Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 114337 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 572(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114337 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 572(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
As I skimmed the line, anxiety crystalized inside me. “They want to retire the tournament?”
Oh, man. I couldn’t be the one responsible for ending fifty years of tradition. Every Greek student would hate me because each house looked forward to the competition.
Plus, each time we’d won, we’d used the money for something awesome. This year’s winnings? They would be put to even better use.
Grady Coleman and I were in the same pledge class, but he’d fit in the house far better than I had. It was a fact he was a cool guy, easy to hang with. This was proven every day by the way he could share a room with obnoxious Riley when none of the rest of us could.
A few months ago, Grady’s mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. He didn’t talk about it much, but Riley mentioned he’d overheard them talking on FaceTime. Grady’s mom was struggling with taking so much unpaid time off from work, sick from the chemo.
I couldn’t remember who pitched the idea, but all of us upperclassmen had decided if we won, we’d give the money to him to help her.
Our victory party on Friday night had been postponed. Our president thought it’d be in poor taste after I’d fucked up the trophy and started the mud fight, but on Saturday, we let Grady in on the plan. As soon as we had the check from the council, we’d hand it over to him.
He got worked up, and maybe a few of the other guys did too, but if that happened, I didn’t see anything.
It was a nice thing. Made us all feel good after a shitty ending to the week.
But it wouldn’t have happened if Madison Perry had gotten her way.
I’d never gotten why she’d been with Jack. Well, I understood it for him. She was hot as fuck. But Jack? He was an okay guy, but he was a nerd and, for lack of a better word, forgettable.
That had to be why she’d cheated on him. I assumed she’d forgotten all about her boyfriend as soon as he was out of the country.
“What happened with Madison?” someone had asked him he’d gotten back from Germany.
He’d been embarrassed to say, but finally revealed she’d cheated on him.
The guys had called her things she might have deserved, but I didn’t join in. She could do better than Jack, and she’d obviously figured that out. The only thing I could blame her for was not ending it sooner.
It was weird to me that Jack had moved on so quickly. He’d come back from his semester abroad with a new girlfriend, some girl from Georgia Tech. He wasn’t even with her anymore. Now he was dating some sophomore Tri-Delt.
He couldn’t stand to be single, apparently.
Me? I was the complete opposite. I fucking loved being free, plus I hadn’t come close to meeting anyone I wanted to be with long-term.
For some bizarre reason, my focus returned to the picture of mad Madison in the newspaper. Even with mud on her face and glopped in her honey brown hair, her looks were undeniable.
Shame about that personality, though.
Jorge probably figured I was reading the article, rather than staring at the girl’s picture. He tucked his hands under his arms, making him look even broader than he already was.
“You better be at the meeting, man,” he said. “People will be looking for someone to blame.”
I got what he meant. I needed to go to defend myself. Maybe I did deserve a small amount of the blame—everyone knew it was the guy who retaliated who usually drew the penalty. But as far as I was concerned, Madison owned ninety-five percent of it.
I hoped she wouldn’t be there, and she’d get all of it.
The Greek council meeting was held in one of the lecture halls of a communications building, and . . . I’d gone to the wrong one.
“It’s in Franklin,” I said to the girl wandering down the hall, who looked as surprised as I had been that the place was deserted. I recognized her from one of the mixers last semester but hadn’t a clue what her name was.
She turned around and fell in step beside me. “I could have sworn they said Jackson.”
“Yeah . . .” I quickened my step, not just because I was going to be late, but because I wanted to put some space between us.
But she matched my stride, easily keeping up. “Did you ever get your Titans hat back?”
“What?”
“Last time we talked. You said you let your friend borrow it and you were sure he’d never give it back.”
My brain jostled inside my head, scrambling to recall the conversation, but the girl looked unfamiliar. Unless—
“Shit,” I said. “Did you and me . . .” I made finger guns, pointing them to her and then back at myself.