Charming by Haig Moses (1st Draft)

Chapter Three

"Are you sure he meant—"

"I'm sure."

"But maybe his accent made it sound like—"

I shook my head having just gotten through recounting the Prince of England coming onto me for the third time (Once to Tatiana and twice to Beau Allard—another fellow pre-law student and Maroon survivor). "He said it Beau. Plain as day. Would you like to have sex with me? I mean it when I say all civility died."

The snowless sidewalk was paved with ice that tested the potency of my shoe's grip. Clutching my coat closer to body, had it not been for Beau knocking on my bedroom door thirty minutes prior with a crossiant in hand, I would've still been in the warm comfort of my bed. "Coffee cart isn't open yet," he had quipped as I got dressed and braided my hair in one. I had been one of the students Beau toured around campus prior to my transfer. He ended up being in a speech and debate course of mine the following semester and (as I would soon figure out) was a worthy appointent when it came to politics. Ever since we had stuck together. We started a little ritual that included short walks right before anything major happened in school: The first day, a major exam, a stressful presentation. It didn't matter the weather, or the time and me rushing the Kappa Kappa Theta sorority was, in his books at least, a major milestone.

"You'd think being a prince and all he'd have more game," Beau laughed and I pinched him for mocking my misery. "Ouch! Harrie, it's the twenty-first century, nobody cares about formalities anymore. I mean why small talk when you can get straight to the point."

"I do," I protested as he sent me a look of feigned sadness. "I care about the formalities and actually knowing the person I'm sleeping with. I mean, I know I'm no Kerry Washington and I'm not exactly looking to be courted, but to just outright ask me to have sex with you after I told you about my dead mother. That's disgusting."

"And why you're terminally single."

I rolled my eyes, I wasn't terminal, I decided as I mumbled a whatever under my breath and adjusted my backpack on my shoulder. I just had standards which wouldn't allow me to sleep with anyone that I've known for less than three seconds. "May I ask why you weren't there? You could've very well spared me my dignity and my now deformed ribcage." I said filling him in on everything from the corset created by Lucifer himself and Ana's haunting speech about Alice. "Maybe she just wanted to qualm suspicion," he interjected nonchalantly, "chase away the potentials joining for the wrong reasons."

Beau's eyes glanced down at my torso and he seemed to want to pursue that, but decided not to. "If you must know, I was babysitting."

My eyebrows furrowed as I tried and failed to conjure up the image of Beau taking care of a child. "Given up on becoming President of the United States have we?

"Never," he snarked. "I was babysitting some of the Alpha Phi brothers who are on probation. Elliot's making them do grunt work until they've learn their lesson."

"What did they do?"

Beau watched me closely, then bringing his mouth to my ear, he whispered. "They fraternized with enemy number one."

When he pulled away, I waited for him to burst out into laughter. "Who's enemy number—"

"Look who I find wandering the streets like two sappy poets," Elliot's voice cut me off and Beau and I watched behind as he caught up to us, a large grin on his face and two cups of coffee in hand. "What are you guys gossiping about?"

I opened my mouth to finish asking my question, but Beau spoke first. "Just how crazy it is that Harriet is trying to join a sorority," he said pointing to the two coffees in Elliot's hand. "Where'd you get those from?"