All of Me

six • party time

• • •

My nerves are on fire. It really feels like there's a flame under my stomach, boiling up everything I've eaten today. There isn't much. I didn't wake up until Mom came into my room at eight forty, twenty minutes before Gray and I had to leave. I was too stressed about making sure I had everything for work and the party to eat more than a slice of toast.

By lunchtime, hunger and nerves were fighting a fierce battle and my appetite suffered in the end: I managed half of the sandwich Tad made for me, and Gray polished off the rest when I assured him that I couldn't manage it. Now I'm ravenous, but even more terrified.

The party started an hour ago but I'm still working. I'm on the closer tonight with Navya, so we don't finish until ten despite the last customer usually heading off by nine. Gray's due to meet me in fifteen minutes and though I last saw him just a few hours ago, I'm looking forward to the comfort of his company already.

He's been at Starbucks since five. I'm fairly certain he'd happily stay until midnight: he's a night owl, probably thanks to all the coffee he gets through, taking full advantage of the free refills, and the campus franchise is well aware of student needs. They're open eighteen hours a day, and Gray is there every minute that I'm at work.

Navya comes over as I finish counting up the register. We're the only two here since Georgie left at eight, along with a couple other staff I haven't spent much time with, and she didn't go without telling me to keep my wits about me. Those words are all I've been able to think about since she left.

Navya knows the deal. She has nothing to with Greek life and she's majorly critical of it: she rushed Phi Phi Nu a couple years ago, and it turned out they were just trying to fend off allegations of racism in the sorority. When it came out that they were trying to fill quotas, they lost a whole bunch of pledges and almost lost their recognition.

After Navya told me about Phi Phi Nu, I checked out their pictures on my break. There was one of the entire house, and it looked like someone found a conventionally pretty white girl and cloned her: there are twenty-six sisters in the house, each a slightly different shade of blonde, and I imagine they have no problem sharing clothes. The biggest girl is no more than a size six.

"So," Navya says. She hops onto the counter. "Theta Chi Theta, huh?"

"Mmm."

The door's locked. The place is tidy. All that's left now is for us to wait until ten fifteen, the earliest we can punch out even when every job is done. Rich doesn't do much, but he keeps a beady eye on the exact time we sign out.

I look up at Navya when I feel her eyes on me, like she's waiting for more details. She raises her eyebrows at me, her hands tucked under her thighs and her heels thumping against the counter.

"Do you know anything about them?" I ask as I shut the register and lean against the shelf behind me.

"Only that they're the most elite frat here," she says. "They're the oldest, and the biggest. Just ... be careful, Storie." She twists round on the counter, pulling her feet up. If Rich watches the CCTV footage, he'll give her an earful on Monday.

"They have a reputation," she continues, hunching over with her elbows on her knees. "I guess they all do. That's part and parcel of Greek life."

South Lakes University may be a pretty tiny college but we somehow have fifteen fraternities and thirteen sororities. According to Gray, who is a fountain of statistics and fun facts that he comes across in Starbucks, nearly thirty percent of the students here are involved in Greek life somehow.