Page 11

Chapter 10

Keelan

18 years old | May the Fourth

“ T his is the one day a year you get to go full nerd, Rina. Are you seriously not coming out with us?” Jenny stands at the edge of her roommate’s bed. The same place she’s stood all year to convince her to go out and do actual fun things.

“That’s not fair. You know finals are coming up, and if I don’t stay in and study, I’ll never pass Mom's class.”

Jenny throws her hands up. “Whatever happened to good ole’ nepotism? I swear. It’s like everybody is trying to be fair these days,” Jenny jokes.

I let out a snort from my place at the entrance to their dorm room. Rina’s eyes shoot my way, and I try to stifle the laugh.

“Yes. My mom hates me. She doesn’t think I’ll ever amount to anything, which is why she makes my life hell,” Rina says, her face hiding into her knees pulled up on her bed.

I push off from the door frame and stand next to Jenny. “Your mom doesn’t hate you, Rina.”

She looks up at me. Sad hazel eyes watching me.

“Yes, she does. You see the way she treats me. You, of all people, should know, Landry.”

Jenny looks at me to confirm.

“She’s tough on her,” I admit to Jenny. “But she doesn’t hate you,” I say to Rina.

“Well, she’s failing me. What kind of mother doesn’t want to see her own child succeed? She’s making it impossible for me.”

Jenny sighs, sitting down at the edge of the bed. She suddenly perks up. “Oh my god, I know! Let Keelan help you!”

My eyes snap to my girlfriend. “Come again?”

Jenny nudges me. “You’re a literal English Lit guru. Aren’t you getting a hundred in that class? Nobody in Mrs. Lopez’s English Lit class comes out with a hundred. He’s just the guy you need.” She turns to Rina excitedly.

Rina looks from me to Jenny and then back to me.

I could tutor Rina. If she really wanted me to. But I never got the impression she particularly liked me. In fact, she’s told me she hates me. She puts up with me because I’m her friend’s boyfriend. But if left with the choice, I doubt she’d ever voluntarily choose to interact with me.

“I don’t know,” we both say simultaneously.

Jenny looks at each of us. “Come on! Are you two serious? You’re the answer to her problems. And it wouldn’t hurt to get out of this room, Rina.”

Rina stares at me as if willing me to shoot it down.

“She’s right. Finals aren’t for another week. I can whip you into literary shape,” I say confidently.

Jenny claps. “There! Problem solved.” She jumps off her roommate’s bed and bounces over to her own, grabbing the costumes she picked out for them to wear to the Delta Pi Gamma May the Fourth Star Wars party tonight.

“I didn’t agree to this,” Rina says, standing up and eyeing the costumes.

“Ok, but seriously, what choice do you have?” Jenny holds the very risqué Princess Leia costume up to Rina. Who looks down and shakes her head. “Absolutely not.”

Jenny laughs and brings the other costume up to her. It’s a Queen Amidala look from episode II. A flowy Roman-looking backless dress with a silver choker.

Rina sighs. “You seriously couldn’t pick less revealing options?”

Jenny’s hands go to her hips. “No, girl. You’ve got the curves. Show them off. Now, which will you be?”

She shakes the hangers of the two options. Rina shakes her head but picks the Queen Amidala dress and disappears into their shared bathroom.

I make my way over to Jenny’s bed and pull her to me. “You don’t have to try so hard, you know. Some people just prefer to be on their own.”

She wraps her arms around my neck and looks down at me. “I know. But… I feel bad for her,” she says in a whisper. “It’s like she’s her own worst enemy, and I can’t just stand by and watch her tear herself down.”

"Spoken like a true cheerleader," I smile.

My heart goes out to Jenny. She genuinely cares about people. It’s one of the things that drew me to her in the first place.

That… and she’s one of the hottest girls on campus.

Yes, she can be a little vain. And yes, she thrives on the attention she gets from others. But deep down, she cares.

I pull her closer, and I’m about to kiss her when the door opens to the bathroom. My eyes land straight on Rina. The fabric of her costume cascades down her curves and the silver choker piece around her elongated neck looks like it was made for her.

The word tumbles out of me without even realizing it. “Wow.”

Jenny scrunches her face for a split second before turning to her roommate. When she sees her, she pushes away from me to gush all over her.

“Rina! This outfit was made for you. You were made to be… “ Jenny hesitates a moment and reads the label on the costume. “Queen Amygdala.”

Rina bursts into a laugh. “Amidala, Jen. It’s Queen Am-i-dala.”

I rise up from my place on Jenny’s bed and perform a respectable bow. “Your Majesty.”

I look up at Rina and she’s shaking her head. “You’re both ridiculous.”

