Social Totem Pole
I was definitely in hell. There was no question about that.
My toe socks were damp and leaves clung to them, their stems stabbing the bottom of my feet. The hems of my pajama pants were damp too, but I hadn’t shaved my legs that day, so I couldn’t really roll them up. My hair refused to stay out of my eyes, defying the messy bun I’d put it in before attempting to sleep—a sleep that was very rudely interrupted by that gaggle of determined sorority bitches, I should add.
Looking around at the party, I noticed a trend. Nearly every other girl seemed to be in cutesy lingerie. There were any number of fluffy, lacy things wandering around, and just as many in little shorts with PINK and JUICY and the like scrawled across their asses. Compared to them, I was nothing. At least, judging by all the attention I wasn’t getting from all the guys at the party. And as for them, the guys were mostly in just their boxers, dozens upon dozens of chiseled abs on display.
Except for one guy who stood out like as much of a sore thumb as I did.
Zac was standing in a corner, his arms crossed over his bare chest. He looked adorable, and it was only partially because of his Star Wars boxers. As soon as that thought crossed my mind, I hated myself. Even though he hated me, I couldn’t stop pining for him, not even after our frustrating, awkward encounter in the library. It was just never ending. I would never get away from my feelings for him.
That wasn’t to say that I wasn’t still angry with him for the whole library thing the week before. I was furious. But more than that, I was confused. More and more, I was beginning to think all of my friends might be onto something. There really was no other explanation for Zac’s behavior other than jealousy. But jealousy meant he actually had feelings for me. And I still wasn’t quite ready to believe that.
Whatever the explanation was, it didn’t really change how it made me feel. He called me horrible names, insulted me left and right and then… expected me to want to have sex with him? Of course, I did. But the fact that I was pathetic enough to still want him in spite of his horrible behavior was beside the point.
I just really, really didn’t understand Zac Hanson at all, and I was tired of trying to figure him out. Maybe some puzzles didn’t need to be solved. Maybe, if you did solve them, you wouldn’t like the answer.
Of course, Zac spotted me staring at him. That was just my luck. To my complete surprise, he began squeezing and shoving his way through the crowd, walking directly toward me. I looked to my left and right, trying to find someone else he could possibly be heading for, but I knew this wasn’t Zac’s crowd. The only person here he could possibly be looking for was me.
He stopped right in front of me and rocked back and forth awkwardly on his heels. “So, did you get drug here against your will, too?”
“Like being drug to hell, huh?” I replied, then clamped my mouth shut. Why was I being civil to him? I stared at Zac for a moment, my anger increasing, before I managed to ask, “When did you decide to start speaking to me again?”
“I never—” He began, then cut himself off and shook his head, obviously not even able to continue with the lie. “We talked the other day.”
“In the library?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “We argued. And then we fucked. It certainly wasn’t anything resembling a civil conversation. I don’t think we’ve had one of those all semester.”
Zac tilted his head to the side. “Why do you think that is?”
“I could think of a few reasons,” I answered honestly. I wasn’t sure if he was asking a real question or making yet another accusation, so I left it at that. But the real answer was that it all began with the same person who was to blame for me being in the middle of this party from hell, the person who had been making my entire semester hell—Bella.
“Yeah, well, none of them explain why you’re the one who’s so upset with me, when as far as I can tell I haven’t done a single thing to—”
I slapped my hand over Zac’s mouth. “I’m just going to stop you right there. You really think you haven’t done anything? You literally just mentioned the library and your creepy, bipolar behavior in said library, and you think you haven’t done anything? Do you actually have split personalities? Because I really can’t think of any other explanation for this.”
“But I—I mean, well,” Zac stuttered out, then shook his head. “You know, I guess I understand after all. I mean, you made it pretty clear you were only into Taylor. So no wonder you’re so upset about having sex with me.”
“Yeah, of course,” I replied, rolling my eyes. “That’s the real problem here. Fantastic deductive reasoning skills you have.”
