Page 102 of Under the Lights

After practice, I caught up with Jax.

“Hey, Jax, you still seeing that girl we talked about earlier?”

Jax grinned, raising a questioning eyebrow. “Kind of. Why?”

“Just curious. I know Sierra got kicked out, but I don’t know the details. Figured maybe your girl would know what really went down.” I shrugged, trying to keep my voice as casual as possible. “You know how those places work … ashit tonof drama. Doesn’t hurt to get the full picture.”

“Yeah, I mean, I’m still talking to her, but not really about the sorority stuff anymore,” he said, scratching behind his ear. “I know Sierra got the boot, though. Some of the girls were acting weird about it, like… I don’t know, it just felt off.”

He let out a short laugh and rubbed the back of his neck. “They’re always doing shit that’s, like, super over-the-top. I went with her to this gala thing once — it was ridiculous. Fancy as hell. Way too fancy for a state school, you know?”

I raised a brow. “Gala?”

“Yeah. Full-on string quartet, ice sculptures, custom cocktails. Felt like I’d walked into a trust fund convention.”

Ding ding ding. We had a winner.

“Yeah, that sounds… kind of sketchy,” I said slowly. “You ever hear anything about where all that money comes from?”

Jax shrugged, clearly not losing sleep over it. “I mean… not really. Could just be how it is, right? But now that you mention it, most of that fancy stuff shows up around their big fundraisers. I guess no one really asks questions.”

He paused, brows pulling together like something was just now clicking. “Could be some admin thing, I don’t know. She’sstill tight with a couple of girls on exec, though. If you want, I could see what she knows.”

I shook my head, playing it off. “Nah, man, that’s alright. Just … forget about it. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong. I was just … curious.”

Jax shrugged. “Alright. I’ll let you know if she brings anything up about Sierra. But don’t get your hopes up, bro. Those girls know how to keep their shit locked down.”

I arched a brow.Clearly. Since she told you, who just told me. Fort Knox, right there.

Jax was a good guy. I’d considered him a friend, maybe even a close one. I was sure he didn’t know the first thing about what was really going on, and that was fine. But the way the sorority was acting made me suspicious.

Sierra was no saint, but she was a good person.

I’d figure it out. No matter what it took.

Later that night, Jax shot me a text as I was lying on Sierra’s bed, waiting for her to come home from practice.

JAX: No chance. As soon as I mentioned Sierra, she got pissed as hell with me. Sorry, man.

DOM: No worries. Appreciate you trying, bro.

Well, that had been a dead end. But I wasn’t someone to give up easily. Now that I was invested, I’d get to the bottom of whatever was going on. No fucking question.

I decided to start my search on social media. These days, people just don’t realize how much they can find out there if they actually go looking.

Finding the members of Sierra’s former sorority was a piece of fucking cake. Most of their profiles were public, which played right into my hands.

Scrolling through their feeds, I started cataloguing everything that caught my eye.

The list went on and on: scholarship students suddenly owning expensive, flashy items; impromptu trips to luxurious resorts for half the girls; and full-package facials for the whole executive squad.

Sure, some of these girls actually came from money. But I highly doubted they funded all of this shit, and the timing was suspicious. Most of this new stuff was shoring up around one of their big events — namely the ones that brought donations with them.

If those were’admin errors’,I’d eat a fucking jockstrap. I wasn’t sure how deep this whole thing went yet, but I was determined to find out. I wanted to know what had happened to my girl and if any of this could be a potential threat to her.

Whether it was petty drama or something bigger didn’t matter to me. If it affected her, it mattered. If it disturbed her peace, it disturbed mine.

On a whim, I stood up, my eyes sweeping across her room like maybe the answers were just sitting there, waiting to be noticed. Maybe she kept old files, messages, notes — anything that might clue me in. She’d been on the exec board. That had to meansomething.

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