The Pledge (7 page)

I shrugged and moved a strand of hair behind my ear. “I got a haircut.”
Be cool, Denton.

“You rushing?” He crossed his arms over his chest and surveyed the crowd.

“I guess. My friends are trying to talk me into it. I’ll check it out and see if I like it.”

“Stop by my house tomorrow after round one.” Doug continued to look at the crowd as he spoke. “We’re having a party. Bring your girls.” His friend smacked him on the back of the head and Doug cursed. “Gotta go. See you tomorrow, right?”

And just like that, I forgave him for the fact that he hadn’t called me after the last party. I smiled and nodded before hurrying over to find Julie and Alexis. Sassy hair, new clothes, a guy interested in me, and rushing a sorority? Every day I found it easier to forget the girl I used to be. I liked this new Taren very much.

***

“Here you go, ladies. You’re all registered.” Alexis, Julie, and I were all placed in different small groups. We would see each sorority house tomorrow evening, but not at the same time. We took our paperwork and walked away from the Greek section of the fair.

“Do you want to check out anything else? Lots of clubs have tables set up,” Alexis said as we meandered along the mall. She was right; a club existed for every possible interest. We saw signs for acapella, comedy improv, various bands, the campus newspaper, and the school radio station. The university had over 800 clubs on campus, and the First Look Fair was their chance to recruit members.

“My schedule is full. Boys, parties, shopping, and, if I can squeeze it in, studying.” Julie winked and accepted a brochure from the campus police. She stopped midstride and turned to face the officer who had given her the paper. “Hey! I remember you...you’re Junior Officer Hotpants!”

Sure enough, it was the officer-in-training who had warned us about our obnoxious, intoxicated behavior a few nights past.

Hotpants blushed. “Hello, ladies. Any interest in joining our program?” Hotpants was cute. His hair was shaved in a close crop, and he was stacked, muscles bulging out from his short-sleeved uniform. Perhaps it was my drunken haze or the darkness, but my memory hadn’t done Junior Officer Hotpants justice. He was certainly worth a second look.

Julie gave him a wide smile. “I’m interested in joining
your
program.” Her fingers danced along his bicep.

Hotpants leaned closer to her, lips pursed. “Is that so? Maybe you can give me your number then.”

Alexis and I turned away to avoid the discomfort of watching Julie flirt with yet another guy.

“Look!” Alexis nudged me with her elbow. “That is so badass.”

Across the way, a guy was bouncing, spinning, and contorting his body on a huge trampoline. We watched as he gained more height before throwing his body into multiple flips.

My mouth hung open in awe. “Did you see that? I think he flipped three times!”

Alexis nodded. “That is wicked.”

“Their banner says
Acroletes
.” I read the motto out loud, “Sober Minds, Strong Bodies.” I glanced around at some of the other people near the trampoline. “Look at her!” A girl was balanced on a tower of chairs, pressing her body into a handstand. Other students were standing on each other’s shoulders or balancing like human pyramids. My eyes couldn’t seem to decide where to settle.

Then, at a nearby table I noticed a guy who looked familiar. Leaning past Alexis, I tried to get a closer look. He glanced up at the same time and our eyes met. He looked confused, as if he couldn’t remember how he knew me. My eyes widened and then narrowed in anger.

That fucknut didn’t even know who I was. He was too good to even recognize or remember me. What an asshole.

“Hey,” Alexis nudged my arm with her elbow. “That guy over there is totally staring at you. Do you know him?”

Know him? I hate him. I hate Alec Hart.

Chapter Six

ALEC

Jeremy elbowed me in the ribs. “Who’s the hot girl? Looks like she wants to rip your fucking nuts off.”

“I don’t know.” She was really pretty. “If I’d met her, I’d definitely remember her.” I racked my brain, trying to figure out why she looked so familiar, but I couldn’t place her. I tried to move from behind the lacrosse table so that I could get a better look, but within seconds, she’d blended into the crowd and disappeared.