“Whatever. Just let me help you style your hair,” Jenny says, already moving toward her endless supply of hair care items.

“Don’t you have to get dressed too?” Rina asks.

“My outfit’s easy. It's basically a bra and some fabric with a high braid." Jenny says it's no big deal. "Now, sit down.”

I watch as Rina takes her seat at Jenny’s desk. Both girls look at me in the mirror she has propped up against the wall on top of it.

I can take a hint.

“I’ll meet you guys downstairs. Ryker, Turner, and I will come get you.”

“Who’s Turner?” Rina asks.

“Oh, he’s a hot law student that reluctantly joined their hockey team after Keelan begged him to an inch of his life.”

Rina raises a brow. “A hot law student?”

“I didn’t beg him. He wanted to join us. And I guess he’s okay looking,” I say, running a hand through my too-shaggy hair.

Jenny waves me off. “We’ll meet you down there in thirty minutes.”

Thirty minutes to Jenny means an hour, so I won’t hold my breath. I salute them both and open the door to the dorm room. Before it shuts, I hear Rina asking her about Turner McEvoy.

And I really shouldn’t feel some kind of way about her line of questioning. But it ticks me off for some reason. I like Turner. He’s a solid dude. But Turner and Rina? They’re way too much alike. They’d bore each other to death.

I shut the door and make it halfway down the stairs when I realize I’m obsessing over something that isn’t any of my business. If Rina likes Turner, then cool. No skin off my nose.

I’m with Jenny. Not Rina, after all.

“The party has arrived!” Jenny announces, her boobs practically falling out of her golden top. Rina follows close behind her, looking uncomfortable even with her boobs perfectly tucked away. They make it out of the dorms and toward the back door of Ryker’s Tercel.

“Probably gonna have to squeeze in back there,” Ryker says to Turner, sitting in the back seat. “This is my brother’s car. He gifted it to me.”

The same year Ryker’s brother went to prison–I lost my parents. We met at a hockey camp that summer and have been inseparable since.

Turner eyes the two girls and smiles. “I don’t mind,” he says, grinning.

Oh I’m sure he doesn’t.

My blood instantly heats. “You know what,” I say, already getting out of the car. “Why don’t you sit up front, bud? I wanna sit with my girlfriend.” I throw a protective arm over Jenny’s shoulders and give her a wink.

“So territorial,” she whispers playfully through the side of her mouth.

Turner hesitates a beat but opens his door and moves aside to let the girls in. “Hi,” he says to them on his way out.

“Hey, McEvoy,” Jenny says, brushing past him to slide into the car. “This is my roommate, Rina Lopez. Daughter of the Literary Tyrant,” she attempts to whisper that last part.

Turner stretches out a hand to Rina. “Does that make you a princess?”

“Don’t you see her outfit, McEvoy? She’s clearly a Queen,” I tease.

Rina rolls her eyes as she takes his hand. “I’m neither.”

“Well, you look stunning, Queen Rina,” Turner says with a little too much charm.

I can feel my jaw clench, so I quickly pat the empty seat next to me. “Chop, chop, Your Majesty. This party waits for no one.”

She and Turner drop each other’s hands before she reluctantly climbs in next to me. The folds of her costume don’t hide the fact that we’re now thigh to thigh in the tight car.

Rina shifts uncomfortably as she tries to pull on her seatbelt.

“Oh, I wouldn’t even try with that,” Ryker says. “None of the belts work back there.”

Rina scoffs and leans forward to look at Jenny. “You convince me to put on this frock only to stuff me into a moving death trap? You’re a great friend, Jen.”

Jenny smirks. “I am, aren’t I?”

“So Rina, what’s your major?” Turner says, shifting in the passenger seat so he can get a good look at my girlfriend’s roommate.

“Mass communications with a focus in public relations.”

“PR,” Turner whistles just as Ryker pulls out of the dorm parking lot.

“I hear you're studying law. Anything in particular?” Rina asks, clearly interested.

Not that I should care. I don’t. I reach for Jenny’s thigh, giving it a squeeze, and she giggles.

“I come from a small town,” he shrugs. “We kind of have to do a little bit of everything around there. So, mostly family law and estate planning. But I plan to dabble.”

“You’ll be someone good to know,” Rina says, staring out the window.

“I hope so. Seems like you will be too.”

Rina turns back to look at him with a small grin. “I hope so, too.”

I slap my knee. “Okay, dreamers! I want to remind everyone that tonight is about using the force to part-ay. So, no more school and work talk. We’re getting smashed,” I announce.

Ryker lets out a huff from the driver’s seat.

