Chapter 8

SAE, or Sigma Alpha Epsilon, was a jock house on the LSU campus. I don't know if that was so elsewhere. Some really fine people have come out of SAE, and some who weren't, but that's the way it is with any Greek House. You get some people who are the exemplars, and others who don't achieve such high results.

This particular chapter had some graduates that had gone on to great things, and quite a few were your solid citizens who were an asset to any community, both as a whole and in particular. The story, as I pried it from Krys and Robbyn, involved a few people that were not the image any Greek house wanted to project. There'd been a party at the house and it had gotten out of hand. A few guys, fueled by lust and drink, had gotten too forward with some girls, and things had escalated from there. Nobody knew if there was more to it than that.

SAE would handle matters internally. We needed to rescue the girls before anything more happened to them. And given this day and age, it was possible the police might get involved. But first and foremost, we needed to rescue the girls.

We weren't going to be going in alone. The Deltas were going to meet us just outside the SAE house, as were some girls from Gamma Phi. Other girls were recruiting their boyfriends; By the time we were ready to go we numbered about 30. Robbyn, meanwhile, had called the SAE Chapter President, and told him what was going on. He promised to have a few guys there, too.

The SAE Chapter House was a big three-story building, and set back a little from the street. The facade was brick with a neo-Georgian architecture that was common in the early part of the 20^th Century. One of the SAE brothers let us in—we were prepared to force our way if necessary—and we set off for the second floor.

We could hear the music—I swear the walls were shaking—and smell the beer. And to my experienced nose, the sex, female juices as well as spilled come. We were a mass of grim determination, the girls in the center, the boys as flankers, as we forced our way down the hall. We found them in a large room in the back.

The girls were all naked and very drunk. I recognized Jessica, one of our sophomores, a girl with winsome eyes, short dark hair, and a cute body. She was half-passed-out on one of the couches, a spilled drink next to her. Her hair was a mess, she had a couple of bruises in some tender spots and more marks where she'd been grabbed here and there. She was also covered in come. Guys had come on her face, her boobs, her tummy, and judging by the evidence, inside her.

I was one of the three seniors, and I took charge of getting her out of there while Robbyn and the others faced down a bunch of drunk boys who were making lewd and suggestive comments. I'd brought a robe and some warm-ups, and we got Jesse into them. The Deltas were doing the same with their girl, but one of the Gamma Phi girls was missing. Mary Alice found her behind the couch with some guy fallen asleep still on top of her.

We closed ranks around the girls and got out of there. I understand there were a few scuffles but nothing more than guys flexing their muscles and pumping testosterone just like they do. It's a good thing they didn't try anything, the girls I was with were in no mood to be lady-like, and at least two of us were carrying pepper spray.

When we got back to the house Mary Alice took Jesse off to the shower. Mary Alice was majoring in physical therapy, so somehow that was all right if she took charge of a sorority sister who was naked. There was no lust or sex involved, it was assessing the damage and determining if Jesse should go to the hospital or something. I was proud of her. This was leadership when it counted, and I think she went a long way toward cementing her future.

After Jesse was cleaned up, and partially sobered up, I sat down with her. I wasn't interested in what had happened, that would come later. Instead I had one burning question. "Do you use protection?"

"Protection?" Her voice sounded kind of fuzzy.

"What time of the month is it for you? What I want to know is if you made a baby tonight."

That got through to her. She paled and began trembling. Then she started crying. I knew I wasn't going to get any more out of her. Instead I went to see Robbyn.

"I don't think she was using birth control, and I don't know where in her cycle she is."

Robbyn nodded. "Okay, it's time to call a few people. Get her dressed. The doctors need to see her anyway."

We took Jesse to the hospital. She was still incoherent, but when pressed about if this was rape—I thought it was—she shook her head. The evidence was conclusive, but nobody knew what had gone on before things got out of hand. That would be a matter for the police, or not. We'd handle some of the fall-out in conjunction with SAE, the Deltas, and Gamma Phi.

Robbyn took care of that. It turned out only one member of SAE was involved, and he was expelled. The rest of the Greek Houses were told who the non-members were, and we all agreed to not let them into anything we did. All three faced criminal charges about drinking and minors, and one of the Gamma Phis was possibly pregnant. All of the girls got the "morning after" pill anyway, so we didn't have any bouncing bundles of joy nine months later. Jesse and the Gamma Phi girls were not allowed to go out on solo dates for a while, partly for their safety, and partly to help their self-confidence. The Deltas did something similar, but I didn't hear what it was.

All of this got worked out in a series of very tense meetings between representatives of the various houses. I hate to say these things happen, but they do, and not just on Greek Row. A few weeks earlier a girl in the dorms went through a similar experience, but she didn't have the support network a sorority gives a girl to help her get things back together. The girl from the dorms ended up dropping out of college, while the boys involved, only two were identified, got jail time.