Page 23 of Guarded By the Nightmare

“It’s not work if they don’t pay you,” I teased. Ella was always volunteering at the local zoo, giving tours to elementary school kids. “We both know you’d pay them, just to get to hang out with the animals.”

There was a loud knock at the door. Ella and I both jumped, and then whoever was outside tried the handle, but found it locked.

“Maybe they’re just looking for a bathroom?” I guessed quietly—while Ella raised her hand and hacked her empty fist up and down in front of her chest, in the international signal for “it’s a murderer with a knife—run.”

I made a face at her, unlocked the door, and opened it up to find Logan standing outside. “Yo, Mina, Ella.” He was as tall as Trent was, and broader than a barn door. He always looked like he was ready to go off half-cocked—I suspected he’d been on ’roids since he was fifteen.

“Hey, Logan,” I said, giving him a companionable nod.

He answered it with a frown. “Trent said it was my job to serveyou both tonight.”

Ella’s nose wrinkled like a bunny. “Uh, no thank you!”

“I can get my own drinks, Logan, but thanks.”

And Logan—he didn’t look relieved at being let off the hook, like he should’ve, you know?

Instead he looked concerned, and as I moved to close the door again, he stuck his foot in the way. “Please?” he asked, looking vastly pained to do so.

I assumed he was currying favor with Trent, so he couldn’t back down, but now, in hindsight—I knew.

How couldn’t I have seen it at the time?

“Define serve?” I asked him, accidentally dooming us both, opening up the door.

He made a show of looking us both up and down. “Mostly in the bartender sense. Because one of you belongs to Trent, and the other I’m not into.”

Ella gave me a disparaging glance, before huffing a sigh. “I’m sorry he’s not into you, Mina,” she said, flinging up both of her hands, miming innocence.

I rolled my eyes and stuck my tongue out briefly at her, before returning to the younger guy. “I’m not Trent’s truck, Logan. I don’tbelongto anybody.”

“Yeah, well, he calls you his lamb, so?—”

And that was the other thing about the RRP wolves. Their girlfriends were called lambs, I think short for lambda, a shout out to some other sorority that’d been more popular on campus once upon a time—and while I was okay with Trent calling me that occasionally, I wouldn’t be caught dead in one of the matching sweatshirts some of the other RRP girls had with cute little cartoon baby sheep on them.

Then again, none of those other girls would’ve ever asked me if I wanted one.

“You do have an ass like a dump truck,” Ella told me, sounding suddenly reasonable. I whirled on her, and she started laughing at once. “It’s a compliment! You could put Wide Load on that thing!”

I groaned, and then started laughing too. “Not helping!”

Logan looked as confused as a dog whose owner had faked throwing a ball. “So can I get you both something to drink or what?”

“I will take whatever the hell is in that punchbowl you were working on earlier,” I said, before pretending to glare at Ella. “And she will have water.”

“Or Diet Coke!” Ella piped up.

Logan just shook his head and then disappeared back down the stairs, I assumed heading in the direction of the kitchen.

“What even was that?” Ella asked, once he was out of range.

“I don’t know.” It was hard to parse out what was dumb shit unique to Trent’s frat lifestyle, and guys giving other guys hard times just because they could. “Lowkey hazing?”

“I’m gonna make him get me twenty waters in that case,” she said with a grin. “Shall we mingle?” she asked, with a slight British accent, like we were in a Regency-era show.

“Oh yes,” I proclaimed, similarly, with fake enthusiasm, only my accent sounded more like Julia Child’s. “Let’s.”

The cabinalready had all the makings of a rowdy party. The storm hadn’t let up, so there was no place for people to disperse outside. RRP seemed to have brought up plenty of kegs, guessing from everyone’s red Solo cups, and the mix of guys to girls was good—plus, it was almost the end of the school year. Plenty of kids were here just to have one last pre-graduation huzzah.

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