Page 5 of Heartbreak Kings
“Oh, today was my short day, so I went out to the apple festival.” He produced an overfilled bag of apples and a jar of apple butter. “I love fall.”
“I’m going to get so fat if you keep doing this,” I mock-wailed as I gratefully stuck the apple butter in my little fridge.
He just laughed. “You’re fine, sweetie, you’re fine. How are things going since you talked to the assistant dean?”
I noticed him eyeing my screen, and my smile went rueful. “They’re more interested in preserving the school’s reputation than anything else. I told them I would stop reporting on their students being shitty to me when there was nothing to report.” I quirked up one corner of my mouth. “It’s put a dent in their bullshit already.”
“Good! I’m sick of them getting away with this crap. What about Panty Raid?” Billy was one of only two people I had told about the creepy blond in the laundry room.
“He seems to have vanished off the face of the planet. Maybe he dropped out. Good thing if he did.” I shuddered as I remembered his skinny fingers plucking greedily at the lace edge of my favorite boy shorts.
“Yeah, well, I see a guy who looks like that in this building, I’ll follow him to his room and let you know.” He shook his head in disgust. “You should blackmail him or something.”
I scoffed in agreement, but inside, I felt sad and worried. I always did these days. Even if only a small chunk of the student body hated me and wanted me gone, I didn’t always know which of these guys would pop up and turn out to be one of them.
I had gotten every kind of guy pissed at me for being here and female—older students, guys a few months younger than me, rich, here on scholarship, conservative, nominally liberal, arts students, business students, journalism students. And the animosity toward me was going to make it tough to date. So much so, in fact, that my original hopes of finding an on-campus boyfriend were down the toilet.
“Their straightness isn’t the problem. Their dedication to hating the same people they want to fuck is.” And that was the thing. These guys, like the creep with the panties, the assholes who had pounded on my door, or the furious ball of body hair and stink that I had met down in the lobby, had no problem sexualizing me. But they didn’t seem able to view me as human.
“And that’s how you get bullies.” Billy chuckled and fished out an apple for himself from the bag.
“Yep.” I sighed. “It’s also how you get me wary of dating while I’m here. At least dating a fellow student.”
“Oh, you don’t want to date a Markinswell guy anyway. They’re all trash. Trust me, I’ve tried it.” He waved a hand dismissively before sitting down in my spare chair and taking a huge bite of his apple. “Spoiled rich boys give shitty dick game.”
I laughed. “Billy.”
“It’s true, though!” He gave me a wide-eyed innocent stare, and I chuckled more. He shook his head. “Seriously. Date off campus. You’ll be a lot happier.”
Well, that would solve my problem.“You may be right.” I walked over to the window and peered at the quad beyond the small parking lot, full of guys hurrying back and forth. “Almost nobody on campus shows much promise anyway.”
Though that wasn’t true. There were those guys, the ones I almost always saw together when I ran across them between classes. I called them the Alpha Omega guys because they wore their fraternity jackets or their pins everywhere they went. They were also noticeable for how the students and faculty treated them.
Respectfully. Almost deferential. Crowds parting for them. Guys hurrying up to them with eager questions. It was clear. If I was a pariah on campus thanks to all the sexism, these guys were the rock stars. And every one of them was hot as the road surface on a July afternoon.
“Do you know anything about Alpha Omega?” I asked quietly as I watched the guys walk back and forth.
I heard some slow, thoughtful munching, then a swallow. “Big men on campus,” Billy sighed. “Hot, high grades, all the connections, and way too straight. Five inner circle members—they call them the Gentlemen’s Club—plus maybe a dozen lower-level members and a bunch of pledges.”
I eyed him, lifting an eyebrow. It would be just my luck to find myself attracted to a bunch of spoiled frat boys. A dark-haired one with gray eyes. A black-haired one with really pale skin and black eyes. Two beefy blonds, one hazel-eyed and towering, the other blue-eyed and more normal-sized. And a lanky one with auburn hair and a serious face. A whole damn box of man candy is what they were, and I was sure they were aware of it. None of them had ever antagonized me or had ever even spoken to me. But every time I was in the same vicinity as them, I caught them watching me, and I didn’t know whether to be flattered or worried.
Maybe both.
Billy’s jaw dropped as he saw my thoughtful expression. “You’re not getting a crush on any of them, right?”
Any? No.
But I’d probably say yes to a date with any of them if they turned out not to be assholes.
“No,” I reassured him firmly. “You’re right. I should find someone off campus to date.”
“Well, good. Because they go through women like razors, and I’m sure you don’t want to be that type of girl.”
What he meant was disposable.
I nodded, hearing him loud and clear. “No,” I insisted firmly. “Definitely not.”
Chapter 3
