Chapter 5

"What's going on with you and 'the princess'?" Wes asked, falling in step on my route back to the house.

My fraternity brothers from the chemistry class had been openly teasing me about Kendall, congratulating me on being the first guy to thaw the ice princess. I'd pointed out that unlike them, she would actually pass the class, and befriending her would help me do the same.

"If you were pre-med you'd already know," I retorted dryly in an intentionally passive / aggressive response. Wes was on track to graduate in the fall with a degree in Arts and Sciences, which meant he'd never decided on a specific degree to pursue.

"She's pre-med too," I continued. "We've been in some of the same classes and study groups."

He didn't seem mollified. "Yeah, but aren't you still with that Chi O freshman?"

No one at the frat had taken the step of accusing me of cheating on Gerri, but Wes must have heard the talk. I didn't dignify his question with a response.

"What're you doing here, Wes?"

"Why'd she bug out when you were calling her?" he persisted, pointing down the path Kendall had taken.

I managed to stay outwardly calm. I knew telling him she was confused after we kissed wouldn't go over very well. I improvised.

"She's having some problems keeping her grades up. She's under a lot of pressure from her folks to be a doctor, so when she got a B-plus on a quiz it freaked her out. I was trying to calm her down, but she was pretty upset."

I doubted he bought it — he continued to look at me skeptically.

"I don't really care, Randy. But..." he paused to look around. "I was asked to remind you that if a guy in the house gets caught cheating on a sorority sister, it could mean that everybody in the frat gets a cold shoulder." He paused for emphasis. "You sure as shit better not let that happen."

"Who told you that could happen?" I asked. Hurt feelings between Greek guys and girls were to be avoided, but ... this was college. Stuff happens. As far as I knew, a members' break-up with a sorority sister had never led to a sexual ban of an entire fraternity.

He shrugged. "You ought to be able to figure it out." When I continued to look clueless, he looked exasperated.

"Who introduced you to Gerri in the first place?" he asked slowly, as if I were a dimwitted child.

I shook my head. "Hayley told you to come here and do this? Really?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "She introduced you two, and for whatever reason she's still looking out for Gerri." His expression softened. "Doing it here was my idea — I didn't want to make a big deal out of it at the house."

I felt my forehead wrinkle as I digested that. I was grateful for his uncharacteristic discretion. But Hayley's interest was unsettling. Hayley was usually all about ... Hayley. Protecting the love lives of her sorority's freshmen sisters didn't compute with my image of her ... at all.

It was ironic to be getting this lecture from Wes. He went through sorority girls like pages in a comic book. But he was never in an exclusive relationship with any of them. So he could cat around to his heart's content and still be a brother in good standing.

"I mean, I can understand the interest — she is totally hot," Wes said. "I mean, oh baby oh baby!" he said, using one of his pet phrases for girls he'd had, or would like to have, in his bed. That meant he said it ... a lot. "But you're not going to be in any more classes with the princess after this, are you?"