“Except Ry. He doesn’t drink.”

“Because it’s illegal?” Turner asks.

“Because I had alcoholics for parents,” Ryker says sternly.

“Oh. My bad, bro.” Turner looks ashamed.

“I mean, technically, none of us should be drinking,” Rina says.

I turn to look at her. “What? You scared of a little fun, Your Majesty?”

She squints at me. “Say all you want about this outfit, but you and your girlfriend are dressed as siblings, and that’s way more noteworthy.”

Ryker’s and Turner’s laughs drift to us from the front seats.

Jenny looks at her. “What do you mean siblings?”

Rina leans forward again to catch Jenny’s eyes on my other side. “Oh my god, Jen! You’ve never seen Star Wars, have you? How are you dressing up as a character when you’ve never seen the movie?”

Jenny smooths out the fabric over her legs, “I thought they looked cute.”

“Cute is not what these costumes look like,” I say to Jenny from the corner of my mouth.

“Oh, no? What would you guys call them?” she says, baiting us.

“Sexy.”

Jenny smirks, pleased with my answer.

“Distracting,” Turner says, head turned back, looking at Rina. She shifts uncomfortably next to me.

“Ridiculous,” Ryker chimes in, wearing only the bottom half of his Darth Vader costume since he couldn’t drive with the helmet on.

“I’m with Ryker,” Rina says, bunching the fabric of her Queen costume just as Ryker pulls up to the Delta Pi Gamma house.

He parallel parks across the street from the house. People carrying lightsabers and dressed in character by the hordes are lined up outside.

“What’s going on here?” I lean over Jenny to see out the window.

“Crowd control,” Ryker says.

“Let’s go check,” says Turner, already opening his door.

“Oh no, I’m not missing anything. I look way too cute to just wait in the car. Come on, Ri!” Jenny opens her door, too.

We all get out and join the back of the growing line.

“I’ll see what the hold up is,” I tell my group.

I make my way to the front of the line to find the captain of the football team there, playing bouncer. He’s arguing with some guy in a Han Solo costume.

“No more, dudes. I’m not saying it again,” says JR, arms crossed over his chest. “The ratio of dudes vs girls is already five to one.”

“‘Sup, JR!” I approach him, and it takes him a moment to realize who I am.

“Landry!” He gives me a bro hug, and we clap hands and fist bump in greeting. We may be enemies. But you know what they say… keep your friends close…

“You seriously not letting anyone else in? Because me and my boys really wanted to show my girlfriend and her roommate a good time tonight.”

I motion to the back of the line where Jenny is waving at us. Rina is doing her best to disappear behind Ryker, but I can already see all eyes are on the two of them.

“Oh, Jenny’s here?” JR looks down the line and nods. “Y’all can come in.”

A Boba Fett-dressed guy throws his hands up into the air. “Seriously, man?”

I’m already waving my group over. Rina and Ryker look the least excited. But Jenny grabs both their hands and drags them over, followed by Turner.

Jenny saunters past the entrance with a gawking JR still looking at her. I slap him on the back. “Look, don’t touch.”

He gives me a sarcastic salute as we all step in through the threshold. It smells like old beer and musty carpets. Boys clearly live here. The music is so loud we can’t talk to each other until we push through all the characters lining every wall of the Frat house.

We make it to the backyard, where some of Jenny’s cheer girls are dressed in more revealing outfits. Some that I’m pretty sure were never featured in any of the films—unless we count Star Wars fan-fiction and porn. Which… then it would make sense.

She kisses my cheek and bounces over to her group of girls already doing shots.

“So fun,” Rina deadpans.

I turn to her. “Oh, you ain’t seen nothing yet, Your Majesty.”

I wave over to the DJ, who I’ve come to know very well over the past year. He waves back and gives a thumbs-up. I shoot him a thumbs-up, and he nods, already knowing what I want.

The music changes. And Ante Up comes on through the speakers.

“Oh boy,” Ryker says.

Turner looks at him. “Is he about to–”

“Yep!” I say to them both, shedding my belt and slipping it onto Ryker’s shoulder. He was holding his helmet under his arm but decides at this moment to slip it on.

“You embarrassed to be seen with me?” I ask him, top-rocking.

A small crowd begins to gather around us.

“May the fourth be with you!” DJ Nova says from his booth. “It’s time for a dance-off from a galaxy far, far away!”

“Dance-off?” I hear Rina exclaim.

But I’m already going. My body loves to move. If I don’t, I feel like a ball of energy that needs to be released. I’ve always been this way. And those that couldn’t hang wouldn’t last long. Those who could put up with me—they were mine for life.

