New Romantics

Chapter 24

There were multiple firepits dotted across the beach. This one was professionally dug, with large sitting logs surrounding the metal plate, and a series of perfectly cut logs stacked in the center in a picture-perfect fire.

"What are you doing?" Leo murmured when I moved to slide onto the log next to him.

"What do you mean?" I asked, just as he gently grabbed my hips and guided me onto his lap. "Oh..." Now I was sure I was scarlet. His arms were strong and warm around me. His breath tickled the side of my face as he pressed a small kiss to my neck, just below my ear in sweet, casual affection, and I leaned into his warmth, savoring every bit of it.

"Much better."

Relaxing in his hold, I nodded. Across the fire, I recognized the group of boys huddled around a single sitting log. They were the same group singing in the cafe the other day. Instead of blazers, they wore matching yellow parkas, a sheen of sweat on each of their brows from the bulkiness of their clothes and the proximity of the heat. It wasn't nearly parka weather yet.

"Are they okay?" I asked Leo, concerned. His brows pinched to match my worry. But before Leo could speak, another voice broke through the evening, and the music abruptly stopped,

"Pledges! Time for the evening entertainment!"

As if in a trance, the DTE pledges snapped to attention and jumped to their feet, some with wobbly knees, two of them swaying in the breeze like bright yellow palm trees. The smallest of the group fished a tiny harmonica out of his pocket and blew a note before the group belted the Oracle University Alma Mater. The party whooped and cheered them on with knee-slap-laughs and hyena cackles, recording the performance with mocking words and jeers. The disgusting feeling returned in the pit of my stomach, my skin prickling beneath my windbreaker, and I twisted to Leo, whose expression turned unreadable as he watched the freshmen students.

"More! More!" one of the brothers demanded when they finished. The young men were wheezing and out of breath.

"You're done when we say you're done!"

Grabbing Leo's hand, I whispered, "They look like they're going to pass out from the heat." As I said this, a pledge's eyes rolled back and they collapsed in the sand.

"Oh my God!" someone screamed. I scrambled to stand up and help, but Leo squeezed my thighs to stop me. "What are you doing? Let me help him!"

The muscles in Leo's jaw feathered again. Shifting me in his lap, Leo gently placed me on the seat beside him and adjusted his jacket, ready to stand just as one of the pledges dropped to his knees and moved to unzip his jacket.

"Jacket on pledge!" someone barked. "And you! Get the fuck back up!"

"He's dehydrated! He might have alcohol poisoning!" I shouted, jumping to my feet. Four pairs of eyes whirled in my direction, including Leo's, and I curled my fingers into fists by my side. "That poor kid needs help! Do you want someone to fall face-first into the fire?"

"And who the fuck are you?" a tall, burly DTE brother asked from the outskirts of the fire. The group parted as he stepped forward.

"Aria. Who the fuck are you?"

"Roland. I'm the Pledge Master." His dark eyes slid menacingly to Leo. "Aldridge. Over here."

Leo's body vibrated with tension. He didn't move. "They sang enough, Roland. Someone is going to get hurt." The way his words trailed off told me there was more. The exhaustion on the boys' faces said they were either sleep-deprived or full of alcohol or both. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I couldn't believe that the fraternity responsible for the death of a student, Roy Teller, would continue to toe the line.