Page 26 of Rastor

Chloe was staring at Brittney. "A joke?" Chloe said.

Brittney rolled her eyes. "You know. The prank. With Joey and Paul."

I gave Brittney a warning look. "That was no prank."

"Aw c'mon," Brittney said. "Yes, it was. Just a little joke. No big deal." She turned to Chloe. "Go on, tell him. You thought it was funny. Right?"

"Funny?" Chloe said. "So let me get this straight." Her voice rose. "Two masked men try to throw me in a trunk, and you call that a fucking joke?"

Brittney shrugged. "At leastIhave a sense of humor. Unlikesomepeople."

"Gee," Chloe said, "maybesomepeople don't like getting dragged away in the middle of the night. Maybesomepeople are funny like that. Maybesomepeople aren't totally fucking nuts!"

"Hey, you're the one who's crazy," Brittney said. "It wasn't the middle of the night. It was like, what, nine?" She turned to me. "See? She's making it sound ten times worse than it was."

My hands were fisted, and my shoulders were tight. The more Brittney talked, the harder it was to keep my cool.

At something in my face, Brittney took a small step backward, but then recovered just as fast. She gave a toss of her hair and said, "So like I told you, it's no big deal."

My blood was boiling. "And like I toldyou," I said, "itisa big deal. A very big deal. And if you were some guy, you'd be getting a lot worse than the chance to beg Chloe for forgiveness."

"Hey," Brittney said. "No one said anything about begging." She threw back her shoulders. "Brittney Adams doesn't beg for anything."

Chloe gave a hard laugh. "Not even car nookie?"

Brittney gave Chloe an annoyed look. "It wasn't nookie." She turned to me. "You believe me, right?"

"What I believe," I said, "is that you're supposed to be apologizing."

She pursed her lips and turned back to Chloe. "Alright. IguessI'm sorry. But seriously, it's no big deal. In my sorority, we do that sort of thing all the time."

What a load of bull.

The way it looked, Chloe wasn't buying it either. She was still staring at Brittney. "Your sorority kidnaps people? Seriously?"

With a little huff, Brittney turned to me and said, "See? She's doing it again. She's making it sound worse on purpose, just to make me look bad."

I wanted to throttle her. "You want to do a shitty job at this, fine." I pointed toward the door. "Get the fuck out. Now."

Brittney gave me a pleading look. "But I'm trying to explain. She won't let me."

I crossed his arms and spoke very slowly. "Try harder."

With an eye roll, she turned back to Chloe. "What we do," Brittney said, "is steal their mascots. Swipe 'em for a day or two." She turned toward me and finished by saying, "But we always return them. It's no big deal. See?"

"No," I said. "I don't see."

And I didn't. For one thing, Brittney wasn't evenina sorority. For another, itwasa big deal. A very big deal.

Brittney made a sound of annoyance. "But it was just a joke. I don't get why everyone's freaking out about it." She adjusted the blanket and gave a dramatic sigh. Looking to me, she said, "But just because you asked, I apologized anyway. So are we good now or what?"

Good? Not by a longshot.

But before I could say so, Chloe turned to me and said, "So this wasyouridea?"

Chapter 13

Chloe was looking at me like I'd lost my mind. Had I? Probably.