Page 19 of Kings of the Campus

I take a deep breath, knowing this is about to get messy. “She and I hooked up a few days ago in her dorm.”

The room goes dead silent, and then Jace inhales sharply. Alec’s eyes widen for a split second before he recovers, crossing his arms tighter.

“That’s…interesting,” Jace says, his voice carefully neutral. “Because I hooked up with her too, in the gym.”

Alec’s head snaps toward him. “You what?”

Jace shrugs, but there’s tension in his shoulders. “It just happened. I didn’t think it was a big deal.”

I can feel the disbelief settling in the room, thick and heavy. And then Alec, looking like he’s trying to process something, mutters, “She and I have been getting coffee together at the café lately. One thing led to another and we ended up in the café bathroom together.”

Now it’s my turn to blink. “Wait, so she’s been messing around with all of us? At the same time?”

Jace leans forward, running a hand through his hair. “Looks that way.”

Alec lets out a sharp breath, shaking his head. “I can’t believe this.”

The shock ripples between the three of us, none of us saying a word for a minute. I thought I had something going on with her—something real. But now? It feels like we’ve all been strung along, fed the same lines, led down the same path.

“She’s good,” Jace finally says, rubbing his jaw. “Real good.”

Alec grits his teeth. “So what now? We let her keep screwing with us?”

“No way,” I say, the frustration boiling over. “We get her to come to the next frat party,” I say, an idea brewing. “We make her choose. Pick one of us or back the hell off for good.”

Jace nods slowly. “She’s got to shit or get off the pot.”

Alec leans back, eyes narrowed. “You’re going to let her come between us?” he asks.

“It’s clear she’s been playing us against each other. We were too blind to see it but now everything is different,” I explain. “There’s no way she’d be able to choose after the way she’s been acting, so this is our opportunity to finally be rid of her once and for all.”

Since I was the one to invite her to the charity carnival, we decide on Alec asking her to come to the next party. It’ll be less suspicious since Alec isn’t usually the type to trick someone like this.

Tessa agrees immediately, almost too easily. She promises to see Alec at the party tomorrow night and we spend the rest of the evening planning the confrontation in between homework, studying, and doing regular frat planning.

The next day, the party’s already in full swing by the time I come down the stairs. Music is pounding through the walls of the house, vibrating under my skin. The lights flicker in time with the beat, casting shadows across the packed room. Sigma parties always draw a crowd, but tonight feels different—or maybe I’m just on edge.

I make my way through the throngs of people, giving half-hearted nods to the brothers and a few familiar faces, but my mind is elsewhere. It’s not on the party, not on the drinks, not even on the girls who keep trying to catch my eye as I pass. No, I’m thinking about Tessa. About what she’s been doing to us. About what happens next.

Jace and Alec are supposed to come down soon and then the three of us will finally deal with this whole mess, finally get our chance to confront Tessa and put an end to her games.

As I grab a soda from one of the coolers, I glance around, scanning the crowd for her. It’s probably too early for her to show up, she’s one to make an entrance.

Leaning against the wall, I take a swig of my Coke, trying to ignore the knot tightening in my stomach. This isn’t how I imagined things going with her, not at all. After what happened, I was starting to feel like maybe I’d misjudged her, maybe she and I wanted the same things out of life. I could see glimpses of the real her, the one behind the intrepid reporter facade. I saw a side of her I thought was special.

A familiar voice snaps me out of it, and I turn to see Alec pushing through the crowd, his jaw clenched tight.

“Any sign of her yet?” he asks, looking around the room.

“Not yet,” I say, glancing toward the entrance. “But she’ll be here. Don’t stress, oh Fearless Leader.”

Alec grunts, crossing his arms. “Yeah, well, I’m done waiting.”

We both know what’s at stake tonight. If Tessa keeps jerking us around, things are only going to get messier. But we’re not giving her that chance. Tonight’s the night we put an end to it, one way or another.

“Where’s Jace?” Alec asks, eyes scanning the room again.

“Probably styling his hair so it looks exactly like post-sex hair,” I joke, but even I know the joke is lame. It’s because of how badly I want to just get this over with. The longer it drags on, the more on edge I feel.

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