But she didn’t stop me either.

I call a cab and grab my keys, turning out the lights. I’m not in the right mindset for this tournament, but I don’t have a choice. As I lock the door behind me and start walking down the stairs, my phone pings in my pocket.

But it’s not Skyler.

It’s Adam.

- All pledges report to the house. You have twenty minutes. -

“I hate Valentine’s Day,” my Little says, swinging her legs in the air behind her as we lie stomach-down on my bed. We’ve been watching romantic comedies on Oxygen all day, taking solace in the relaxation we’ve somehow managed to find time for. My one Monday class was cancelled and she joined me after her two morning classes, bottles of wine stuffed in her backpack. We’re not technically supposed to drink in the sorority house, but that’s why they make bedazzled thermoses, right?

“I mean seriously, whose bright idea was it to make a day to single out the already miserably single?”

I roll my eyes. “Oh, stop. Last year, Valentine’s Day was the best day ever to you.”

“Yeah, well,” she says, sitting up and grabbing our half-eaten bowl of popcorn. “That was because I had not one, but two guys fighting for my attention. How is it that Valentine’s Day is in four days and I don’t have a single option?”

“Could it have anything to do with the fact that your major is insanely difficult and you have to study anytime you’re not at a sorority event? I mean really Little, when is the last time you went out? To a frat party? To a bar? Anywhere other than the library?”

She opens her mouth to defend herself, pauses, and tosses a popcorn puff in instead. “Shit,” she muses after a minute. “You’re right.”

“I love when you say that.”

Cassie scowls, tossing a puff at me. “Okay, smarty pants, so what do I do? Valentine’s Day is in four days and I don’t have a date.”

“OH MY FUCKING GOD I’M GOING TO KILL SOMEONE!” Jess barges through the door, throwing her hoodie across the room onto her bed and slinging her purse against the wall. Her hair is mussed up, her cheeks pink – I can’t tell if she looks really pissed off or like she just had a quickie in the hallway.

“What the hell?” Cassie hugs tighter to her bowl of popcorn, as if it’s her child and might be the next victim of Jess’s rage.

Jess paces around the room, her hands twisting in her hair. “Greg. Fucking Greg.”

“What did he do?”

“It’s what he didn’t do,” Jess says, plopping onto her bed and letting herself fall back against the half exposed sheets. Cassie and I exchange confused glances and I shrug.

“Uh, care to divulge, J-Love?” I ask hesitantly, muting the TV.

“I’ve got a really bad case of the Blue Bean, ladies. A major Violet Vulva.”

More blank stares.

Jess leans up a little to peek at us over her boobs. Seeing our lack of response, she sits up and lets out an exaggerated huff. “Blue balls! I have blue balls. Like, fucking bruised, swollen, black and blue balls.”

I chance a glance at my Little and see her tuck her lip between her teeth, fighting back laughter. Trying to do the same, I press my lips together and nod. “Would you like me to rub them for you?”

At that, Cassie loses it and I follow suit, both of us laughing so hard tears spring to our eyes. Jess tosses two pillows and a stuffed shark at us in succession, clocking me on the head with one as Cassie catches the other two.

“Witches!”

I fight to speak through the laughter. “Sorry.” I clear my throat. “Sorry, Jess. Tell us what happened.”

“No, fuck you,” she says, pulling the covers of her bed down and wincing as she crawls under.

“Wait,” Cassie says, setting down the bowl of popcorn. “Does it really hurt?”

“Yes, fuckhead, it really hurts. I’m so worked up I’m pretty sure putting on sweat pants is going to make me orgasm.”

“Well shit, let me at least put on Magic Mike or something,” I say, flipping through the channels. Her last pillow flies across the room and hits the wall by my head.

“I hate you,” she says, but now she’s laughing, too. “What am I going to do? Like seriously, I’m going to kill him. Murder him. Hang him from the Omega Chi Beta roof. ”

“What happened? I don’t understand,” my Little asks.

Jess sighs, sitting up straight. “We were studying in his room, and you know how they’re on probation, right? Well, apparently there’s no visitors after eleven now. So, around ten, he starts fooling around with me. At first I’m not about it because, seriously, only an hour? But he’s persistent and fucking hot as hell so, of course, I give in. So we’re going at it, his hand is working all kinds of magic on me and he’s hard as a fucking rock. We’re just about to take it all the way when in walks Ryan, his fucking roommate.”

“Oh shit,” Cassie says and we both laugh again. I can’t help but flash back to last Sunday with Kip, how his hand was working magic on me. Magic isn’t even the right word – it doesn’t do justice to what he did to me. The way he spoke to me, the way his entire body touched and moved me, not just his hand. He put a spell on me. It wasn’t magic, it was witchcraft.

And I loved every single second of it.

“Well couldn’t he have just told Ryan to take a hike?”

“My point exactly!” Jess says, her hands flying into the air. “That’s what I figured he would do, right? So there I am, skirt up around my hips under his comforter waiting for him to say something. You know what he does? He pulls his pants up and asks Ryan if he’s eaten yet or if he wants to split a frozen pizza.”

“No he didn’t,” I say, my mouth open.

“I can’t make this shit up.” She slides down between the sheets. “So then I’m still sitting there waiting until finally it’s like five minutes ‘til eleven and I have to go. It was so embarrassing, pulling down my damn skirt and letting myself out of his room and the fucking house. And all the while him and Ryan are just buddying it up, talking about the Intramural football game and shit. Ugh!” She punches her pillow just as Ashlei and Erin walk in. “My pussy is so swollen right now I’m pretty sure it’s hanging out the side of my thong.”

“Ew! What the fuck, J-Love?” Erin asks, clearly disturbed. Cassie and I lose our shit, laughing so hard it hurts our sides. Jess joins in and before long we’re completely breathless, trying to stop but failing to every time.

“Apparently we missed something,” Ashlei says, brows quirked.

I shake my head. “You don’t even want to know, Lei.”

Erin sits down in Jess’s desk chair as Ashlei climbs into bed with Jess, stroking her hair as she leans on Ashlei’s shoulder.

“Has Kip asked you to the dance yet?”

Jesus, she couldn’t talk to me about this in private? All the girls stare at me, waiting.

“Uh, no…”

“What about your date last Sunday? He didn’t ask then?”

“That wasn’t a date. I taught him how to paddleboard, that’s all. And no, he didn’t ask. And I haven’t talked to him since.”

“Why not?”

My Little eyes me, apparently picking up on my discomfort. She offers a small smile and I sigh, staring down at my fingernails and picking at the peeling polish. “I don’t know. I may or may not have left his place without saying anything. And then he texted me and I didn’t answer. And then he didn’t show up for class Thursday, so I tried texting him and acting like everything was cool, but he didn’t answer me. I think he’s pissed. I don’t blame him.”

Erin yells, “What the hell?” just as Ashlei asks, “When was this?”

I lift my eyes to meet Erin’s, her chocolate pools scrutinizing me. She thinks I failed. And she might be right. But I couldn’t stay there with him. I let it go too far. The longer he held me, the more comfortable I got in bed with him, the more I realized how fucked I am. I’m supposed to toy with his head, but I can’t stand back far enough to not get hurt. It’s like he’s a hot stove and no matter how many times I burn my hand, I can’t stop the temptation to touch him. So I left. I thought it was the right move, but clearly, I was wrong.