Free Reborn by S. L. Stacy Page B

must
have gone to bed.
    “Nope.”
    “I
wonder where she’s from,” I muse. “She’s kind of exotic. You don’t think she’s
hot?” I exclaim when my big sister scowls.
    Victoria
looks a little green. She shakes her head. “She’s just not my type.”
    “Are
you kidding me? She’s everybody’s type. She might even be my type.” I
widen my eyes in mock horror. “Maybe I’m gay, too.”
    “Didn’t
anyone ever tell you? It’s contagious,” she hisses, wriggling her fingers at
me. I give an unladylike snort of laughter, which makes us both laugh even
harder.
    “Look,
I’m sorry I didn’t come back earlier,” I say, my giggles subsiding. I’m not
sure I really have anything to apologize for, but still, I don’t want to let
her down. I’m an only child, but Victoria’s like a real older sister to me, not
just a sorority one. She was the first sister I met at the Gamma Lambda Phi
house.
    Recruitment
is a marathon weekend: Four days of tripping around the Greek Quad in high
heels as you visit all of the sorority houses, networking with the sisters and
resisting the urge to take two of all of the pastel colored desserts offered to
you. On the last day I was still undecided, flip-flopping between Gamma Lambda Phi
and Alpha Rho, but then Victoria, her face lit up with the first earnest smile
I had seen the entire weekend, handed me a red velvet cupcake with pink cream
cheese frosting. Despite her striking auburn hair, which she wore in a shiny
bob that evening, Victoria didn’t fit the image of the typical sorority girl
seared in my brain. Her form-fitting black dress and pumps only accentuated her
gangly frame, and her angular face was pleasant but not pretty.
    “I’m
so glad we got to know each other this weekend.” Just like her smile, her words
rang with sincerity. “I would love it if you joined our sisterhood, but I hope
we can stay friends either way.” It wasn’t just the cupcake and her frankness
that convinced me to join. Victoria was just one of those people I felt
instantly at ease with, like I used to with Anna—like I had known her forever
even though we had only just met.
    “It’s
fine,” she says now through a yawn. “I was just stressed out.” She walks across
the hall to go into her own room.
    “Oh,
and by the way, Max was here earlier looking for you. I told him you’d call him
as soon as you got home.”
    “Gee,
thanks!” I shout after her as she slips into her room. I take out my phone, my
fingers hovering over the touchscreen keyboard. I should at least text him or
something, ask him to meet me tomorrow so that I can break things off with him
in person. He might be clingy, but he’s the only person who knows my secret,
the only guy who’s made me feel sexy just as I am.
    I
let the screen dim and tiptoe into our bedroom, clicking on my desk lamp and
guiding the door shut behind me. I change into pajamas and turn the sound off
on my phone before climbing into bed. I know I can’t ignore Max forever, but I
just need some more time to figure out what the heck I’m going to say.
    ***
    “Carly
Dragonjac!” Victoria shouts over the buzz of voices swelling in the living
room. She’s sitting on the floor with her back resting against the couch. Her
laptop is propped on her knees as she marks attendance in a spreadsheet.
    “I’m
right here!”
    Victoria
gives a start at the sound of Carly’s voice behind her. “Didn’t see you back
there.” Her eyes flicker to where I’m sitting beside Carly on the couch.
“Siobhan’s here,” she mutters to herself, blinking against the brightness of
the computer screen as she marks an “x” next to my name. “Tanya Giuseppi!”
    “Hewe!”
Tanya calls out around a mouthful of brownie. She comes out of the kitchen
balancing a silver tray in one hand and starts passing out brownies to the
clump of sisters congregated on the living room floor.
    “Elizabeth
Grant! Liz!” Victoria repeats after a beat. There’s still no answer.