I even taught my little sister a few moves. She loves it when I dance with her.

But I’m well aware Rina’s never seen this part of me. The part that forgets who's around and gets so swept up in the music that I lose my sense of time.

I finish with a windmill and pose and the gathered crowd goes wild. But JR is right. This party is mostly dudes, so a few guys step up to do battle.

I look around. Ryker is leaning against the back wall of the house, away from everyone. Turner is next to him. But Rina is gone.

I look for Jenny’s group of girls. They’re still laughing and doing shots together, pointing at the guys now battling it out.

Where is Rina?

Leaving the dance-off, I step back inside the house in search of the Queen. Guys recognize me and keep giving me fist bumps and bringing me in for hugs. Finally, I decide to search upstairs.

There are noises coming from a bathroom. I bang on the door.

“Occupied!” I hear JR say.

Followed by a, “Let me out, you jerk!”

That has to be her.

“Open this door right now!” I pound my fist against the hard wood.

When nothing happens, I step back and kick it, sending it flying off the hinges. Inside, Rina is nearly backed into the shower, wielding a bottle of shampoo that she’s about to throw at JR, who is stalking over her.

I reach for his shoulders and pull him back. Without even a second thought, my fist connects with his cheek, and he falls to his knees.

I step over him and reach for Rina. “Are you ok? What the hell happened?”

She drops the bottle and pushes past me, kicking JR on her way out.

“Rina!” I run out after her. She doesn’t stop, already making for the stairs when I reach for her arm, stopping her.

“Let me go!” she screams, pulling away.

I put both hands up. “I’m sorry, okay? Rina, I’m just trying to help.”

“Well, don’t,” she yells, tears streaming down her face.

My heart sinks to my stomach. She’s hurt.

She turns abruptly, gathering her fabric and running down the stairs. She pushes people out of the way and heads out the front door.

JR is at my back. “I didn’t do anything, man. I just wanted to talk.”

I whirl on him, pushing him up against the wall with my forearm pressed against his neck. “I don’t care who you are or who your daddy is, JR. Don’t you even look at Rina ever again. Do you hear me?”

“Chill, man. I already told you–”

I slam him again. “I don’t give a shit. You even so much as breathe in her direction, and you’re dead, JR.”

He pushes me away. Hands on his knees as he tries to breathe again. “Funny,” he says, through labored breaths. “You don’t seem to be so protective of Jenny.”

My eyes narrow. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“Something the matter here?” Ryker is now coming up the stairs, looking like a menacing villain and wearing his helmet.

JR calms down. Ryker is twice his size and would take him down without even flinching. “Nothing, man. We’re cool.”

“I mean what I said,” I tell him.

JR looks at Ryker and then back to me. “Whatever you say, hockey boy.”

That’s as good as I’m going to get out of the entitled prick.

I turn to Ryker. “We’re leaving.”

“Don’t gotta tell me twice.” He looks at JR and salutes him with his middle finger, before turning and going down the stairs.

“I’m gonna go look for Rina. You mind telling the others?”

“Sure, man.”

Most of the party has moved to the backyard and the line that had been gathered outside has dispersed. Unwelcomed guests have since moved on to other parties, it seems.

I look around, calling out to her with no luck. She’s disappeared.

I pull out my phone and shoot her a text.

Me

Where are you, Rina? We’re leaving.

JR won’t bother you again.

I keep looking around waiting for her to reply. One finally comes in.

Rina

No more parties, Keelan. Promise me.

I sigh. Of course I’ve wanted her to come out of her shell. To have and enjoy the full college experience. But why do I bother?

Me

No more parties. Promise.

Rina

I’m next to Ryker’s shitty car.

Of course she is. I walk across the street. The music blasts from the frat house behind me.

When I get to the car, I see her with her face resting on her knees as she watches me approach. I slink into the empty space beside her, leaning against the car and looking at her.

“You didn’t deserve that.”

She shakes her head. “It’s fine.”

“No, it’s not. No woman should ever be treated like that.”

“It’s not the first time.”

My eyes catch hers. “JR?”

She shakes her head again. “That a guy tries to force himself on me. I’d really just prefer to stay in. I’m not like Jenny, Keelan. I don’t want that attention.”

I nod in understanding. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know… I didn’t know that’s why you don’t go out.”

She looks away, her fingers playing with the grass beneath her thigh.

“What would be fun… for you?” I ask her.

Her eyes meet mine again. “I don’t know… just staying in. Watching movies. Being out in nature, away from crowds.” She shrugs. “Stuff like that.”

My fingers play with the grass beneath us, too.

"Ok," I say, like a decision has been made.

"Okay?"

I nod.

No more parties.