Page 13 of Palm South University: Season 3

I HATE HIM.

I fuckinghatehim.

The literal last person I want to see, ever, is standing behind the podium at our first Omega Chi Beta chapter of the semester. Alec Carriker is a highly respected alumni of O Chi, but he’s still a Class A douchebucket. He only shows up when there’s a threat to be made or a wrist-slap to be given.

Unfortunately for us, I think it’s past that this time.

“I want you all to know that I don’t want to be here tonight,” he starts once the room is quiet, his brows bent low as he surveys my brothers. “Least of all to deliver the news I have. But I have tried for a year now to warn you about what would happen if you didn’t get your shit together, and not a single one of you listened to me.”

Someone makes a snarky comment in the back of the room which garners a few stifled laughs, and Alec fumes, shaking his head before raising his voice.

“The Palm South University chapter of Omega Chi Beta has been suspended.”

That shuts up the brothers in the back.

That shuts up everyone.

Even me.

Because though I was pissed the last time Alec told us we were on a probation period, I can’t even be mad this time. We fucked up.Bad.And I knew this was coming before I even saw Alec stroll in.

“Riley Butler just turned eighteen a month ago. He has been away from home for all of one-hundred hours. And now? Now he’s in the hospital with two broken ribs, a fractured wrist, and a severe concussion.”

The heaviness of the reality settles over the room like a thick fog, weighing us down into our seats.

“And you can try to say it’s not your fault, that you just threw a party, that you’re not responsible for what a dumb freshman does after drinking his first beer, but the truth is, you are. Youareresponsible — for anything that happens at that house or to any of your brothers or anyone trying tobecomea brother.”

At that, a few of us look around with questioning eyes.

“That’s right. Riley was going to pledge in the spring, and a few of you knew that, because he told the police officers at the hospital that two guys told him this was a pre-pledge test.”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” I mumble, sinking down into my chair as I shake my head in disbelief.

I don’t even register the rest of Alec’s news. Everything is muted by the fact that the fraternity I love is on suspension. I hear Alec say that it will be a year minimum, and that’s all it takes for me to tune out every other sentence that comes after. Because none of it matters, not anymore.

Chapter is called early, without a single ounce of good news, and I’m the first to bolt out of the room and down the hall to my bedroom. I throw on a pair of gym shorts and a PSU t-shirt quickly before tugging on my sneakers and blowing back out the front door.

I need a release. I need to zone out. I need to make every inch of my fucking body burn.

But when I round the Student Union and veer off toward the gym, I get that burn in the worst way possible.

Because Shawna is walking toward me.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

Shawna managed to crack through my exterior last semester, and I fell for her. Hard. But when her parents came for family weekend, she showed me her true colors — and they were the ugliest shades.

I see her before she sees me, which gives me just enough time to trace the edges of her new, shorter purple hair before I zero in on her glasses. The glasses that always drove me crazy in the best way. The glasses framing her big brown eyes as they stare back at me.

I stop, and she does, too — watching me as she waits for me to make the first move.

But I can’t deal with her, not right now. Maybe not ever. So, I turn the volume on my iPod up higher and jog to the right, taking the longer way to the gym, not even giving her a second look before the decision was made.

I feel marginally better after a two-hour session at the gym, and my body is on fire just like I wanted. The last few steps into the O Chi house are brutal, and all I want is a shower and my bed.

When I walk inside and find a dozen brothers lugging in a keg, the fire coursing through my muscles boils my blood, instead.

“What the fuck is this?” I ask, pointing to the metal as two sophomores carry it past me and toward the back door. I shove one of them until he loses his balance and drops his half, forcing the other to do the same.