“Here you go.” Jeremy shoved a game schedule into the hands of a girl who’d slowed down in front of our table to see what we were giving away. Her eyebrows creased as she looked at the paper in her hand, and then she gave us a small forced smile before walking away. Two tables down I saw her toss the schedule into a recycling bin. She wasn’t the first.

“This is such a fucking waste of time,” Jeremy growled.

“You’re telling me.” I stood up, stretching my arms overhead. I tossed my stack of schedules on the table in front of him. “I’m going for a walk.” I was bored out of my fucking mind. If anyone was interested in picking up a schedule, Jeremy could handle it on his own. Besides, my shift only lasted for another ten minutes.

“You coming back?” Jeremy asked.

“Nah. Consider this my gift. The lacrosse babes are all yours.”

“You’re an asshole, Hart,” he yelled after me. “You better not be late to training.”

I turned and nodded to him with a smile to let him know I heard him. Then I made my way through the crowd to the Acroletes table.

“I was wondering when you’d grow some balls and show up.” Caz jumped down from the trampoline, catching my hand mid-air before pulling me in for a chest bump. “Did you put in your time at the LAX table?”

I shrugged. “Yeah. Are you guys getting many recruits?”

“We always do. Nobody can resist the lure of the trampoline.” He waggled his eyebrows like a super villain. “My milkshake brings all the girls to the yard.” Caz pulled the hem of his shirt up while dancing.

“Cut it out, Caz,” Jon yelled from his stack of chairs. “You’re scaring people off.” As usual, Jon was upside down and high off the ground.

“Is that so?” Caz’s smile was big as he stalked over to look up at his friend. “I guess I need to rectify that then.”

Jon came out of his handstand and climbed down the precariously stacked tower of chairs. He grinned and joined me along the side of the trampoline. Caz had jumped back up and was already in the center of the white webbing, launching himself high into the air.

I grabbed one of the unused chairs. “He doesn’t have any fear.” I flipped the chair around to sit backward on it and folded my arms across the back.

“Not that we’ve discovered.” Jon sat down and crossed his arms across his chest. “We also haven’t found a trick he can’t do or won’t try. He’s so fucking talented it’s not fair.” Jon shook his head in disbelief. “But don’t tell him I said that.”

“Don’t worry.” I watched Caz throw his body into a laid out, twisting flip. “If his head gets any bigger, it’ll throw off his rotation.”

Jon threw his head back and laughed. “When are you going to pledge¸ Hart?”

I shook my head and sighed in frustration. “I can’t make the commitment because of lacrosse.”

“That doesn’t seem to be stopping you from coming into practice every day.”

“Yeah, well once our season starts, I won’t have time for the Acroletes.” The words tasted wrong in my mouth, and I wanted to swallow them down.

We watched in silence as Caz defied death a few more times, flipping and spinning like he was born to do it.

“Well, flipping through the fire hoop is sick. You gotta try that at least once before your season starts.”

“We’ll see.” I cocked my head to the side and watched the people passing the tables.

Jon turned to smile at me knowingly. “Yes we will.”

As Caz got down off the trampoline, a familiar voice caught my attention. My mouth went dry and my body tensed. That was a voice I hoped I’d never hear again. I stood up and searched the area, immediately finding the source—the girl from earlier who, as Jeremy put it, looked like she wanted to rip my balls off. She was walking past the Acroletes table, deep in conversation with her friend. She hadn’t noticed me this time, but her voice tugged at memories I’d buried months ago. She might have ditched the glasses, and gotten a new hairstyle and clothes, but I’d never forget her voice or how she ruined my senior year.

College Park was a big university, but seeing her just a few feet away, a campus of thirty thousand students didn’t feel big enough for the both of us. I wanted that self-righteous prude to stay in my past where she belonged.

Taren Richards was a fucking snitch.

