When I walked into the Tau Beta Mu’s living room, the only person in sight was Amanda, our president.
“Where is everyone?” I asked, glancing around.
“Off to prepare the Sister Relinquishing ceremony,” she responded sadly, her voice a smooth sing-song.
I nodded, understanding. It wasn’t Amanda’s fault the other sisters didn’t like me, even though they hadn’t even given me a chance.
“Have a seat,” she said, gesturing to the empty seat opposite her.
“We don’t need to drag this out,” I said, feeling defeated. “I can pack my things and leave now.”
The pretty redhead furrowed her brows. “Where are you going?”
“I’d just rather not prolong the process.” I stood to head to my room, but Amanda was quicker and gently gripped my arms.
“Karla.” Her eyes were full of concern. “It’s Darcy we’re kicking out, not you!”
Gaping at her, I responded dumbly, “But Darcy’s been a sister for three years!”
“And she wasn’t being very sisterly. Samantha found out that Darcy had lied about everything she said about you. Karla, I’m so sorry. I wish I’d come to you sooner.” Tears were glistening in her eyes. Amanda could even make tears look pretty, my mind jabbed, but I was overcome with joy--and confusion. They wanted me. They liked me. It was Darcy they didn’t like, because apparently she’d lied about me! I was tempted to leap up and do a dance.
“What’d she say?” I said, just barely keeping the ecstatic giggles out of my voice.
“It doesn’t matter. Don’t worry about that,” Amanda responded sternly. “What matters is that this taught us a very valuable lesson about sisterhood and from now on we’ll be throwing many more sisterhood events so you can get to know us and us you.”
Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes. All this time I’d felt unwanted here, and all I had to do was go and talk to one of my sisters. Seeing my surfacing emotions, my sorority’s president rushed to hug me.
“Oh, sweetie, I’m so sorry.” She stroked my hair gently. “We all know, by the way,” she said softly. When I didn’t pretend I knew what she was talking about, Amanda proceeded, “About you… and Derek. We all know. And I just want you to know that we support you fully. You can’t control who your heart loves, and we’re rooting for you.”
I broke out into a wobbly smile, a tear spilling over. I laughed through a sob. “It feels incredible to hear you say that, Amanda. Honestly. Thank you so much.”
Her response was a warm smile. “What are sisters for?”
“If it makes any difference, he’s not my stepbrother anymore. Our parents just broke up.”
But from Amanda’s reaction, it didn’t make a damn difference at all. She loved me all the same and was certain our sisters would, too.
8
You awake?
It was Derek. I stared at the text, my finger hovering over the digital keyboard. After my meeting with Amanda, I’d wanted to rush over to him, to tell him the good news about how supportive my girls were and how our parents weren’t together anyway. I stopped myself, though.
As incredible, funny, smart, and sexy Derek was, I didn’t want to jump into a relationship that he wasn’t willing to fight for. I didn’t need a man, or anyone, to make me happy, and I wasn’t interested in heartache, if that’s what he was planning on dishing. So I’d waited to hear back from him to make sure he was as into me as I was him.
My fingers worked on the touchscreen.
Yeah. Wanna talk? I asked, then flung my phone under my pillow before seeing his response. I could feel my nerves all the way in my fingertips, and I chewed my lip nervously as I waited.
The vibration was only a moment later. Come over, came his response.
I froze, excited, anxious, and suddenly feeling incredibly shy. It made sense for me to go to his house, because he had the bedroom in the basement beside the huge dance floor. It was a disadvantage when they had people over but an advantage literally every other day of the year because of the privacy he got that his other brothers didn’t.
I didn’t bother changing out of my sleepwear before slipping on my slippers and running across the park to his frat house. He was waiting at the door when I arrived and hurried me in and downstairs. We moved quietly, not wanting to wake anyone in the house up.
Once in his room, I casually leaned against his wall in an attempt to look cool and collected. “So, what’s up?” I asked breathlessly.
My robe slipped open, revealing my purple slip, before I had a chance to retie the knot at the waist. Derek caught a glimpse of it and kept his eyes on me, lingering on where the low cut of my babydoll had ended. I clenched my legs together, willing the heat that traveled from my cheeks to between my legs to stay there and not spill down by inner thighs.
With an amused lip twitch, he responded, “I just thought we should finish where we left off.”
“Agreed.”
I looked around homey room, it felt weird because it was almost identical to the one he had back at home. Mostly because the decorations and bedding were the same and both rooms had white walls. I took a seat at the edge of my ex-stepbrother’s bed as I waited expectantly for him to start the conversation.
“I’ve been thinking a lot after you left- actually, can I just say that you look absolutely beautiful?”
Derek moved towards me to stroke my cheek, an endearing move definitely, but I wanted to hear his point before I let him touch me so I moved my head back. Instead, the tips of his fingers grazed my breasts, shooting fiery hot electricity through me.
I acted like nothing happened, and my ex-step continued a moment after regaining his composure.
“Well, two points, actually, and they don’t influence each other.”
“Go on,” I urged him.
“The Mu Betas know.”