Page 3 of The Friend Zone

She has the decency to look away and I continue.

“I’m sorry for leaving so abruptly and I’m sorry for what happened on the night of the Rush Fair. I have no idea who left that iron plugged in, but at this point it doesn’t matter. I know that regardless of what happened, I let you down. If that means that you don’t trust me anymore as your president, I will accept that as a consequence of my actions. But if you can find it in your hearts to give me a second chance, I promise I’ll do whatever it takes to have a great year even if we have no house. I can’t promise you a new house before the end of the year, but I’m going to do everything in my power to have the new house built in time for graduation. Grace and compassion aren’t the only qualities of a Zeta woman. Resilience is one of our core values and if you let me continue to be your president, I promise we’ll show the entire school what the Star Cove Zeta Theta Beta women are made of.”

There’s a beat of silence. A couple of girls have unshed tears in their eyes.

I’m not the only one who’s gone through a breakup and we, as sisters, have always taken care of one another in those circumstances.

“Bianca,” I say, looking at the woman who was in my bed with my ex-boyfriend. “Would you like to address the sisters before they vote? Since I assume you’re going to run for president if I’m voted out?”

Liv intervenes before Bianca can stand up. “This isn’t an election. You don’t have to let her speak. She already saidenough about why she feels you should be voted out. If you ask me, she’s lucky I didn’t call for a vote to expel her from our sorority. Just in case anyone has forgotten who was in Bay’s bed with Topher, I would like to remind every woman at this table, that we don’t sleep with a sister’s boyfriend. No matter what.”

This time Bianca stands up.

She shoots up from her chair so violently that it capsizes. “Hey, wait a second. He said he and Bay were broken up. I didn’t know?—”

I don’t know what to believe. I don’t put it past Topher to lie to get laid.

It doesn’t matter though. It takes two to tango and Bianca should have at least been suspicious when Topher took her to my bed.

There are uncomfortable murmurs around the table and several sisters are looking at Bianca, shaking their heads.

“Bianca?” I ask. “Did you want to say anything?”

The Dean’s daughter doesn’t look at me. “No. The facts speak for themselves. I don’t think Bay is up to the task of being our president. We deserve more. We deserve someone who will make Zetas her priority.”

“Thank you, Bianca.” It costs me everything to be civil. But I know Bianca thrives on confrontation and all a screaming match between us would do right now is get us kicked out of the library. “Every sister who wants the current Zeta president removed from office, raise her hand.”

I win by two votes. It’s a narrow victory, but I’ll take it.

The seniors among us are loyal to me, despite being the ones who are losing out by not being able to live in the Zeta house.

Bianca has obviously been campaigning against me and had some success with the sophomores and a few of the juniors.

I thank everyone for the vote. “I’m going to speak to the Greek Council to see if we can get a better space for our meetingsfrom now on. I’ll let everyone know if our next meeting in two weeks is going to be here or elsewhere. I have this room booked for the entire year just as a precaution. By our next meeting, I should have some news about the planning for the rebuild. If in the meantime anyone needs anything from me, you have my contact information. Don’t hesitate to reach out at any time. Meeting adjourned.”

Usually I would stay and hang out with everyone. But usually we’d be in our house and Tami would have a pitcher of margaritas waiting for us in the kitchen.

Right now I just need to be out of here. I might have won today, but this was a close call and I’m sure that Bianca won’t take the loss lying down.

JAGGER

“No, sir.” I sigh, glad that the Hartford Heroes scout on the other end of the line can’t see my clenched fists. “Yeah, I’m sure. Thank you for thinking about me, sir.”

The man ends the call asking me to get in touch if I change my mind at any time between now and graduation.

“Fuck.” I close my eyes, leaning forward and banging my head against the kitchen table.

“Hey,” Cole’s voice makes me jump. “You alright?”

I shake my head, looking at my best friend. “No, I’m as far from alright as humanly possible.”

Cole pulls two beers out of the fridge, offering one to me. “I need a shower, but it can wait a few minutes. Lay it on me, what’s up?”

“Nothing,” I snort. “I thought not entering the draft would make it clear that I’m not interested in going pro. But it looks like it didn’t.”

He tilts his head to the side. “Huh? Who was on the phone?”

“A scout from the Hartford Heroes. Apparently they want to sign me.”

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