Page 14 of Caged
KIEREN
Eight Months Prior to Present Day,
Early January, Junior Year,
Sigma
“Look at your girl, Jacey, posting more thirst traps,” I taunt, never failing to use my favorite nickname for my friend. I know he hates it, but that’s his problem.
“Fuck off, Kieren.”
I chuckle, because it’s so fucking fun getting under Jace’s skin, not to mention, it’s so simple. Damn it feels good to be back. Only those in my inner circle knew I was returning, specifically Barrett, Harrison, Jace and Sigma’s outgoing doormat of a president. Good fucking riddance with that one. He was worse than Knox.
The mere thought of Knox Sterling, who was the president of Sigma when I pledged my freshman year, is infuriating. That motherfucker went out of his way to make my life miserable. It’s a good thing he was only around for one semester. Golden boy Knox graduated in three years and now is in law schoolat Stanford. Of course, I know his family. Everyone knows of the Sterlings. Now prominent politicians, the Sterlings are decedents of Scottish nobility, complete with a crest of arms, which the asshole has tattooed on his back so he can rub his superiority in everyone’s face.
The number of times I caught that prick staring at Monroe when she would come to Sigma for parties would rile even the most tolerant, but he knew better than to make a move, especially after what happened at the Sigma alumni homecoming event my freshman year. I don’t give a fuck if I was a lowly underclassman he thought he could squash under his feet. If he touched Monroe, so much as brushed her arm in a chance passing, I would drain the fucking life from his eyes with a smile on my face.
Pushing my memories of Knox asshole Sterling aside, I scroll through the last handful of social media posts from Jace’s ex-girlfriend, Gabi. He won’t admit this, but I know he’s never fully gotten over their breakup. He pined for that girl our entire sophomore year like a sad puppy dog, yet all he could do was watch her have the time of her life from the sidelines. I’ll give her credit. She never missed an opportunity to parade her desirability in his face by flirting with any junior or senior Sigma brother who would give her the time of day.Which was all of them,I laugh to myself.
She’s not my type, but the first time I laid eyes on Gabi, I thought she was objectively one of the most beautiful women I’d seen. Poor Jacey. Every party, every social post, every run-in he had with her on campus just made him angrier and angrier. Just as I had hoped. I think he fucking loathes the girl now, and I’m happy to stoke his ongoing hatred with any silage I can find. I need Jace focused on the big picture.
“Did you read her caption? ‘It’s true what they say about Spanish men,’ followed by an eggplant emoji!” I quote, feigning judgement at her lewd comment.
“Seriously, Kieren, shut the fuck up,” Jace shouts as he stuffs workout clothes into a gym bag. For someone who has been in my circle of friends for years, he should know by now that I love to push buttons, yet he continues to wear his emotions on his sleeve around me like a child. I wonder if he’ll ever learn that his volatility makes him easy to manipulate? Well, not my problem.
I raise my palms in supplication. “Easy killer. I forget how sensitive you get over some undeserving bitch who broke your heart. How long has it been? A year-and-a-half? I figured you’d be over her by now.”
“I am over her,” Jace snaps, which we both know is a lie.
“When was the last time you got some?” I ask.
“Some girl on New Year’s Eve.”
“What was her name?”
“Don’t know. Don’t care. Don’t remember.”
“Sounds like she made a lasting impression,” I tease.
I lounge on a couch in the generously sized common area that adjoins my presidential bedroom suite at Sigma. The president’s quarters are palatial as fuck and best of all, semi-private. My rooms,yes, plural,are at the end of a long hallway, and the common room sits between my bedroom and Barrett’s room, creating a natural sound barrier of sorts. The south wall of my bedroom faces the parking lot behind Sigma house, the east wall faces a patch of woods, which border the nearby gorge. It’s quite serene really. A hallway separates my quarters from Jace’s room. Harrison is in the room one door down from Jace. The most exciting part of this room configuration is that all of us have en suite bathrooms, a privilege only awarded to the seniors who hold executive positions in the fraternity.
It’s blissful, really, because I plan to fuck Monroe into the next dimension at all hours of the day and night, and I’d prefer not to have sophomore and junior grunts jerking off to her screams.
Jace stuffs another piece of gym apparel into his bag.
“Not all of us have someone like Monroe wrapped around our pinky finger.”
I make a show of looking down at my grandfather’s Sigma ring, thinking about how sweet Monroe is going to taste tonight. “She is quite the compliant trophy, isn’t she? Well, don’t worry, Jacey. Once you fuck some freshman pussy, you’ll feel better.”
He snorts, which I take as a sign of agreement.
“Speaking of freshman pussy, what’s the plan with the Sigma Sinners tradition?”
“I think you mean Sigma Little Sisters. I’m rebranding the name to make it more palatable. I don’t think being called a Sinner has quite the lure and wholesome appeal as being called a Little Sister,” I explain. Jace huffs a clipped laugh at my ingenuity.
“Anyway,” I continue, “the executive team, which, don’t forget, includes you, is meeting tomorrow to discuss the rollout to the rest of Sigma. We’ll need everyone’s buy-in, especially the new pledges as they’ll be the ones responsible for recruitment. That said, I’ve already had side conversations with most of the existing brotherhood. Everyone seems feral and horny, so I’d classify their reactions as excited. The first Full Moon Ceremony will happen next month, and I’m hopeful by then we can initiate a few dozen. Some of the guys have already begun composing their lists.”
“Next month, as in February?” Jace questions. “Then why did my brother text me that he’s coming for the first Ceremony in March?”
