Page 7 of Frat Around and Find Out (Peach State Fratbros #1)

Lance

“I t’s wild going to an Omega Psi TaskFrat Challenge fully clothed,” Marty says on our way over, my crew leading the way. The streetlights illuminate the block, which is crowded with Peach State students in spirit wear, heading to the host house for the challenge.

“Let’s not assume we’ll be in these clothes by the end of the night,” I remark, since I know this frat well enough to be suspicious.

“Remember last year, they had us in BDSM outfits,” Payton mentions.

“I didn’t forget,” Marty says.

Payton smiles. “I thought you looked good in your harness.”

“And no compliment on my ass at the last event?” I ask. “That hurts my feelings.”

“Wow, Payt,” Ash says. “I don’t think you complimented any of us on our asses. You ain’t safe.”

Payton rolls his eyes. “I was busy trying to keep that damn string from riding up my ass, thank you very much. And we already know who had the sexiest ass, at least according to the comments on that Phi Lambda girl’s vid on socials.”

My cheeks warm because damn right it was me, but mainly because of the particular angle she shot me from, which proudly displayed my assets.

“Not doing those squats for nothing,” I say as we reach the Omega Psi house.

As I survey the crowd gathered on the front lawn, I catch myself looking for the Sigma Alphas. I’ve seen Ty around since our run-in at the library, but just in passing.

In all the time we’ve known each other, he’s never stopped to chat with me like that. Although, we only stop and talk for the digs and to remind each other we’re gonna kick the other’s ass in TaskFrat. Normal amount of interaction for frat rivals, I’d say.

“Angie planning to be here tonight?” Ash asks.

“Yeah, she’s feeling better and caught up on work, so she told me she’d swing by.”

It makes me reflect on how Ty kept bringing her up—how jealous he must’ve been that I got with a hot girl like her.

I could have told him there was nothing going on between us, but he was being such a dick, and when he pretty much assumed we were getting together, I didn’t bother to correct or clarify.

Besides, it’s really none of his business.

“Hey, guys,” I hear, and turn to see one of Sigma Alpha’s own approaching—Dax.

He’s the Sigma Alpha who hangs around our frat most. Honestly, though, I’d be surprised if there’s a frat Dax doesn’t hang out with because not only is he cool as hell, he’s also made lots of friends with benefits since he transferred to Peach State last year.

He hugs it out with Ash, then makes his way around the crew for fist bumps.

“What’s up, man?” Ash asks.

“Getting into trouble. The usual,” he says with a wink. “How’s Colin? ”

In the time I’ve known Dax, he’s made interesting comments to Ash and Colin, which makes me wonder if something happened between them. Well, at least if he got to witness some fun they shared since that’s the kind of thing they’re into.

Ash catches Dax up a bit about his man, and then Dax asks, “You all figured out how you’re gonna prank us back yet?”

“We haven’t had time,” I confess. “And for it to be any good, we need to sit on it a bit, wait until you Sigma Alphas have let your guard down. And when we do have a plan, you really think we’re gonna share it with you?”

“I could probably get it out of someone,” he says with a confident smirk.

“Well, guess you’re gonna have to find out the hard way,” I tell him.

“Hard way happens to be my favorite way.”

As the guys get a kick out of that, Ash asks, “Speaking of your frat, where the Sigma Assholes at?”

“Ooh, I don’t know that I can tolerate that from an Asshole Theta Mu.”

Before Ash can reply, I spot Ryan, who’s hard to miss, with Keegan and—of course—Ty Lancaster. They’re standing in the crowd with their team, just a few yards away.

“Let’s go pay them a friendly visit,” I say, unable to help myself.

“Can we not do this tonight?” Marty asks, but I’m already leading the charge.

“Well, if it isn’t last year’s second place,” Ty says when he notices us.

“If it isn’t the number one assholes of Peach State.”

Ryan places his hand on his chest. “Our wounded hearts. Ready for us to stomp your ass again like we did last time? ”

“Ready to make you eat those words,” Marty says.

There’s my competitive Marty.

Ryan’s eyes widen in a way that takes me by surprise, like he’s feigning shock. “Wait a minute.” He sizes the group up. “You guys are disqualified, I think.”

“Wait, what?” I ask.

“Yeah, for sure. Fuck, you didn’t get the memo?

You were supposed to wear the same outfits as last time.

Oh, hold up. I got you.” He reaches into his back pocket and retrieves a pink G-string.

“At least one of you can play. Mart, it gonna be you?” Ryan and the other Sigma Alphas are all smiles, feeling real proud of themselves for that one.

