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)
The girl dug in her heels, coming to a hard stop. “Oh, wow.”
I wasn’t sure what to do with that because it wasn’t an answer.
Her face twisted with disgust. “Don’t worry. It was as forgettable for me as it was for you.”
There was no way that was true, but I wasn’t going to say that out loud. My chest tightened with embarrassment. “I’m sorry.”
My apology was genuine. I hadn’t meant to be a dick—sometimes I was stupid and just said things without thinking. But she didn’t care and couldn’t get away from me fast enough.
I put my head down and hustled out of the set of glass doors. All the communications buildings were grouped together, so I jogged across the pavement to the large brick building next door.
Fuck me, the meeting had already started when I arrived, and I had to find my house among the crowd. The lecture hall was huge, with stadium seating and large projector screens up front. On the floor, the council sat facing the audience, a long table spread out in front of them.
Finally, I spotted the Sigs in the left section of seats, halfway up, and I moved as fast and silently as possible to get into my saved seat beside Jorge.
“Nice of you to join us,” he muttered under his breath.
“I thought it was in Jackson Hall,” I whispered back.
“Let’s make sure everyone understands where we are,” one of the women on the council up front said into her microphone. “The administration has always tolerated the tournament, but they’d like it better if it didn’t exist. This debacle not only makes all of us look bad, it’s just the opportunity they need to make us stop running it.”
Several in the audience got vocal, voicing disapproval.
“No one got hurt,” someone in the crowd muttered.
A guy on the council grabbed the microphone in front of him and leaned forward in his seat. “That’s not true. I know at least one person went to urgent care after the fight.”
The councilwoman leaned her elbows on the table. “Some of you might think it’s no big deal. It was all in good fun, but—come on. We know better. That mud fight was ugly. It was immature and a freaking embarrassment. What’s worse is the story’s picking up national interest. The university is ashamed of what happened, and we all should be, too.”
It was clear it was the councilman at the end of the table’s turn to speak. “If we want to run the tournament again, the school has conditions. Some of them are things that won’t go into effect until next year, but one needs to happen right away. As in, tonight.”
Immediately, I didn’t like where this was going. His voice was too heavy, too serious.
“Sanctions,” the councilwoman concluded. “We’ve discussed some options, and we need to act so we send a message that we don’t condone what happened, and also to ensure it won’t happen again.”
All the house presidents sat in the front row, and one from another fraternity spoke up. “What kind of sanctions?”
“No prize money will be awarded this year,” the councilwoman answered, her gaze flicking up to where us Sigs were seated.
Our president, Charlie, was instantly up from his chair. “Wait a minute. Sigma Phi Alpha won the tournament, fair and square.”
“Did you, though?” someone asked from across the room. The hall was packed with students, and yet it was easy to find where the voice had come from. So much for Madison skipping the meeting.
She sat back in her chair with her arms crossed and an angry expression, and I couldn’t tell what pissed me off more. That she was still going on about us cheating, or that she looked just as hot tonight as she’d been when we’d competed against each other.
The councilwoman either didn’t hear Madison or decided to ignore her. “What’s not fair is that the Fidelity Cup got destroyed as a direct result of the fight your house helped start. Instead of giving the award money to the Sigs, it’ll be used to fix the cup.”
“If that’s even possible,” one of the other councilmembers added.
I couldn’t stop myself from looking over at Grady and seeing the crushing disappointment. We’d promised him the money for his mom, and now it was being taken away. That wasn’t fair to him, and since I’d played a part in causing it, I’d do my best to fix it.
“That’s putting the blame disproportionately on us,” I said, rising from my seat. “We didn’t start the mud fight, and I wasn’t the only one who messed up the cup. Why are the Sigs the ones who have to pay to fix it?”
While the rest of my frat brothers murmured their agreement, Charlie turned and threw a look at me that told me to shut up and sit my ass down. I slid back into my seat, and satisfied, Charlie turned back to the council.