Page 5 of Love Legacy
If you guys choose to stick around, you’ll see what we’re about.
There are some snacks and drinks in the kitchen if you’re interested, with vegan, vegetarian, and allergen-friendly options.
The sisters will be walking around to mingle with you all, and if you have any questions, just look for any of the executive board members.
We all have pink name tags, the rest of the sisters have yellow. Enjoy!”
I step back, heading toward the stairs. I like watching over the upper floor railing during Rush.
It gives me a bird’s eye view of the interactions between sisters and PNMs and allows me to make my own observations about the PNM's compatibilities before I meet them myself and talk with the other sisters.
Maeve joins me upstairs, watching the PNMs with me.
I scan the room, making mental notes of PNMs I want to talk to, and that’s when I see her .
She was practically radiating as she spoke with Raven.
Her dark brown curls are voluminous, forming a halo, framing her face.
She wore a bright yellow, off-the-shoulder sundress, showing off her ample cleavage and highlighting her curvaceous body.
From this angle, I can’t see too much of the lower half of her body, but as she moves through the room with Raven, I can tell there are thick thighs and thick legs hidden under the skirt of that dress.
I watch her converse with Raven and another one of our sisters, Kelly.
This woman lights up as she talks, her laugh carrying through the room over the rest of the sound of conversation.
“Maeve, I am no better than a man.”
“What makes you say that?” She chuckles, looking at me. I point toward the woman I was ogling. “That one? Total smoke show. Like she’s absolutely gorgeous.”
Maeve’s chuckling turns into a full-blown laugh. “Oh man, are you serious? Sage, that’s my roommate.”
“Wait, your roommate? As in…”
“The super religious one that just transferred here? Yep, that’s Naomi.”
“Damn,” I say, disappointed. I probably shouldn’t be hitting on PNMs anyway, especially ones that are considering joining my organization. It’s definitely an ethical grey area, and Maeve just made my moral dilemma a lot easier for me.
“We should head down there. It’s not polite for the president to ignore the PNMs.” She grabs my arm, pulling me toward the staircase.
We head down to the ground floor, mixing in with the crowd.
I bounce from person to person, joining the small groups that have congregated.
I mainly stay quiet, listening to the PNMs talk about themselves.
A couple are eager to learn about the sorority, so I answer their questions, fill them in on our organization’s history, and tell my story of how and why I joined.
After an hour or so of mingling, Raven calls for everyone’s attention.
“Alright, time’s up! If you’re still open to rushing the other sororities, please come with me.
Otherwise, you’re welcome to continue mingling with the sisters of Kappa Theta Alpha and you can leave at any time,” she calls out before heading out of the house.
Most of the women follow her out, but a smaller group of seven women hang back, continuing to mingle with the sisters, including my newest obsession, Naomi.
I linger in the kitchen, snacking on some of the remaining appetizers, including the miniature version of my favorite veggie burger from Happy Sprout. “Man, I love these sliders,” I mumble around a mouth full of food.
“I didn’t get to try the sliders before, but I did love the pizza.”
I jump a little, startled by the noise behind me.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you. I guess these shoes aren’t as loud as I thought they were.”
God, that voice. That accent. The voice is velvety soft and rich, warming me from head to toe. I turn toward the voice, and of course, it belongs to my lady love.
“Naomi, right? Maeve told me you were coming to rush today,” I say, wiping my hand on my pants before holding it out. “Nice to meet you.”
She takes my hand in hers, holding it in a light grip as she shakes my hand. “Nice to meet you, Sage.”
I wish I had recorded that. I could listen to Naomi say my name over and over again on an endless loop.
“Nice to meet you too. So what do you think of the sorority?” I ask, crossing my arms across my chest and leaning back against the kitchen island.
“Y’all are really nice!” she drawls. “And you seem like you’ve made a nice community here too.”
“Yeah, it was nice finding an organization that accepted me for who I was. You don’t find too many women like me in sororities.”
She squints her eyes toward me, trying to size me up. I’ve seen that look before. From teachers, parents of friends, and colleagues. It’s the what’s wrong with you face. And the answer varies depending on who’s asking—gay, tattooed, neurodivergent, a foster kid—take your pick.
“What? Do you mean covered in tattoos?” she asks, her eyes roaming my body, taking in the many fine-line tattoos covering my arms and hands. She did have a point, I was covered in more ink than most of my peers, but she was incorrect.
“No, I mean gay. Many sororities still have a lot of work to do regarding their LGBTQ inclusiveness. It’s a bit backward, in my opinion. An organization for women, but my interest in other women disqualifies me from membership? Pass.”
“So is that how you ended up in Kappa Theta Alpha? It was the only sorority willing to accept you?”
I chuckle softly, shaking my head. “No, I actually received a bid from another sorority. The one that the girl I was seeing casually was in.”
“How’d you end up here then?”
“Gabby, my roommate, joined Kappa Theta Alpha when we were freshmen, I accepted the bid from the other sorority. But things went sideways very quickly. Turns out the woman I was seeing wasn’t out yet.
So I let it slip to one of my new sisters that we were seeing each other, and she told someone else, who told someone else, who told the president, and it was a chain reaction.
She got brought up on standards violations within the chapter and was ultimately blacklisted from their national organization.
I then had my bid revoked and was blacklisted from rushing any of the other sororities on campus. ”
“Except KTA because they do things differently.”
I wink at Naomi. “See, you’re catching on. Since we do continuous open bidding, technically, anyone can rush our sorority at any time, assuming we haven’t hit our membership quota yet. We always try to reserve one or two spots within our sorority for this purpose.
Once she was a fully initiated member that spring, Gabby fought for KTA to extend a bid to me during COB.
Originally, they didn’t want to. I mean, who would want to take on a blacklisted pledge?
But once they found out why I was blacklisted, they offered me membership.
They would’ve offered it to my ex too, but there were other hoops she had to jump through in order to join another organization, and she didn’t do any of it.
I joined Kappa Theta Alpha that spring semester and I’ve been fighting the good fight ever since,” I say jokingly.
“Wow… Well, that’s their loss, then, because it seems like Kappa Theta Alpha hit the jackpot with you.
Everyone that stayed wants to join your sorority from what I heard, even a couple of the girls that left to go to the other houses are still interested.
” Naomi sips her punch, checking her phone.
“Shoot, I have to take off. I have a meeting with my academic advisor about my transfer status and degree progress. I’ll hopefully see you the rest of the week? ”
“You can count on it, Naomi. I hope you do decide to join KTA. We’d be happy to have you,” I say, giving her shoulder a small squeeze as I walk her to the door.
“Bye, Sage,” she says with a wave before heading out the door. I close it behind her, turning around to see Maeve and Gabby converging on me like hungry wolves.
“So…?” Gabby asks, bouncing with anticipation.
“Sage has a massive crush on her,” Maeve answers before giving me a wink. As much as I’d like to deny it, I wear my heart on my sleeves, and both Gabby and Maeve know me well enough to know when I’m lying.
“Shut up, really? So does this mean she’s in?” Gabby asks Maeve, completely forgetting about me standing right there.
“I think so. We still have to put it to a formal vote with the rest of the exec board, but I don’t see why we can’t offer her membership.”
“My vote is yes,” I chime in, reminding them of my presence.
“We know,” they say in unison, heading back to mingle with the rest of the sorority and PNMs.
Maeve was right, though. I do have a big crush on Naomi, and I’m going to do everything I can to get her to want me too.