“Have you been carrying that around all night just so you could make that joke?” Marty asks.

“Damn right. Kind of missing seeing the pretty boys running around in their sexy little outfits.”

Not sure if it’s the way he said that, which was a little too convincing, but Ty and Keegan wince at the same time before Ryan approaches Marty, waving the G-string close. “Come on, Mart. Put it on and look sexy for me again.”

“Hey, Payt,” Marty says. “You have that clip of when Ryan got that wedgie from the Bulldogs. Maybe we can make it go viral again.”

Ryan scowls. “I just want you to know, after we annihilate you tonight, I’m gonna go home and stroke myself off thinking about all your sad, loser faces.”

Keegan and Ty glance to one another, once again not exactly thrilled at where Ryan has taken the…insults, I guess?

But this is kind of Ryan’s thing.

There are a few more barbs exchanged, the usual kicking-ass sorts, before we get back to our conversations within our groups .

Ty approaches me, saying, “You manage to get together with Amy ? Or is she still pretending to be sick to get out of having to date you?”

“Angie,” I remind him.

He glances around, seemingly annoyed. “Yeah, sure, whatever her name is. So you been on this date?”

Again with his weird interest in Angie. Not like I probe about all the girls he’s hooked up with.

“Not yet.”

“Sorry, sounds like she’s giving you the runaround. You poor, pathetic thing.”

“You just can’t stand that she’s interested in me and not you.”

“What?” he asks, his expression twisting up.

“Hey, Lance!” I hear from nearby and turn to see Angie heading over.

Oh, this is about to get interesting.

She sidles up beside me, hooking her arm around my waist and drawing me close. “Hey, stud,” she whispers in my ear in a way that gets the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. “You know, I’m eager to get together…do what we did last time.”

I press my lips together because she’s talking about watching Wicked .

Despite being a little thrown, I know what she’s doing. She knows I was trying to show Ty up, and now she’s ramping things up in front of him.

“What do you say?” She’s flipped on a sultry voice that, I must admit, even though I haven’t felt like there’s been anything more than friends here, is making me blush.

I notice Ty, his jaw tense, his fists balled up, assuring me I was right about him being jealous .

“I think that would be hot,” I reply.

“Oh, hey, Ty,” she says as she rests her hand on my torso, sliding down in a seductive move, like she’s really trying to put on a show for him.

Ty is practically shaking, like he’s liable to haul off and punch me. Wow. He must really wish he could get with her. Makes me feel kind of great right now.

“Good luck tonight,” she whispers close again before biting my neck. She smiles at Ty before heading off, leaving me feeling like I just put Ty in his place.

He starts like he’s about to say something but then closes his mouth. “Good for you, man,” he says through his teeth before turning away.

“Oh, hey!” I call out, and he turns back to me. “Your arm better?”

He shows me the spot that was bruised last time. It’s mostly faded.

But that doesn’t set him at ease. He still seems unnerved over Angie’s stunt.

How the hell is Ty fucking Lancaster so worked up from thinking I have one attractive girl who wants me, when he can have pretty much any girl he wants?

Before I have much of a chance to think on that, ominous music starts playing, the house lights dimming before a green glow emerges from under the front porch.

“This is definitely Omega Psi’s style,” Ash notes.

By that, he means weird and creepy.

The front door opens, and several cloaked frats step out onto the front porch. One pulls back the hood, revealing Reagan Spears of the TaskFrat Committee.

He approaches the front steps. “Tonight’s task will be about collaboration and teamwork.

You will each be paired with those you are competing against, sharing a victory with another team.

Please designate your team captains for tonight, and they will start off the challenges in the house.

Once they have completed theirs, they will head out and pass the next part along to their team, who will stand by in the back of the house, where the next part is set up and will be revealed. ”

“You can’t tell me someone from the drama department didn’t come up with this shit,” Ty whispers near me, and I can’t help but chuckle.

Unsurprisingly, the Alpha Theta Mus quickly agree that I’ll serve as team captain for the night, and Ty’s chosen for his team. The designated captains meet by the front porch, and the TaskFrat crew place hoods over our heads so none of us can see as we’re led into the house.

While under the darkness of my hood, Reagan goes on to explain the task before we’re separated into pairs, with guides escorting us to rooms in the house.

“Okay, okay,” one of our guides says as though this is the last thing in the world he wants to be doing tonight.

“Who am I partnered with?” I ask.

“It’s me,” Ty says.

Of course it is.

“What I’d give for a gag,” the same guide says.

