Greek Row was not my favorite place to be despite being inducted into a fraternity by the demands of The Dictator. He said it would look better for me in the future, but I opted to live with a few friends in a neighborhood just far enough away from campus that I could have a reprieve from Greek life and the compound he lived in. A small room to myself and dark thoughts.

Nevertheless, I slowed to a stop in the driveway of the sorority house that was hosting the party this time. Beta Kappa Pi hosted most of the top parties on campus. The head of the house, Sloane, was a level ten clinger and, unfortunately, hosted a lot of the business events organized by her family. Seeing her often was truly annoying despite her being fun in bed.

And she was waiting for me, arms crossed, clearly in a pissy mood.

“Brent! Where have you been? You missed set up and I told you to be here early.”

I hadn’t even pulled my helmet off and she was already starting in on me. “I had work. You know I have no obligations to you, right?”

She stamped her foot as I brushed past her. “You could at least send a text.”

I waved a hand in the air. “Yeah, yeah. Save it. I need a drink.”

The party was in full swing, and a lot of people looked drunk already. I needed to get a buzz on and clear my mind.

“Brent! My man!” Josh waved me over to the counter where he was pouring shots.

Good, I needed a few. “Hey, man. Got any for me? I could use a double.”

Handing me a freshly poured red cup full of Vodka, we tapped our cups together and drank.

“First week treating you alright?” His eyes seemed glazed over with booze which told me he’d been here a while.

“Yeah, how’s the party?”

“Good, good! A few rounds of beer pong got me relaxed enough. We demolished this cute blonde earlier before her boyfriend took over and got me loaded.” His head was bobbing to the beat and I could tell he should call it quits on drinking for a bit. His being too drunk never turned out well and we both played on the baseball team with me–Coach punished us all if one of us made mistakes.

Last time, it was my fuck up and Josh was due for another soon.

“Nice, man. Hey, I’m going to go pop out for a smoke. I’ll catch up in a bit. Don’t do anything stupid,” I said, pointing at him playfully.