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“So you’re all from Omega Alpha?” Claudia was asking. “The three of you?”
“Yes,” Colin answered, leaning back in his chair. He jerked a thumb at me. “Actually, you’re looking at our Prez.”
“Ex-President,” I corrected.
“Oh yeah. Right.”
Omega Alpha wasn’t something I wanted to think about anymore. When the University Board’s decision came down, I’d fought it tooth and nail. Dwelled it on for days. What were we supposed to do? Not call an ambulance? We’d never seen the kid before; he was never even in our house. And yet they were more concerned with appearances than the truth, so they disbanded our chapter anyway.
I even begged and pleaded with the kid himself. Maybe he was willing to talk to them, set the record straight. Unfortunately he was more embarrassed than anything else. So drunk he didn’t even remember where he’d started drinking. Typical freshman bullshit, only he’d taken it way too far.
Every time I pressed him, he kept telling me to forget about it. He wanted to put it in the past. And yet… he’d wrecked our fraternity. Thirty-two guys — no, brothers — sent in all different directions. Some of them now homeless, like us.
I looked around the kitchen. The mood had turned sullen fast. Thankfully Claudia recognized it quickly enough not to ask any more questions.
“Well I’m glad you guys are here,” she said cheerfully. “Thanks for the pizza, but I’ve really got to be getting home.”
“Boyfriend waiting up for you?” I suggested slyly.
“No. Nothing like that.”
She said no, but she’d hesitated. Like there was something right about what she said, but also something wrong.
“Husband then?”
This time her reaction was even more strange. She shifted uncomfortably in her chair. Opened her mouth, then closed it without speaking.
“You don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to,” I offered, giving her a way out. “It’s none of our business anyway.”
“I’ve got an ex-husband,” Claudia said, with the hint of a sigh. “We divorced a year ago.”
Her sentence trailed off, like there was still more to it. The three of us stayed silent, hoping for the other half of the story.
“We still live together though,” she admitted guiltily. “In separate bedrooms, obviously. It’s… well, it’s complicated.”
“Is it a money thing?” Colin asked.
She nodded.
“Then it’s not all that complicated.”
All three of us knew financial hardship — not one of us really had two quarters to rub together. It was one of the reasons we’d been so grateful for the opportunity she’d given us.
“Hey, no worries,” I told her. “We get it. I can’t even imagine where we’d be right now if you hadn’t let us move in here. Probably in some shithole motel off campus. Or maybe sharing a couple of bedrooms in someone’s moldy basement.”
“Hell yeah,” added Colin.
I watched as her shoulders seem to relax. “Thanks guys. And thanks again…” she waved an arm around, “for helping with all this.”
“You should probably stop thanking us,” I said. “This is our home now, right? We’’ll make it nice.”
“Damn straight,” Brandon grinned. He pounded his big fist on the table enthusiastically. “We’re going to make this place shine!”
Six
CLAUDIA
It was dark by the time I left the campus. Which was fine by me, because any night I could avoid contact with Garrett was always a good one.
