Page 159 of Burn Bright
As napkins are folded and Jane hoists her baby out of the highchair, I let the bomb drop. “I’m planning to join a frat.”
Chairs scrap back into the table. Even Jane sinks into her seat and passes Maeve to Thatcher.
“Well, I’m thinking about it,” I continue. “I just wanted everyone to know while we’re together that it’s looking like I might be living with the frat soon, so I’ll be out of your hair.” I glance around at my four brothers.
“You were never bothering us,” Beckett says deeply. “You don’t have to move out. We’ve never wanted you to.”
“Yeah,” Tom pipes in. “We’ve enjoyed the company, Ben Pirrip.”
“Makes our lives far more interesting,” Eliot grins, which floods my lungs. I feel good knowing I haven’t been the worst roommate alive, even if I have been a pretty awful brother.
I crumple my cloth napkin in my hand. “I was never planning on staying there long. I told you all that.” I shrug stiffly. “The frat thing might be what I need.”
“You’re a sophomore,” Dad says. “Are you sure the fraternities at MVU will let you live in the houses on campus? At some colleges, it’s a privilege for upperclassmen only.”
Yeah,no.I did not consider this major flaw. “I guess I’ll find out soon.”
36
BEN COBALT
“Nah, man, we don’t allow sophomores to live in the house. Juniors and seniors only. It’s part of the chapter rules for Kappi Phi.” Leif Westergaard, the president, delivers news I already expected to hear when I visit the frat on Friday.
After researching all the MVU frats, the housing rules seem to be standard among every single one. I have closest connections to Kappa, so that’s basically the only reason I choose this frat to test the waters.
I’ve been here for a half hour. Chilling with Leif and another senior (Prescott) in their basement, which has a pungent odor of vodka, dirty gym clothes, and tuna. The last being from a litter of stray cats they rescued on their porch steps and now consider Kappa kittens.
Maybe it’ll be a good thing if I live here. I can make sure the cats are cared for. Not that they appear neglected. Water bowls are set out and filled. Two black kittens curl up on mounds of woolen blankets beside a white fridge. Clearly, they’re being fed if I can’t rid the canned tuna sent from my nostrils.
“How firm are these rules?” I ask while we’re comfortable on their plaid sofa, beers loosely in our grips.
“Pretty firm, man,” Leif says in a casual way that makes me feel like the rules are soft tofu. “What’s definitely flexible is rush.” I missed rush week, the period where fraternities evaluate potential new members. “Bid Day has passed, as you know. We already have our new pledges, but we’d love for you to be a Kappa. You want to join the pledge class, the door is wide open.”
The power of being a Cobalt.
Just joining the frat isn’t exactly what I want though. I need the seniority perks, and they just want to say a Cobalt is a Kappa. We’d be using each other.
“You all are my first choice,” I say. “I really want to be a Kappa, but I need housing. And if you can’t guarantee me a room for the rest of the semester, then I’ll have to go to Lambda.”
“Boooo!” about four guys holler from the foosball table. “Lambda fuckinglosers.”
It feels like the whole fraternity is in the basement right now. Half are glued to a television as the Yankees fight to make the playoffs. The other half are playing foosball for cash and crushing Millers.
“You don’t want to be a Lambda, Ben,” Leif cautions. “They can’t even throw parties at their house anymore.”
Do I even want to ask? I lean back into the plaid cushion. “Why?”
“They hazed a pledge so bad, he ended up with a concussion.”
“I heard it was a coma!” a guy shouts.
“You weren’t even here then, Javi,” Leif retorts with a scrunched face. Looking back at me, he says, “Anyway, it got ugly. Lawsuits, threats of shutting down all the chapters, then they decided to just put some restrictions on Lambda Alpha Lambda.”
“I’m not really interested in the parties,” I admit, but now I’m wondering if Lambda will fucking haze me if I become their pledge. Of what I’ve heard, the worst thing Kappa Phi Delta hasdone is make their new members silly string a bronze Thrashers statue in the quad. While only in their underwear.
Tame and relatively harmless.
I’d rather not be waterboarded, pelted with beer cans, or worse, forced to eat meat. Still, I try to show I’mhighlyconsidering their rival frat so they’re more afraid to lose me.
