Page 6 of Heartbreak Kings
Blake
“Well,are you going to do something about that bitch or what?” Mikey Carmody shifted from one battered jump boot to the other impatiently, his voice rising to an irritating whine.
I stayed where I was on the couch in our downstairs common room, staring at the perpetual pledge with strained patience. Carmody was twenty-nine years old, the oldest student on campus and, arguably, the least mature. He had ten years on some of my companions in the room, but he often acted like a small child who was being denied ice cream.
Around the room, I heard several faint chuckles. Half the fraternity was hanging around after the barbecue to shoot pool, drink beer, and play video games. In the middle of our relaxation, and much to my annoyance, Carmody had used them as a captive audience while he unloaded his complaints to me—again.
“Something is being done,” I countered. He blinked at me dully. Carmody had a tendency to misinterpret everything that we senior fraternity members told him, or forget he was told and then come complaining to us with the same problem again. He was the absolute worst part of leading the fraternity, and I genuinely wished he would either graduate or possibly leave the planet.
Meanwhile, I spoke slowly and used small words while, beside me, my cousin Marcus recorded the entire conversation. Playing the conversations we had back to thickheaded Carmody helped make sure he either remembered what we were talking about or was set straight if he insisted on being an ass. “I said this yesterday, Carmody. Try to pay attention this time.”
He puffed out his cheeks and fidgeted, reddening more.
I studied him with a bored expression until he settled down.
“What?” Carmody asked. “What did you say?”
“I said that we would handle the Sabine Keegan problem by ourselves. We need no further intervention or help on your part. Do not approach her again. The matter is well in hand.” His expression crumpled, and I braced myself to wrestle with the urge to punch his face in. “I said it is well in hand, Carmody.”
“But—” he started.
I lifted an eyebrow.
He started harrumphing and shuffling more, as if working up all his nerves. “She’s still here! You said you’d make her go.”
“These things take time and subtlety to execute correctly. What are you expecting me to do, put a hit out on the girl because the faculty made a decision you don’t agree with since you hate women?” I asked him in a very bored tone.
He looked like he was about to suggest it.
Jesus fucking Christ, this guy needs either a good therapist or a good cage, and I’m not sure which one.
“Don’t even answer that,” I instructed, and he sagged a little.
Beside me, Marcus snickered.
I continued, “Buddy, you cannot reverse the administration’s decision by driving out one woman. Besides, she’s their political pawn.”
“Then we have to drive out all the women!” Carmody cried with so much malicious zeal, I wondered if he was just straight-up crazy. “Just knock all their pawns off the board.”
Oh my God, what the hell is wrong with this guy? Besides him being a nearly thirty-year-old sophomore.
I uncrossed my arms, sat forward, and steepled my fingers, my eyes hard on Carmody’s. “Shut. Up!”
Worried muttering came from around the room. Carmody’s mouth closed with a meaty noise, and he blinked at me mutely.
“That’s better.” I tapped my fingertips together. “When you and the other pledges came to us and asked us to discourage Sabine Keegan from continuing at this school, the five of us agreed to look into the matter. We are doing so. If you continue to distract us—and question our authority and judgment with your constant pestering—you not only slow this process down, you place your status as a pledge in jeopardy.”
Carmody went pale. “I didn’t realize.”
“No. You didn’t think,” I corrected. “You spend too much time emoting. To be honest, most men in this institution wouldn’t suffer one bit for having a pretty face around.” There was chuckling and nodding around the room. “But that doesn’t mean we should turn a deaf ear to those concerned about this situation with Sabine. And we have not.”
Down the couch from me, Daniel, one of my fellow Gentlemen’s Club members, stifled a chuckle and shook his blond-spiked head before saying in his slight German accent, “You do not make a request of us and then expect us to wave our hands at your behest. Blake is correct. This is not a simple matter of frightening the poor girl off. It needs to at least appear to be her decision. Sabine is a pawn of the administration. Were it not her, it would be someone else. A personal vendetta against the girl is pointless.”
Carmody’s jaw dropped. “But…”
“They will replace her if we do that, Carmody,” I pointed out. “If our interference is exposed, ultimately, the only ones who will lose face will be us.”
“Then…” Carmody peered around at all of us, strangely baffled and hurt, as if he had never figured out how the world worked while being coddled by his wealthy parents. “Then how do we get our school back?”
