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“Nope. We agreed a long time ago we all had an equal stake in the game.” Max shakes his head before dusting off the bar stool next to me, carefully taking a seat. “What areyoudoing here?”
“Needed a favor and thought it’d be better to ask you in person.”
Max needing a favor is rare. Don’t get me wrong, he asks us for shit all the time. He refuses to call those things favors, though. Which means, whatever he’s about to ask me, I’m not going to like.
“How much am I going to want to punch you in the face after you ask?”
Max chuckles, but it’s forced.
I might really want to punch him. The hairs on the back of my neck rise as I wait for him to respond.
“Depends how you feel about Cleo.”
Now I’m the one who’s laughing because I don’t feel anything about her. She’s the Zeta president. We have no reason to cross paths unless one of our houses is hosting an event. The last time I saw her was at Thanksgiving dinner, and she kind of faded into the background considering Max was pummeling Leo’s face.
Still, I can’t help but take a free jab at Max since he brought her up.
“Well, she has a way of getting under your skin, so I guess she’s okay.”
“Asshole,” he mutters under his breath.
“What do you need, Max? We have sound check in a minute, and I want to get some fresh air before we start our set.”
He doesn’t waste any more of my time before launching into what I’m sure is a well-practiced speech to get to me agree to what he’s asking. If there’s anything about Max, it’s that he’s predictable in this way. His arguments are always well thought out.
“The Zetas are in charge of the Valentine’s gala this year. Since we’re partnered with them, we’re required to help. Which means someone from the house has to work one-on-one with Cleo, and unless I can find a volunteer, I’ll have to do it. Which will make the next two months of my life a living hell. She’s already—”
“Oh, I’ve heard how much she likes you, Max. I’m pretty sure everyone has.” Not that I would wish Cleo’s wrath on anyone. She seems a little crazy with a hot temper and a vindictive streak a mile long. Crossing her is not a good idea. Max should have known that. Maybe he did. Still, he pissed her off years ago, and he’s paying for it. “Just tell me what you want me to do.”
“I’m supposed to meet with her tomorrow morning, ten o’clock, at the rec hall. If you take on this project, I swear I won’t ask you to do anything else the rest of the year.”
Tempting.
Not that we have much going on between now and when we graduate, but there’s always random shit that pops up. It would be nice to not have to worry about Max springing bullshit tasks on me. Especially when it comes to rush next semester. I’d love to be able to skip a few of those events.
Nothing is worse than entertaining a bunch of eager-to-please little assholes. I always feel like I’m attempting to oversell us, so they’ll decide to rush the Kappa house. We honestly shouldn’t have to. We are the best fraternity on campus. It wasn’t that way last year, but Max has done an outstanding job of turning things around.
Not that I’d ever tell him that to his face. His ego is big enough.
“Isn’t Julian responsible for shit like this?”
“Getting him to commit to anything right now is impossible. Between the restaurant, training for baseball season, and spending every free moment he has with Piper, I barely see the guy. And now that he’s been accepted to culinary school, I have a feeling we’re going to be seeing a lot less of him.”
Fucking Julian.
Of course the bastard found himself a girlfriend. Women have been falling at his feet for years. Begging for a chance with him. But he’s been stuck on Piper for as long as I can remember. And she was the only one who didn’t see it. The rest of us have been poking fun at what we thought was a crush.
For some reason, I was still a little shocked the day I got the text message when he finally confessed what we all knew.
I’m truly happy for him.
But the fact that his happiness is now screwing me over is less than appealing. Not that I hold a grudge against him, or any of my friends, who are currently living in their own little love bubbles right now.
There was a time in my life I thought I’d potentially found the girl for me. Didn’t work out. She ran and I’m still trying to forget about her. It’s damn hard when I see her all the time, though.
“Kane?” I suggest.
“Shot me down before I could even explain what I wanted.” Of course he did. He’s never willing to help these days.
