Rush (23 page)

It was Dead Week, the week before
finals, and everyone would be living with their noses in their books. “Me too.”

“I guess we won’t be seeing that much of
each other for a while.”

I glanced down at her. After the
conversation we’d just had, I didn’t think she was trying to get rid of me, but
I might be wrong. “Are you saying we should avoid each other?” I tried to put a
teasing note into my voice, but the thought made me nervous. I didn’t want to
lose her.

“No, of course not. It’s just that I’ll
miss you.”

I tightened my hold on her waist. “Why
don’t we study together?”

“Okay. Yeah, that sounds good.”

***

Chapter 17

Caroline

“I have a sorority dinner tonight,” I
said regretfully as Max closed his apartment door. We’d just returned from the
coffee house.

He glanced at me. “Oh? Can you get out
of it?”

“Not really. I hardly do anything with
them anymore as it is.”

“Okay. I’ll see you afterward?”

“Yes. Absolutely.” I looked around his
living room. “Um...I need to get my study materials from my room. You want to
come with me?”

He broke into a big smile. “Sure.”

We locked up again and started walking
toward campus, hands entwined. I liked that he wanted to touch me. Trent didn’t
like public affection, and we’d never really held hands much even when we were
alone. It felt good to walk that way with Max, like he was proud to be with me.

My dorm was still quiet when we got
there. A few people were up, yawning on their way to the dining hall. The rest
were still in bed, probably sleeping off hangovers.

“We should have brought your kit,” I
said as I unlocked my door. “Then maybe we could have talked to Retro-girl
while we were here.”

“It completely slipped my mind,” Max
said.

“Mine too.” I’d been too busy thinking
about him to remember the details of my ghost problem. Okay, the truth was I’d
been too busy wrapping his naked body with mine to think about anything but how
good he felt.

“Let’s get some studying in and then we’ll
come back with my stuff,” he said.

“Okay. Sounds good.” I went to my desk
to get my books and notebooks and stuff them in my backpack.

There was a knock at the door. I set
down the book I’d been holding and went to answer it.

Trent stood in the hallway, looking as
if he hadn’t gotten much sleep. He frowned at me. “Where were you last night?”

“Out,” I said, hoping I didn’t look as
nervous as I felt.

“Out where?” He peered around my
shoulders, trying to get a view into my room.

“Just out. Where were you?”

“With the guys. I already told you that.”

“So, you were out and I was out. What’s
the big deal?” I said.

I was going to have to break up with him
and I knew it, but now that an opportunity presented itself I wanted to put it
off. Not because I wanted to stay with him, but because I hated conflict. I
didn’t want to stand here and tell him, face to face, that I didn’t want to see
him anymore.

“I came by here and you didn’t answer
your door,” he said with a belligerent note in his voice.

“Like I said, I was out.”

Trent shoved the door open. His gaze
penetrated all the way into the room and settled on Max. Fury descended on his
features. “What the fuck is he doing here?”

I glanced over my shoulder at Max. He
was leaning against my windowsill, his arms crossed casually and a look of
detached amusement on his face.

“He’s visiting. We’re going to study
together.”

“No, you’re not,” Trent growled.

“Yeah, we are.”

“You’re
my
girlfriend.”

“I called you last night with a problem
and you refused to help me.”

He scowled at me, his mouth hanging open
in apparent outrage. “So you invited him over? To what, spend the night?”

I took a breath. “No. I spent the night
at his place.”

Trent blinked, looking as stunned as if
I’d shot him. “Caroline?”

“I was afraid to sleep here with a ghost
hanging around, so I spend the night at Max’s place.”

“I can’t believe this shit.” He raked
his fingers through his hair. “After everything I’ve told you, I can’t believe
you’d go to him.”

“Would you like to finish this inside?”
I gestured toward the interior of my room. “More privacy.”

“No. I—what are you doing, babe? Why?”

“I’m not your babe, Trent, and I think
it’s time for us to—to see other people.”

“See other people,” he repeated slowly. “You
mean break up.”

“Yeah,” I said with a sigh. “We should
break up.”

“You’re leaving me for him.” He glared
at Max.

“I’m leaving you, period.”

“What does he have that I don’t?”

Did he really want to have this
conversation in the hallway? “He’s been there for me twice now. Three times if
you count the ankle separately from the guys in the car. Times you couldn’t be
bothered with me.”

“Look, I’m sorry, babe. Don’t give up on
us just because of that.”

“Oh, I’m not. I’m also thinking of you
kissing Tiffani.”

He scowled. “That’s over. I told you.”

“I don’t care. It happened.”

“But my stepbrother. Why him?”

“Because you were right. I like him. A
lot.”

He almost looked sick. His head dropped.
“This is wrong. There’s something wrong here.”

“Everything’s fine.”

Trent lifted his head. “He’s put a spell
on you. Hasn’t he? Haven’t you, Max?”

“Trent, I think you should leave now,” I
said evenly.

“Why? So he can have you all to himself?
Don’t you care that he’s used his magic bullshit against you?”

I couldn’t help sighing. “He hasn’t used
magic on me. And I asked you to leave.”

“No! You belong to me.” He tried to push
his way past me.

I shoved him. “Get out.”

He took a step back, into the center of
the hallway. His jaw stuck out belligerently as he glared at me. “You know, it’s
fine. You’re frigid anyway. I can get someone hotter than you in five minutes
flat.”

If I hadn’t just spent the night and
part of the morning in nonstop ecstatic sex with Max, I might have been hurt by
Trent’s accusation. As it was, I sort of wanted to laugh.

“I’m sure you can. Good-bye, Trent.”

His shoulders slumped. He turned away
and I shut the door and leaned against it, blowing out all my breath. That had
been fucking awful. I was trembling.