Before Zac could formulate any sort of reply to that, my nightmare decided that it just wasn’t bad enough. It had to kick things up a notch, presumably just to fuck with me. If I hadn’t been so rudely pulled out of bed—by the nightmare with perfect hair currently walking toward me—I wouldn’t even believe I was awake. This was the sort of horrible scenario that was more suited to bad dreams than reality, but after such a bad semester, I should have been prepared for anything.
“What the hell is he doing here?” Bella screeched, looking like she was about to start shooting steam out of her ears.
I was confused. This wasn’t planned? Embarrass me in front of the guy I wanted the most? It almost made sense, I supposed, and it wasn’t as though Bella knew that Zac had already seen me at my worst. It almost made sense, but not quite, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to ask for any sort of explanation.
A taller girl who I thought looked like one of her older sorority sisters walked over and gave her a very fake looking smile. “We thought you’d enjoy seeing your little boytoy. You don’t?”
Bella stared the girl down, looking as though another outburst were imminent. Instead, she glanced around before settling on another girl who, surprisingly, wasn’t bleach blonde. Looking somewhere between confused and pleading, she said, “I thought you were going to bring his brother, not him.”
“And how would that have worked out?” The tall one interjected. “I mean, do you really want Ginger Spice and Taylor in the same room? In their underwear? Do you really think that would end well for you?”
For her? I was so perplexed by that choice of words that I barely even registered the fact that she had called me Ginger Spice. Was it a compliment or an insult? She certainly seemed to be insulting Bella, though. I didn’t entirely understand why, but her tone of voice was pretty clear, even if nothing else about their conversation was.
“Yeah, Bella,” the girl she’d tried to appeal to said. “We just thought we’d try to help out, see if we could play matchmaker and get you two back together. I think it’s time to accept Zac is the only Hanson brother you’re going to land.”
“I feel like I should be insulted by that,” Zac cut in. “But you know what? I’m not. Not at all.”
Everyone, even the few random bystanders who weren’t involved in the conversation at all, stared at Zac for a moment. I don’t think any of them realized someone lower than them on the social totem pole was actually capable of speech, let alone speech that insulted one of their kind. A few of them glanced to me next, but not for long; obviously Ginger Spice was of little interest to them. No, it was clear they all wanted to see what Bella would say next, and I had to admit that I was curious too.
As for Bella herself… she seemed to have lost the power of speech. Her mouth flopped open uselessly, and I would have laughed if I weren’t so nervous for how this was all going to play out. After a moment, she just huffed and stomped away.
I wasn’t entirely sure what I had just witnessed. If I weren’t so confused by Zac deciding to talk to me, I might have been even more amused by her sorority sisters attempting to embarrass Bella at this party, too. As it was, I was too embarrassed and flustered myself to really devote much thought to Bella’s takedown at her own “sisters” hands. I could worry about that later, once I’d gotten Zac to take the hint and leave me alone.
“Well, that was awkward,” Zac said, chuckling softly.
“Are we really going to act like nothing is wrong?” I asked. “You’re just suddenly talking to me again. After the entire conversation we just had before that episode of True Life: I’m A Sorority Slut. After… after everything.”
“I’m the one who was mad at you,” Zac replied, leaning in closer to me, even though it wasn’t like anyone else at the party was paying any attention us now that Bella had stormed off. “Now you’re upset because I’m talking to you? Is that the problem now? First it was because I wanted to have sex with you. Now it’s because I’m trying to play nice? You make absolutely no sense at all, Georgie. You really don’t.”
“Why are we having this conversation here? Why are we still here to begin with?” I glanced around, and shook my head.
This was stupid. Whatever they had planned to embarrass us, it wasn’t working. Somehow, Bella had only managed to make a fool of herself instead. But the longer I stayed here arguing in circles with Zac, the greater the chances of something bad happening… something else bad, that was.
I nudged Zac aside and scurried toward the door. I was sure I didn’t look imposing or even angry at all, given my attire, but I didn’t care. I just had to get out of there, and I could only hope that Zac didn’t follow me.
Knowing my luck, though…