The Hazards of a One Night Stand (Hazards #2)(8)
Author: Alyssa Rose Ivy

“You have a truck?”

“Yeah… it was my stepdad’s.”

“Oh. Cool. I’m sure Reed will appreciate that I don’t bug him to borrow his every time we need to move something.”

“Because we move things all the time?”

She shrugged as she waited for me to open the tail gate. “Sometimes.”

“You brought your car, right?”

“Yeah. It’s my Nissan from high school.” She pointed to a light green Sentra parked in front of the house. At least her car wasn’t new either. But Juliet never pretended to have money. She never pretended about anything. She was so cool and confident about things like that.

We pulled out the last of my bags and dragged them toward the house. “I wish I’d gotten your message. We should be making Reed do this.”

“I’ll make sure to call his phone next time.”

She opened the front door. “Do that.”

We lugged my bags upstairs. I hadn’t realized how heavy they were before. Probably because Rob had been the one doing all the lifting.

“You’ve got missed messages.” Juliet picked up my phone from where I left it on the dresser. She let out a surprised noise and read from the phone.

Ignoring me? Are you really going to be like this? Just call me.

“Are you sure Colt knows it was a one night thing?”

“Colton knows.” I didn’t like her calling him Colt. It was like she knew him, and I didn’t like thinking about my two lives colliding like that.

“You sure?” She looked at me skeptically.

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“Need some help unpacking?”

“No. Go see your man.” I could tell Juliet wanted to see Reed, and at least there wouldn’t be any more questions about Colt.

“My man?”

“Yeah. That’s how we talk in Gasden.”

“All right then. Are you going to text back your man, then?”

“Colt’s not my man. He’s just a boy I used to know.”

“Cold… even for you. Come by the Kappa house when you’re done.”

“I’ll call first to make sure you’ve left Reed’s room.” I nudged her shoulder. I refused to dwell on what she meant by “even for you.” Did she secretly think I was a bitch? It wasn’t worth reading into. Juliet wasn’t passive aggressive like that.

“Do you really think I’m going over there to have sex with him?”

“Yes.” I unzipped the first bag.

“I’m not. I actually have my period.”

“However are you guys going to survive the week?” I asked with exaggerated drama.

“Cuddling. Lots of cuddling.”

“You make me sick.”

“Glad to hear that.” She stopped in the doorway. “You’ll come by later, right?”

“Yeah. I’ll come by.”

“Good.”

I unpacked slowly. I wasn’t in a huge rush to get to the Kappa house. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against frat guys, but talking to Juliet about Colt kind of put me off. Thankfully, he hadn’t texted again. I had no idea what to do. I had no desire to talk to him, but maybe I owed it to him. Maybe Juliet was right, and I was being an ice queen. I was only trying to make things easier for both of us.

After a lot of deliberating I picked up the phone and called. It went to his voicemail. I let out a sigh of relief and pocketed my phone.

I finished hanging up my dresses, feeling grateful we each had a separate closet. Three girls sharing one closet would have been pushing it.

Twenty minutes later, I had my bags all stowed, my bed made, and my determination to have fun back.

I texted Juliet to make sure she was still at the Kappa house before heading over.

I walked to the Kappa house in a good mood. I was back at Harrison, where I belonged. How I managed to live in Gasden for eighteen years was beyond me. I missed my family, but that was the only thing to miss from my small town.

I reached the large brick house in minutes. Although not quite as well up kept as the Delta Mu house, it had a similar look, complete with a front porch. I pushed open the partially ajar door. I took in the spacious open room that looked a lot like every other frat house I’d been in. Littered with a few beer bottles and furnished with an assortment of couches, a beer pong table (I’d never seen anyone use it for anything but that), and a pool table, it looked exactly like it had the year before.

“Took you long enough,” Juliet teased when she saw me. She was sitting right next to Reed on a black leather couch. His hand rested on her leg.

“Hey, Mallory!” Reed got up and came right over to hug me. It says a lot about a guy when he cares about his girlfriend’s friends.

I returned the hug. “Hey. How was your summer?”

“You know. Lonely.”

“She’s back now.”

“Oh, I know. Sorry to say your roommate won’t be around too many nights.”

I patted his arm before stepping away. “You’re not sorry about that.”

He grinned. “No, I’m not.”

I spotted Cara’s boyfriend, Aaron. “I’m guessing Cara won’t be around much either?”

Aaron smiled an almost lopsided grin. “Not if I can help it, but you know she freezes me out sometimes.”

“Only when you deserve it.”

“I’ll tell her you said that.”

“Good. Get me points.” I sat down next to Juliet. “So what have I missed?”

“Absolutely nothing. We’re trying to figure out what to do tonight.”

“Oh yeah? You mean the guys aren’t planning to sit around drinking and playing cards?”

“Hey, I take that personally. We do other things.” Reed sat down on the other side of Juliet.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I guess you could play beer pong.”

Reed smiled. “We only have a few days of quiet before the rush parties start.”

“I’m looking forward to them. We were so busy with sorority rush last year that we didn’t get to come.”

“It’s a fun time.”

“Hey, no one told me we had company.” A male voice came from the other side of the room.

“Tanner, this is Mallory. Mallory, this is Tanner.” Reed gestured to a tall, athletic looking guy I hadn’t met before. He had dark brown hair that he wore short.

“Hey.” He strode over confidently. When he reached me, he leaned over and took my hand. “Nice to meet you.”