Chapter Seven

TAREN

“Why were you shooting a death glare at that hot guy at the lacrosse table?” Alexis asked as she stuffed flyers into her messenger bag. She’d taken a pamphlet from every table we passed. She could barely fit anything else in her overflowing bag. “It looked like you wanted to claw his eyes out.”

I pointedly ignored her question, gesturing instead, to her bag. “Why are you keeping those things, Lex? It’s like a fire hazard in there.”

She shrugged. “Just keeping my options open in case we don’t get into a sorority. I want to join something while in college.” She adjusted the strap of her purse and reached for yet another pamphlet. “And good try, but you didn’t answer my question. What was that look for?”

I sighed. I was hoping she hadn’t noticed that. Reliving my history with Alec was the last thing I wanted to do. “We went to high school together. I guess I don’t want to be reminded of my past. I don’t want to be the girl I was back then.”

Alexis finished storing her flyers in her bag and then slipped her arm through mine. “I get that, but why do you seem to
hate
him?”

I stiffened, and she pressed closer to me. I took a deep breath. Trusting Alexis was easy, but reliving my past was painful. “Because I do hate him. He pretended to be my friend¸ and then he ripped out my heart and stomped all over it.” I cleared my throat. I wanted to rid myself of any sign of emotion that lingered when I thought of Alec.

“You dated?”

My laugh was bitter. “No. We were paired up together to be debate team partners for Model Congress. He was Mr. Popularity, and I was Little Miss Geek. We had nothing in common except that we both wanted to win the award for the top orator of the competition. Who wouldn’t want to win a full scholarship to college?”

“So what happened?” She motioned to a bench, and we sat down.

I blew out a long breath, shaking my head. “His name is Alec, and I had the biggest crush on him. He was amazing—gorgeous, athletic, smart. We worked together every day for weeks. He supported my idea to write our bill on anti-bullying and surprisingly, we got along really well. I thought we were friends. He even told me I was unique…” I shook my head, memories of my stupidity overwhelming me.

“You are unique, Taren,” Alexis added with a small smile.

I rolled my eyes. “He was just being polite. He was the first person who was ever nice to me in high school. The fact that I had a crush on him didn’t help.” I stood up and picked at piece of imaginary lint on my shirt. “Can we head back to the dorms?”

Alexis nodded, and I led us away from the fair, desperately wanting to put distance between me and Alec.

“I fail to see why you hate him. He sounds like a pretty decent guy.”

“Yeah, well, one day we were talking about how we couldn’t meet up to work on our project because of the Homecoming Dance. When he asked if I was going, I said no. He told me he didn’t have a date but that he was going, so I should too. That I’d have fun.” My steps became more hurried, the urge to flee too strong to ignore.

“Did you go?” Alexis panted as she jogged to keep up with me.

I stopped walking and turned to face her. “Lex, I was such an idiot. I thought that because he was nice to me it meant he liked me. When I told my aunt Claire that Alec was going to the dance alone and that he suggested I come too, she thought that it was an invitation. She encouraged me to ask him to go with me.”

“Oh.” Alexis’ eyes and lips were rounded in understanding.

I don’t know if my aunt was oblivious to the extent of my awkwardness, but I should have known better. Claire, even as she aged, was beautiful, young, and confident. She never had to deal with rejection. Rejection was my entire existence in high school. No matter how nice Alec was to me in private, I should have known that when it came down to it, his reputation was important in public. He was popular, and I was a nerd.

“I showed up at our high school’s homecoming bonfire. Everyone was there. I asked him to go to the dance with me in front of the entire school because I thought he liked me.” We walked in silence for a moment. The crushing pain I’d buried a year ago slammed back into me. “Actually, you know what? I’m not sure I really thought he did like me. At least like that. I just wanted him to so badly that I let my aunt convince me it could happen.”

“What happened?” Alexis’ voice was little more than a whisper.

“He was the popular jock. I was the nerd that was constantly bullied.” I swallowed loudly against the lump in my throat. “What do you think happened? It was a recipe for disaster.”