”

Normally, when one hears those words from an ex-boyfriend, one might assume he’s hinting at some kind of friends-with-benefits arrangement. But Cliff and I never got past the friends part. There have never been, nor will there ever be, benefits. So that’s not what he means.

“I will,” I say, forcing a smile.

He gives me one more long look, then turns away and walks out, leaving the door open.

There’s a lot of commotion outside in the hallway and I recognize Kallie’s and Mia’s voices as they talk loudly to Cliff. This house isn’t too big and only the senior officers get to live in the house, and that’s only four people on this side of the mansion—me, Tera, the President, Kallie, and her VP, Mia. I was voted secretary this year and Tera is the treasurer, so we get senior officer privileges.

But all I want right now is my little apartment back. Hell, if I’m being honest, all I really want is my childhood bedroom back at the farm.

“One more year,” I whisper. And then, with any luck, I will move far away and live somewhere quiet and boring.

“Knock, knock!”

I look over at the door to find Kallie beaming one of those obnoxious eating-club-president smiles at me from the hallway.

“Can I come in?”

“Of course,” I say, patting the bed next to me. I’ve known Kallie since freshman year. We were Palladium Pledge Partners. You can’t be a member of Palladium Eating Club until junior year, but if you don’t make your interest known at the beginning of freshman year, your chances of getting in are slim to none. And if you had asked me back then who would end up being my BFF in college, I’d have said her. But then Tera and I just… clicked. And Kallie migrated towards Mia so she didn’t have to be third wheel.

“One more year,” Kallie says, placing a hand on my shoulder. “So sad, right?”

Shit. I really need to keep my mutterings to myself from now on. So many ears in this place. “Yeah,” I say, smiling at her. Kallie is a ginger. But not the orange-y kind of ginger. The deep, auburn kind that barely qualifies. She’s tall, thin and exudes sex appeal in every way. And she has the most striking green eyes to boot.

I’m no wallflower. I look just like my bombshell of a mother. But Kallie’s sex appeal puts mine to shame. She is designer labels and diamond rings. She owns two-hundred-dollar push-up bras and she actually wears lingerie to bed. Like… every night. When she told me that back in freshman year I didn’t believe her. But then she showed me her dorm-room dresser. Yup. Drawers and drawers filled with lingerie. She had to move out of the dorms sophomore year. She needed more closet space.

“Don’t be sad, Rory. We’re gonna be friends for life. That’s the whole point of joining the Palladium family, right?”

“Right,” I say. “I know that.” Believe me, I know that. It’s the whole reason I came back.

“Anyway,” Kallie says. “I just wanted to stop by to drop off your invitation.” She thrusts an envelope at me. It’s silver and has my name on it in pretty script writing. “The party tonight is formal. I wasn’t sure how much Tera told you about it, so I just wanted to make that clear.” And then she glances over at my empty closet and boxes of unpacked stuff with a worried look other face. “Do you have something silver to wear? All us girls went out shopping last week to get our dresses. But, of course,” she says, slight clip to her words, “you weren’t here.”

“I know,” I say. “It was a weird summer.”