Page 16 of The Devil Takes

“I said no thanks.”

“Just give me a letter.” Tommy parked the car with a lurch and I almost lost my lunch, sagging a little when we were safely under our numbered awning as he pulled the keys from the ignition. He chucked them at me, and I caught them with a glare. “Just the first letter of his name, that’s all I’m asking.”

I debated with myself.

I wanted to say no because he was almost as much of a nosy fucker as Haden was.

But…Tommy would keep pushing. He never knew when to fucking quit. Annnnd he was my best friend. So really, what was the harm of one simple little letter?

If I actually had been bitten by someone on campus, a letter was all Tommy needed to hunt the prick down like he so obviously wanted to. He thought I couldn’t see behind his sneaky little smile, but I could see the evil lurking under his glittery innocent gaze. It was why I liked him so much, after all.

He was as loyal as a rabid chihuahua guarding the fridge.

“Fine.” There wasn’t any way he’d find Haden. Hell. I wasn’t even sure he really existed. Aside from the jacket and the bite, there was nothing to prove it. But…I didn’t really want Tommy mad at me. I had missed our movie night…so I acquiesced. “H.”

“H.” Tommy hummed thoughtfully, slipping out of the car with a flourish and slamming the door shut. I inhaled with a huff, chasing a scent I knew I wouldn’t be able to smell, ignoring his grin because it wasn’t settling me like it normally did. He rapped on the window and I got out of the car, stomping my way toward the stairs.

Man.

Haden wasn’t even fully real and he was still messing me up.

With a shake of my head, I headed up the steps to the main entrance. The giant symbol etched above the door laughed at me as I passed beneath it. This was the omega dorm, and all you had to do was see the designation sign to know it. I did my best to duck through the side door when I came on my own, to avoid people seeing me, but that wasn’t an option when Tommy was with me. Always felt like a lie coming here. Or maybe…not a lie? But…wrong.

It just felt wrong.

I didn’t belong here.

That’s why I’d applied for the frat in the first place. The guys liked me well enough. They invited me to their parties—they greeted me in class. When it was football season, I got more back slaps and ass taps than usual as they passed by me on campus since I’d enjoyed more than a few practice matches last summer. Every fundraiser, every party, every match I was there.

They liked me.

I fit in with their dirty socks, big shoulders, and friendly manly camaraderie. Reminded me of being home, what it had felt like being the youngest of three brothers. Passed between rough hands like a shiny new toy only to be discarded when I stopped crying quite so much.

“Did you hear back from the dick-o-saurs?” Tommy asked as we headed up the staircase.

I knew who he meant.

The same guys I called my friends Tommy privately referred to with a variety of colorful insults. Even though I did like our spa nights, and the fact that he had a black belt in MMA, he didn’t get it. Didn’t get why I needed them the way I did. As much as I liked Tommy, he wasn’t…what I knew.

And that was scary.

“I get to move in at the beginning of next semester,” I admitted, cheeks a little hot. All the paperwork was done now, everything set in stone. This was a sore spot between us. Tommy didn’t want me to move out. He claimed it was because he’d miss me, but we both knew it was because he didn’t think I could make it out there on my own, which was why I was determined to prove him wrong, even though he was probably right.

Tommy’s voice in my head called me a pessimist again, and I mentally flipped him off.

“Are you gonna tell your dad?” the real Tommy asked.

That was a loaded question.

Dad didn’t know I was living in the omega dorm in the first place. If he did, he wouldn’t have let me go to college at all. I swallowed the lump in my throat as I forced myself to speak.

“He probably won’t ever visit.” I hoped anyway. That would be a cluster fuck. Despite only being a forty-minute drive from home, none of my family had ever visited me during the entire year and a half I’d been attending college in Madison.

I didn’t mind though, honestly.

The little mountain town had become precious to me. Like a well-guarded secret. I coveted the old brick buildings, the chipped sidewalks, and the hungover students waltzing around campus. I wasn’t sure what would happen if my family came, but if my two worlds collided, I didn’t think I could survive the aftermath.

Didn’t want to hear my brother’s laughter here, or witness my father’s silent disapproval. Beneath it always sat a darker anger, simmering under the surface. I didn’t like when I brought it out of him and I knew my “sissy little garden” and my “pansy friend” would make him boil over.

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