Page 89 of The Frathole

I barely have time to acknowledge that I considered Marty my man before I see red, abandoning my post and hurrying over.

“What is your problem?” Marty asks as Miles takes another step toward him, as though to intimidate him.

“Why don’t you mind your own damn business, prude?” Miles says.

“He’s my friend, so it kind of is my business.”

I shove myself in the middle of the situation, making sure I’m between Marty and Miles, so if Miles tried something, he’d be taking me on, not Mart. As I settle, I feel the heat radiating like a ball of fire in my chest, which feels like it’s about to burst out and set fire to this asshole. “There a problem?” I ask.

Normally, if I were to intercept a fight, being a fucking giant, that would be enough to at least see the fear or worry in a guy’s eyes as he accepts I’d easily kick his ass, but not this guy. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he believes he has a chance of putting up a decent fight, which really, can’t be true, since he’s gotta be a foot shorter than me, not to mention that I’m stacked with enough muscle that it’d be like taking on a fucking boulder. This isn’t just the kind of guy who’s willing to get into a fight; this is the kind of guy who doesn’t care about losing one either.

“Are you all gonna rotate who wants some from me?” Miles asks.

“Dude,” Dax interjects, “I’m really sorry about that.”

“Like fuck you are, you Sigma Alpha shit.”

I never could have imagined someone would be going like this for Dax, of all people. I mean, really, Marty…this is definitely more something he would get.

I get in Miles’s face. “Get our frat out of your damn mouth,” I say through my teeth.

“Okay, okay,” a voice comes from nearby, and Troy and Atlas push between us.

Atlas drapes his arm around Miles. “Let’s have a quick chat, ’kay?” As he leads Miles off, I notice Ty and Lance are only a fewfeet away. They must’ve come over during the commotion.

“Everything’s good,” Troy assures us, and I realize how wound up I am, my chest in knots, my breathing shallow.

“Why the fuck is he even here?” I ask as my rage doesn’t settle, that ball of fire feeling like it radiates up to my face.

“He only wants to help, same as you guys. He made a mistake, but he’s actually a decent guy once you get to know him.”

“We all know he’s here because he was court-ordered to be. Does he get a prize for that?”

“This doesn’t count toward his community service. Atlas has offered to sign off, but he said no. Okay?”

This news totally throws me, goes against my impression of him as being nothing but some Omega Psi asshole. Not that he’s Omega Psi since the stunt he pulled.

“He has a temper, but he’s a good kid,” Troy says. “You’re gonna have to trust me on that.”

I can’t imagine why Troy would align himself with this asshole. Although, as much of a dick as Miles made of himself, Troy wouldn’t stick up for someone who was a total piece of shit.

“I’ll definitely have to take your word on that one.”

Dax glances toward Atlas and Miles, who are having a chat on the other side of the house.

“I know he started that,” Troy says, “but if we can get him to cool down, you’d be okay with him staying?”

I should keep my mouth shut since the other guys have more reason to be mad at him than me.

“In his defense,” Dax says, “it did seem like he really believed I did that on purpose.”

Why is Dax defending this prick? From what I could tell, he’s not wrong, but it doesn’t change that he was the one starting all that crap.

I have to interject. “There was no reason for him to steptoward Marty like he was about to throw punches.”

“It wasn’t that bad,” Marty says, but I can see that his hands are a little shaky from the incident. Miles clearly activated his anxiety.

“He balled his fist up and stepped toward you.”