Page 44 of Atone

I’m leaving this group text if relationships are all you plan on talking about thissummer.

Mila

Maybe if you thought about relationships a little more often, you wouldn’t be so worried about your brother. Have you considered working out the tension with this hot professor of yours?

Patience

I never said there was tension.

Violet

There’s definitely tension…

Teal

I’m sure he’d be more than happy to help you remove that stick from your ass if you asked him to.

Mila

Maybe he’ll even replace it with something else…

Patience

I’m done with this conversation. Let me know when you see my brother. I’ve got to go.

Mila

You’re so boring. Fine. I just walked up to Sigma House. I’ll send proof of life when I have it.

Patience, unsurprisingly, doesn’t respond to that. But she doesn’t leave the group chat either. Violet said she’s been happier and less irritated with Kole since they arrived in LA, so I hope this summer is doing her some good.

Tucking my phone into my pocket, I let myself into Sigma House. The door is wide open anyway. Betweenthat, the blasting music, and the random people wandering around, I doubt anyone cares.

It’s been one week since everyone left—one week since I’ve been in this very spot—and the effects of summer have fully settled in.

The crowd is a quarter of what it usually is, and somehow, less evolved.

Over the summer, everyone stops giving a shit entirely. Pretenses are abandoned. Coffee tables are lined with drugs, and alcohol bottles are on every surface. Passing one of the many living rooms, I spot two guys sharing a girl on the couch.

I’m too sober to be here.

Instead of looking for Alex like I promised Patience, I beeline for the bar. I’m going to need a drink to face him anyway.

While I’ve come to terms with the fact that he’s just another Sigma Sin asshole who only has time for me when it’s convenient for him, I haven’t fully forgotten the moments we spent together at Montgomery.

His hazel eyes.

The tick of his jaw when something is on his mind.

The journal that contains all his secrets.

A breeze tickles my neck when a group hurries past, and for a second, I let myself imagine it’s his fingers grazing my neck like they did right before he slammed the door in my face.

The sound still haunts me.

I stop at the bar and scan the selection of pre-poured shots sitting on the counter. Knowing Sigma Sin, there’s probably drugs slipped into them, so I don’t take my chances. I snag a bottle of vodka from the back instead, drinking straight from it.

Because fuck them.