Page 160 of Burn Bright

Leif rubs his mouth, thinking. “Look, I can’t just give you a room. They’re all taken, and even if someone volunteers to bunk up with you, some of the guys will feel like it’s not fair. You’d already be getting special privileges by joining late.”

“I’m grateful for that,” I express, as a tabby rubs against my ankles. I bend over and scoop up the tiny kitten. She purrs and lets out a satisfactory meow as I nuzzle my knuckle near her ear. “But if there’s any possible way you’d all be okay with it, I’ll join today.”

Leif and Prescott share a look like they’re not ready to let this opportunity slip away. While they’re thinking it over, the kitten scratches at her head. I spread areas of her fur and check for fleas. I’ve done this a bunch whenever Jane would sneak home strays.

No fleas that I can see. I stroke her spine, and she rolls belly-up on my lap for more pets.

“What about the bet?” Prescott asks Leif, which jerks my gaze up to them. “See if he can get in on it.”

I stiffen, especially as he captures the attention ofeveryfrat brother in the basement. “Oh dude, the bet,” a curly-haired guy exclaims near the TV.

“Shit, if Ben Cobalt wins the bet, he can be my roommate all semester and the next,” another says.

“Or you can room with me,” Prescott offers.

“Bro will be a fuckinglegend.”

“No way would he win it. No one associated with Kappa has been able to step foot in the Honors House.”

Honors House? My brain pounds. “What’s the bet?” I ask Leif.

He bows closer, his grin spreading rapidly over his freckled, fair face. The excitement is contagious around the room, infecting everyone but me.

Apprehension threatens to bind my muscles. They’re all crowding closer as Leif tells me, “It’s a ten-year-old bet. First made by the Kappa brothers before us. You haven’t been at MVU long, but the Honors House is a co-ed society full of judgy little pricks.”

“Neeeerds,” someone heckles, followed by laughter.

Yeah, I’m sure the Honors House would call them meatheads right back. It’s typical stereotyping. Not shocked, not surprised, but I’m stuck on the fact that one of Harriet’s goals is to be accepted into the Honors House. She’s already sent in her application and taken the entry exam, which she said waseasy.

“What does the bet have to do with them?” I ask.

“They’verefusedto let anyone in a frat go inside their building,” Leif says. “It’s literally the nicest house on campus.”

“Fucking ridiculous,” a guy grumbles.

“It’s not like we bar them from our parties,” Prescott explains to me. “Everyone is welcome here.”

I saw that firsthand the week before the semester began. Where the house party was open to all. It’d also been where Harriet was almost thrown into the pool. A Kappa hadn’t been the one about to toss her in, but I’m aware none of them tried to stop it from happening.

“So what’s the bet? First Kappa to spend a night in their building wins?” I guess.

Some laugh. Others shake their head.

“That’s not it,” Leif grins. “First one to sleep with a girl from the Honors House wins.” What the fuck? I try not to see red while he clarifies, “No one has ever succeeded. Many have tried.”Off my knotted, pissed-off confusion, he adds fast, “You don’t know those girls, Ben. They’re stuck-up prudes. It’d honestly do them some good by getting laid.”

Theno frat boys allowedrule in the Honors House is starting to make some sense. I can picture this dumb bet being made one drunken, horny night in this very basement ten years ago. I wonder if it started as a joke and gradually took real shape.

“The Honors House president this year, Guy Abernathy, is a pretentiousprick,” Prescott says with boiling irritation. “He acts like he’s better than every person on campus because he what—graduated valedictorian from his private school? Who the fuck cares?”

I mean, he obviously does.

The beef between the Honors House and Kappa is definitely alive and well.Fuck.All I can think about is Harriet.

Leif jumps back in, “Sleep with a girl from the Honors House, Ben, and you win the decade-long Kappa bet. All membership dues paid, a plaque on the wall, and special, just for you, housing as a sophomore.”

I expel a breath through my nose and let the kitten spring off my lap. “How would this even be proven?”

“She has to admit to the Kappa president, which is me”—Leif points to the MVU letters on his sweatshirt—“that she slept with you, and she has to give us the panties she wore before you fucked her.”