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I feel like we’re a little overdressed for the occasion, but I don’t have the heart to tell Elise that. The majority of women I’ve seen out tonight are wearing jeans, though they’re almost all wearing skimpy tops. I’ve seen a few dresses and a few in high heels but for the most part, I stick out the most out of anyone in the red dress. And yeah, I probably look like a skank.

I’d give anything to be wearing a pair of flip flops and sweats. The gold stilettos are killing my feet and the dress keeps riding up my thighs every time I walk, which is nonstop. I can’tquit tugging on the skirt, yanking it down because I’m terrified my ass is going to hang out of it.

I should’ve never let Elise convince me to wear nothing underneath the dress. No bra, no panties. I’ve never felt so exposed in my life.

Well, there was the one time I had August Lancaster’s face buried in my pussy but that doesn’t count.

See how he pops up in my mind at the most inopportune times? It’s annoying. I still haven’t told Elise about him. She probably wouldn’t believe me. Or worse, she’d force me to seek him out so we could try and hang out with him and his friends. She told me not even fifteen minutes ago she was set on leveling up, as she called it. Finding a man who has immense wealth and power—direct quote. There are a lot of men like that on this campus, and while she didn’t mention August by name, I wonder if she was referring to him.

Ugh, I don’t know. More like I don’t want to know.

“And what do you mean, we should set our sights a little lower?” Elise asks, sounding indignant. “What’s wrong with trying to get into the most popular house?”

“What’s wrong is none of them are letting us in. We should go to a less popular house and see if we could get inside there,” I suggest, coming to a stop so I can readjust the straps wrapped around my calves for about the hundredth time.

“No one cares about the less popular houses.” Elise keeps walking and I envy her wearing the boots. They look way more comfortable. “Come on. Let’s go to the Alpha Squared house.”

I freeze, coming to a complete stop while Elise keeps walking. I watch her go, my throat constricting at the idea of showing up at August’s frat house wearing this. He’ll probably laugh at me. Or maybe he’ll grab my hand and drag me into his bedroom where he’ll demand I give him a blow job.

My pussy throbs at the thought.

Elise eventually comes to a stopwhen she glances over her shoulder and realizes I’m not right behind her. She throws her hands up in the air. “Come on!”

“Sorry.” I reach for the shoe straps again, pulling on one to make it look like I’m adjusting it. “These stupid shoes keep slowing me down!”

“They’re the worst,” Elise agrees, waiting for me with her hands on her hips. Love how she agrees with me that they’re terrible. No wonder she gave them away so easily.

The moment I’m next to her, she hooks her arm in mine, flashing me a reassuring smile. “Don’t feel so intimidated by going to the Alpha house. I’m nervous too.”

“You are?” I’m shocked. Lately Elise doesn’t seem fazed by anything.

“Of course. Rafe and Tim will be there. It might get weird. Especially with you being there too,” she explains.

“Why would I make it weird?” I don’t even think of Tim in that way. I’m too hung up on someone else, which is stupid. A complete waste of my time too.

“Tim likes you, Sinclair. He feels terrible that you know what happened between us.” Elise doesn’t act guilty over it though. And she shouldn’t. I wasn’t interested in Tim then and I’m not interested in him now either.

“I don’t get it.” I shake my head as we keep walking. The Alpha Alpha house sits at the end of the block, large and imposing, and I swear my knees start quaking the closer we get.

“He wants what he can’t have.” Elise sighs, leaning her head against my shoulder for the briefest moment. “That’s probably where I blew it. I made myself too readily accessible to them.”

“I think you got in over your head.”

We walk in silence for a while, surrounded by all kinds of people who seem to be headed in the same direction. A group of guys walk directly behind us, making rude comments, but we ignore them.

“Do you really think that?” Elise asks me once the groupwalks past us, one of them making kissy noises from over his shoulder, his friends jostling him like that was the funniest shit ever. They’re stupid. “That I got in over my head?”

“Maybe?” I give her arm a squeeze. “I support you no matter what, though. I’m not about to pass judgment on you.”

“You should. I’m a skank, just like those girls said, while you’re a sweet virginal angel.”

Confessing my secret is on the tip of my tongue, but I swallow it down instead. I don’t need to make that reveal at the moment. “You’re too hung up on my virgin status.”

“It’s weird, huh.”

“That you’re hung up on it?”

“No, that you’re a virgin.” I gape at her and she bursts out laughing, nudging me in the ribs with her elbow. “I’m kidding. But I should probably warn you before we get into the house.”