His voice has a deep, resonating timbre. Very distinctive.

We keep going until we’re stopped, and then the guides cuff my wrists in front of me, my ankles together, then lock us together around the waists, my ass against Ty’s pelvis.

I can’t help but reflect on the other Omega Psi incident Ty and I shared. I can only imagine what he’s thinking as the guys finish securing us into whatever weird-ass thing this is before one of the guys removes my hood. I glance back as the other frat with us removes Ty’s .

“You guys can’t start the task until we leave the room, got it?” says the guide who spoke as we were coming to the room. Given that this is his gig, he’s young, either a pledge or a sophomore.

“Got it,” Ty and I assure him before he and the other guide head out, closing the door behind them.

Glancing over my shoulder, I notice an envelope dangling from Ty’s neck on a lanyard, which according to Reagan’s rules, we aren’t allowed to open, since they’re instructions for our teammates once we get out of this.

“This is strangely familiar,” I tease, giving Ty hell simply because I can.

“I can’t imagine what you could possibly be referring to,” he teases back with a smirk, which is nice to see given how hostile he seemed earlier when Angie was around.

Funny that, despite all our shit-giving, and as fucked up as that thing was that happened during Omega Psi’s prank, it somehow makes me feel closer to him than I really am.

Maybe because in my messed-up brain I associate getting off with intimacy—and whatever the reason, as much as the guy can wind me up, I also feel pretty chill with him too.

“This is definitely an Omega Psi challenge,” I say. “They do love tying shit up.”

“And I can’t help thinking it’s not an accident that we wound up on the same team. Someone here probably got a kick out of that too.”

“You’re probably right.” I struggle in my restraints. “Do you see a key or anything?”

“No.”

I wiggle around some more.

“Can you stop doing that?” he asks.

“Well, maybe if I wasn’t doing it all by myself. ”

“No, can you stop—”

I feel something against my ass and freeze in place. I recognize the sensation. Too well.

“Holy hell. Ty, what the fuck?”

“I’m not doing this.”

“Okay, I obviously get how erections work, dude.”

“You just call me dude ? Are we fighting already? We’re supposed to be working together.”

I can’t get my head around this. “Why am I making you hard?”

“I didn’t say you were making me hard. You’re just rubbing up against it like wild.”

“Oh, it’s my fault again, is it? This is sounding so familiar.”

Ty sighs. “Just, will you focus?”

“You don’t want me to move, so I’m having a hard time understanding what I am supposed to do.”

“Just stay perfectly still, no sudden movements. And you should listen this time, since you know what happened last time.”

Fair point.

I still my body, trying to focus. We’re wasting time chitchatting. “Come on. The other guys are probably halfway out of theirs by now.”

“Okay, it’s cuffs, and they got one locked from my wrist to this waist restraint, but I have a free arm, so it’s likely they put a key on one of us. Probably you because that’s the kind of shit Omega Psi puts into these things.”

“Now you’re making up excuses to feel me up?” Even though I know we should be focusing on the task, I couldn’t help myself.

“Shut it.” He rifles through my pockets. “Aha! Found it!”

“Our hero,” I joke as he unfastens the cuffs around his other wrist, then starts on mine.

“See what happens when you listen to me?”

I roll my eyes. “Yeah, don’t expect that to happen often.”

“Okay, I can’t get your ankles in this position. So you’re gonna have to.” He hands me the key.

“No problem.” I start to bend down, and he stiffens even more.

“Whoa, whoa,” he says.

“It’ll take me two seconds.”

“It could take me one and a half.”

“Then just do it. It’s not like I’ll be telling anyone about this, any more than that shit that happened last year, right? Besides, we have to get our ankles free at some point, and I’m not falling behind in the score because of you.”

I bend down, disregarding the potential danger of, apparently, Ty’s impending ejaculation. A rush of adrenaline courses through me—I guess I’m just really excited that we’re about to break free.

“You good?” I ask.

“Nearly.”

We have another set of chains fastening us at the waists, and as I turn to get to the lock, my eyes are drawn to his bulge. “Oh my God, Ty, seriously with that thing.”

“Look who’s talking,” he says.

“Huh?”

I follow his gaze to my crotch.

In the frenzy of trying to get us out of the locks, I hadn’t really noticed, but I’m sporting a stiff one too.

It makes me freeze for a good moment as I try to make sense of why I’ve got a goddamn rock in my pants, but Ty says, “The challenge, Lance.”

I get back to unfastening the lock on the waistband tying us together.

The other thing…that’s something I’ll work through once we kick ass at this task.