Bad Rep
Page 109

“What are your thoughts on the themes of season and time in the Knight's Tale?” I asked him batting my eyelashes. Charlie coughed and looked over at our fellow group members who seemed taken aback. I had to suppress the urge to laugh. But that would ruin the moment, so I pretended they weren't even there.
Charlie and I opened our books to the Canterbury Tales and started going through the text as I wrote down our ideas. And after a few minutes, Cyndy and Aimee joined in. They were still cool but their scathing comments were noticeably absent. We were able to finish up the essay in record time and when we were done Aimee tapped her pencil on my desk.
I looked up at her and she gave me a small smile. “Good job,” she told me. It was on the tip of my tongue to reply with some sort of sarcastic comment, but I figured that would completely undo our tentative truce.
So I had smiled back and said “thanks.”
After that, there were no more hateful comments during the Shakespeare/Chaucer class and I felt I had won a small victory. I started walking with my head just a little bit higher. Sure it did nothing to erase the gaping hole in my chest, but I stopped feeling like such a victim. Taking a proactive stance in my life was long overdue.
“Check out the grin on your face! What's the occasion?” Vivian asked as we sat down for lunch one day in the commons.
“Nothin'. Just feeling kinda good,” I replied, sliding into my seat and opening my bottle of juice.
“Well that's a nice change,” Gracie said, stirring ranch dressing into her salad.
“You know, there's really no point in eating a salad if you're going to dump 2,000 calories on top of it,” I told her dryly.
Gracie took a huge mouth full and daintily dabbed her mouth. “Mmm. Delish,” she said after swallowing. I rolled my eyes and returned to my lunch.
“So how are things at Chi Delta?” I asked, trying to ignore the accompanying knot in my stomach.
Vivian looked at me pointedly. “Do you really care?” she asked.
I laughed. “Not really, but thought I'd ask.” I took a bite of my hamburger, ketchup oozing out of the sides, just the way I liked it. Gracie swirled her salad around in the bowl.
“Do you miss it at all?” she asked me quietly.
I took in a sharp breath. Did I miss it? Of course I did. I missed feeling like I was a part of something. I loved the community and the sisterhood. I missed having the belief that there were forty-five other girls who would have my back. Even if that had turned out to be a lie, I missed the illusion of it.
But I sure as hell didn't miss the cattiness and the back stabbing. And the hatred disguised as friendship. When I thought about it like that, the negatives far outweighed the positives. “Can't say that I do, ladies,” I answered truthfully. Gracie sighed.
“Yeah, I figured you'd say that. You know, I'm thinking about withdrawing,” she said, shocking the hell out of me. Gracie was Miss Sorority. She loved it. I couldn't imagine her not being in Chi Delta. It had come to define so much of who she was, that I worried about her should she no longer have it.
“Why would you do that?” I asked in confusion. Vivian made a noise.
“Oh please. Since you were kicked out, Gracie and I have become Chi Delta's Most Wanted. Sure, they're still nice to our faces, but Milla has made it a point to make us feel very unwelcome.” I hated this for them and it stirred up all those guilty feelings.
“I'm so sorry guys,” I told them softly. Gracie and Vivian each reached out and took one of my hands.
“Don't you dare be sorry, Mays. This whole thing has just shown me who my true friends are. I don't think I can stomach paying dues to be a part of a group that will attack and humiliate one of their own the way they did you. It doesn't sit well.” I squeezed her hand. “Plus, you're my girl. If you jump, I jump.” I laughed, a deep, from the belly laugh. Damn Gracie and her ridiculous Titanic obsession.
Vivian looked over my shoulder and froze. I looked behind me and my heart leapt up into my throat. Jordan walked in with a few of his Pi Sig brothers and got in line for his lunch.
It had been a few weeks since our messy break up and this was the first time I had seen him. It was like a fist to the gut. He looked amazing. Gone was the tired, miserable looking guy who had shown up at my apartment drunk and desperate to win me back. The man across the room looked like his old, confident and charming self.
I couldn't look away. Where he went, my eyes followed. After getting his lunch he headed toward the Pi Sig table, which was beside the normal Chi Delta table. I noticed with irritation, that Olivia and Milla were there.
Jordan sat on the end, Olivia on the other side of the aisle. She waved and smiled at him in that sickeningly sweet way of hers. Jordan nodded but otherwise didn't acknowledge her. Much to my sadistic delight.
“Hmmm, I'm surprised he's eating over there,” Vivian said, more to herself. I turned back around to look at her.
“Why?” I asked, curious. Vivian tore apart her brownie and placed it into tiny piles.
“Well, it's rumored that he's quitting Pi Sig. He hasn't been staying in the house for weeks and hasn't been to a mixer since the one when school started,” Vivian answered.
“Hmm, well I don't take a whole lot of stock in rumors, Viv,” I said, stabbing my hamburger with my fork. Gracie made a face at my lunch.
“Do you have to mutilate it?” she asked, pulling my fork out of my sandwich.