Max came over. He palmed the side of my
face. “You all right?”

“Yeah. That just felt really bad. I feel
like a bitch for breaking up with him like that.”

“You know he’s full of shit, right? You’re
not frigid.”

I gave him a wobbly smile. “I know.”

“He just said that to hurt you. Bastard.”

“I was frigid with him.”

“Did you fake orgasm?” Max said,
frowning a little.

“No, I never pretended to come, but I
did fake enthusiasm.”

“And he never asked you about it?”

“He didn’t seem to notice.”

His frown deepened. “He never noticed
you weren’t having orgasms?”

I shrugged. “It didn’t seem like a big
deal. I knew sex was important to him and even though I could take it or leave
it, I did it because he liked it so much. I faked because I didn’t want to hurt
his feelings.”

Max leaned in and kissed me softly. “Never
pretend with me. I need to know how you’re feeling.”

“With you, I don’t have to pretend.”

He slid an arm around my back and
brought me up against him, capturing my mouth as he held my head in place with
his other hand.

***

It was our annual Christmas dinner, and
the outside of the sorority house was covered in strings of blue and green
twinkle lights. Personally, I hated blue and green twinkle lights, but that was
what they’d voted on a few years back so that was what we had. An enormous
fresh Noble fir covered in shiny blue and green Christmas balls and more blue
and green twinkle lights had eaten our living room. A somewhat skinnier tree
stood in the corner of the dining room, just barely leaving enough space for
the table and chairs.

I didn’t want to be here in my little
black dress and heels. I wanted to be with Max, but I had obligations to my
house, so here I was.

Tiffani had her dark hair up in some
kind of strange bouffant do that looked like she’d dipped it in shellac.
Gigantic, sparkly chandelier earrings dangled from her ears. She had on a
bright red sheath dress with a neckline so low I was pretty sure she wasn’t
wearing a bra. I wasn’t sure what the point of the outfit was since we didn’t
have any guys here tonight.

Tiffani gave me one of her super-sweet
fake smiles. “Caroline, could you please get the salt and pepper from the
kitchen and put it on the table?”

“Sure, Tiff.” I turned to leave the
room.

A slim blonde walked past the
dining-room archway. Retro-girl. She wore an a-line miniskirt with knee-high
fringed boots and green and red paisley tunic so psychedelic it almost hurt my
eyes. I bolted from the dining room into the hall, but when I got there she was
gone.

“Caroline?” Tiffani called. “What are
you doing?”

I poked my head back into the dining
room. “Did you see that girl?”

Her forehead puckered. “What girl?”

“The blonde. She walked right past the
doorway. She was wearing a miniskirt and fringed boots. Weird paisley top.”

Tiffani’s brows rose. “Um, I didn’t see
anyone.”

“She was right here. Long, straight hair
down to her butt.”

Tiffani shook her head, staring at me
with wide eyes. “There’s no-one like that in the house. Unless someone bought
herself a wig. Nobody here has hair that long.”

So now Retro-girl was following me off
campus. I closed my eyes for a frustrated instant. “I know I saw her.”

“Are you okay, Caroline?”

“Max thinks she’s a ghost.”

Tiffani took a hesitant step toward me. “A
ghost? And who’s Max?”

“He’s a—a friend of mine.”

“How does he know about this girl?”

“Because I’ve seen her before. In my
dorm room and once at the student union.”

Tiffani rolled her eyes. “You and that
dorm. I don’t know why you can’t live here like all the other girls.”

Because I wanted privacy. I wanted to
control my own personal space and not have all these other girls all over me
all the time. Telling me my clothes weren’t right and I couldn’t possibly drive
that car or take that derpy folk dance class.

“She disappeared in front of my eyes,” I
said.

Tiffani’s manicured hand flew to her
throat as she took a step backward. “Oh, my God. You really saw a ghost?”

Wasn’t that what I’d just said?

“I think so.”

She backed another step away from me. “Ew.
That’s so...creepy. Yuck.”

“Why would she come here? Could she have
been a member?”

The brunette gave a theatrical shudder. “God,
I hope not.”

“Can I look through our old photo
albums?”

“They’re in the library.” She took
another step back. “Just don’t involve me. I don’t want to have anything to do
with it.”

“It’s not my fault.”

“You probably brought her here. Either
that or you’re high.” Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Are you on drugs?”

“No! Jeez, Tiffani, you know me better
than that.”

“Well, whatever you’re doing, it’s
giving me a serious case of the creeps. And don’t talk about it in front of the
pledges. They’ll think they’ve joined a house full of weirdos.”

Great. So now I was the house weirdo.
Maybe I really had inherited the same freak genes as Aunt Jo. Except Max seemed
to think it was all right, and he knew more about this stuff than anyone else
in my life.

“Anyway,” Tiffani said, “we still have
to get ready for dinner, so go get those salt and pepper shakers.”

When I got back from the kitchen, the
dining room had already filled up with girls. Everyone seemed to be in a good
mood. They were all chattering at once, laughing about finals and the upcoming
winter break. Paige sat down next to me with a wink. She, too, had on a red dress
in honor of the holiday. I seemed to be the only one in black.

“Where have you been all weekend?” she
whispered.

“I’ll tell you later.”

“You haven’t been around much, Caroline,”
Tiffani said as she took her seat.

“I’ve been busy.”

“Too busy for your sisters?” she
chirped. A snotty tone underlay her surface perkiness. Guess she didn’t
appreciate my fetching the salt and pepper for her.

“Yeah, Tiffani. I’ve had a lot of
studying to do.”

“I guess that’s why you haven’t been
paying much attention to your boyfriend either.”

My eyes narrowed and my lips flattened. “That’s
none of your business.”

She gave a little shrug. “Trent’s my
friend. He’s been complaining to me.”