Page 130 of The Friend Zone

I giggle at their antics. The three of them argue like brothers. But God forbid anyone even so much as nudge one of them onthe ice too hard, the gloves come off and they’d protect each other without hesitation.

“Candace?” I’m surprised to see one of my Zeta sisters outside my door. “Is everything ok? Is one of the other sisters sick?”

Whatever brings Candace here at the crack of dawn, it must be serious. There’s a worried expression on her face and she’s fidgeting with her hands.

“Can I come in for a second? I need to talk to you.” She looks at either side of her, as if trying to make sure that no one is following her.

“Guys, are you decent? We have a guest.” I turn around to make sure no one has come out of the bathroom in their birthday suit or something.

Not that Candace hasn’t seen most of the hockey team naked. I know for a fact she’s hooked up with Jagger a couple of times. Jealousy makes me grab the door jamb so hard, my knuckles turn white. I wonder if she’s slept with Cole too.

“We’re good, Cinnamon.” Ryker calls out.

I move to the side, allowing Candace to come inside the presidential suite.

Candace is one of the self-proclaimed puck bunnies. It isn’t my job to slut shame her. I’m all for women embracing their sexuality and having fun just as much as guys do. Whatever there was between Candace and Jagger, that was before me. Their decoy date doesn’t really count, and I can’t be mad at Candace because Jagger and I weren’t together at the time. She’s a great sister and she would never even look at a guy who’s in an exclusive relationship.

“Oh, hey guys.” Candace greets my boyfriends. “Bay, can we talk in private?”

This isn’t a walk of shame. Candace isn’t in the red sequined dress she has on last night at the gala. So whatever this is about, she isn’t coming straight from someone’s bedroom,

“Are you ok?” I ask. “Are all the sisters ok?”

She nods. “Yeah, everyone’s fine. This isn’t about myself, it’s actually about you. Well, kind of.”

That doesn’t shed any light on why Candace is here, but if it isn’t a personal matter, she can talk in front of the guys. “I have no secrets with my boyfriends. Whatever you have to say, you can say in front of them.”

Her eyes go from me to Cole, Ryker, and Jagger. “Ok,” she nods. “Then this is a thing? Like, you’re not just hooking up with each of them like that gossip blog said?”

“It’s a thing.” I sigh. I don’t owe anyone any explanation, but I understand her curiosity. There shouldn’t be any secrets between Zeta sisters. “I’m dating all three of them. We’re exclusive.”

Candace’s eyes widen. “Oh, right. Look Bay, the thing with Jagger in the locker room, nothing happened. I?—”

“I know,” I reassure her. “Don’t worry about that. I said that we’re exclusive not because of you and Jagger. I just meant that whoever posted that trash is full of shit and knows nothing about my relationships.”

She nods. “Noted. I’m happy for you, Bay. I really mean it. You’re right that the blog is full of shit. But even if you were hooking up with three hockey players, as long as it’s consensual and no one is being cheated on, I don’t think anyone should be allowed to judge you.”

“Thank you,” I smile. “So, how can I help you?”

Candace exhales a shuddering breath. “Last night, after all that chaos went down, some of us stayed behind at the Dean’s house. There was a ton of leftover booze from the gala, and once everyone left, Bianca invited us to stay over and keep the partygoing. It wasn’t the first time we partied there, since our house burned down.”

I nod. “Ok.” That makes sense. I bet that’s how Bianca has managed to gain favor with some of the sophomore and junior sisters.

“Kylie, Valerie and Steph were there,” she says, confirming my hunch that the seniors among the Zetas are all on my side. “And some Gammas. Corey, Madden, Topher and Tucker. But Tucker left super early. We were drinking and then Topher had some molly for everyone.”

“Go figure,” Ryker scowls.

Molly was one of the drugs we found in the nightstand’s secret compartment.

“I just had a couple more glasses of Champagne,” Candace explains. “But I didn’t take any pills. I had a bad reaction mixing pills and alcohol once and it was scary.”

I wonder if what happened to her was similar to what I experienced during the freshman year rush party, but I don’t get the chance to ask, because Candace continues.

“That’s not the point, though. So everyone got pretty wasted. Especially Bianca. She went to her bedroom with Topher and Madden and?—”

“Was she aware of what pills she was taking?” I have to ask.

“Yeah,” Candace nods. “That isn’t why I’m telling you all this. Bianca went to her room, while Kylie and Corey were hooking up on the couch and the other two sisters left. I was about to leave too but I couldn’t find my phone to call a ride back to the Iota Alpha Kappa house. I started looking around for it, when I saw a phone screen lighting up. I went to check, but it wasn’t my phone. It was Bianca’s. Usually, I wouldn’t look at a sister’s phone, you know? But her notifications were really blowing up and what attracted my attention was that they were commentsto the photos of you that were blasted on the screen during your speech.”

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