Page 21 of Caged
The girl shakes her head again, and I start to open my mouth when I realize my line of questioning might sound intrusive and accusatory. It’s not abnormal to spend the night with someone,certainly not when you’re in college. This place is just one big cesspool of unbridled hormones, after all.
“I met Kasey last night at Sigma, and she was about to give me her number when we got separated,” I clarify to soften my approach. I don’t want to come off as a judgmental senior. What did Kieren call us last night?Right.Geriatric cunts.
“She was at Sigma?” the girl asks, her eyes going wide with worry.
“Yeah, why? Is something wrong with that? With her being at Sigma, I mean.”
The girl nervously shakes her head. “It’s not my place,” she stammers.
Shit.
My mind quickly works through ways to get this girl to tell me more.
“What’s your name, by the way?” I pivot. “I’m sorry, I’ve been rude not to ask.”
She gives me a shy smile. “Adrianna.”
“I love that name,” I gush. “My favorite cousin is named Adrianna,” I lie, and her smile widens.
“Would you mind if I came inside? When I saw Kasey last night, she looked really out of it, and it looked like she was with this guy named Kieren who used to date my best friend.”
All color drains from Adrianna’s face.
When I see this happen, I push inside her room so as not to give her an opportunity to turn me away. This girl knows something, and I need fucking answers.
“Shut the door,” I say in a hushed voice to Adrianna as I take a seat on the circular rug in the middle of the room and wait for her to join me. Slowly, she lowers herself down with uncertainty and sits cross-legged in front of me. I sense this girl is on the verge of tears, which, as fucked up as it is, I use to my advantage.
I blow out a long, steadying breath. “Monroe is my best friend,” I begin, “and I think something really bad happened to her last semester.”
“She disappeared,” Adrianna interjects. “She stopped showing up to lead chapter meetings. The other Delta Gamma juniors said she stopped responding to emails and texts…It was so strange.”
“Did you know she was dating Kieren? You know Kieren, right? I mean, I just assumed by the way you reacted a second ago when I said his name in reference to Kasey.”
She nods. “Yes, I mean, I know who he is, everyone does. He’s the guy who showed up with a bouquet of roses for Monroe during rush. Kasey and I were so thrilled when we both got into Delta Gamma – it was our dream. We were roommates my freshman year also.”
I can’t contain my nerves anymore. I need answers and not a walk down memory lane. “What’s going on?” I blurt out.
Adrianna goes quiet, gathering herself, and then shakes her head. Tears fall from her cheeks, and she uncrosses her legs to pull her knees into her chest.
“Hey, it’s okay,” I soothe when she starts to rock back and forth. As much as I want to smack her and tell her to snap out of it so she can tell me the rest of what she knows, I take a page from Monroe’s book and play the empath.
“I know,” I say in solidarity. “Something isn’t right. I wasn’t here last semester, but I feel it, too. When I was at Sigma last night for after hours, even before I saw Kasey, I could sense things were off.”
Adrianna sniffs and wipes at her face. “She can’t talk about it,” Adrianna says. “The only thing I know is that at the beginning of last semester, she got initiated or something.”
“Initiated to Delta Gamma?”
“No,” Adrianna says, “to Sigma. Not as a brother but… she said it was like being a little sister. She was close with a bunch of guys in the house, not Kieren or his year, but other freshmen. She described it as an honor – like you’re given extra special treatment, always get right in for parties, and you can go upstairs, that sort of thing. But then she was there every weekend,all weekend. And each time she came back…”
Adrianna trails off and begins to cry again.
“She just wasn’t the same,” she breathes. “I don’t know anything else about Kieren other than what Kasey shared, which wasn’t much. She made him sound like a god. She did say once that Monroe was there,” Adrianna pauses, and uses her fingers to make air quotes when she says, “looking after the girls.”
“Looking after the girls?” I repeat in question. “What does that mean?”
“I don’t know. Kasey said she couldn’t talk about it. I started to get concerned when she was gone every weekend, but when I asked her about it, she said it was her duty or something. Like an obligation. I told her that was stupid and to just not go the next time, but she seemed genuinely scared at the idea of not showing up.”
I pause to take in the information, because what in the actual hell? Is this like a fucking cult or something?
