I practically fall out of the vehicle as it stops in front of the sorority. I push my way past Dylan and jump out, watching the flames lick up the ceiling of the building with horror in my eyes.
What the fuck happened?
Firefighters are on the scene, dousing the flames with water as best they can, focusing on one particular room to the left. The rest of the rooms seem unscathed from the outside, but who knows how long the fire has been raging, destroying everything in its path.
“Penelope!” Kayla yells as she runs up to me. “Tilda called me, and I came home with Crystal as fast as I could.”
“What happened here?” I ask, gazing at the roaring fire.
“I don’t know, someone said there was a small explosion, but no one saw anything.”
My pupils dilate. An explosion? That means it’s …
“Someone wanted that room to burn,” Dylan mutters as he creeps up behind me.
“Jesus, Pen, where were you?” Kayla asks, gripping my dress. “You’re soaked.” She eyes Dylan. “You both are.”
“I was at my sister’s grave,” I say.
She releases my dress. “Oh. I was just wondering why you’d leave us like that.”
“Sorry,” I mutter, entranced by the flames.
“Oh my God, this is like my worst nightmare,” Crystal says as she approaches us, and she pulls us both in for a hug. “I hope no one got hurt. I’m scared.”
“It’s okay,” Kayla says. “The firefighters are doing their best.”
“Whose room is it?” I ask.
“Not ours,” Kayla replies. “But you should have seen the flames before. They’ve already doused most of them.”
Felix and Alistair step out too, and Kayla looks up with suspicion in her eyes. “You boys only bring trouble. You need to stay away from her.”
Felix raises his brow in a menacing way.
“Why are they even here?” Kayla mutters as we stop hugging.
“They helped me get through a tough spot,” I say and smile at her. “I don’t want this to sour our friendship.” I look across my shoulder at the three boys. “Can you please accept them for me?”
“They’re not gonna go anywhere, are they?” Crystal muses.
“I’m as stuck with them as they are stuck with me,” I reply.
Dylan winks at me while Alistair takes a step back and puts on his hoodie, but Felix seems the most annoyed of all that both Crystal and Kayla are looking at him, and not in an amicable way.
After a while, they’ve extinguished the fire, and all that’s left is smoke and ashes fluttering down the building. The firefighters talk among themselves, arguing about an item one of them is holding, and it makes me anxious.
“What do you think they found?” Crystal asks.
“It can’t be good,” Kayla replies.
“The fuse,” Dylan mutters.
“What?” I frown.
“That fire wasn’t an accident,” he adds.
I swallow. “How do you know for sure?”
He points at the building. “The fire was contained to that room only.”
“So?”
Felix clears his throat. “That was your sister’s room.”
All the blood leaves my face, and I feel like I’m about to puke.
I immediately walk toward the firefighters.
“Penelope!” Kayla yells.
“Penelope, come back here,” Felix hisses at me, but I ignore him.
I try to listen to what the firefighters are saying about the item they found, but it’s hard with all these loud sirens.
“Are you sure?” I can hear Tilda, the sorority leader, say.
“Positive. We’ll have to file a report.”
Tilda sighs. “Okay. And where do we stay now?”
“The building needs to be inspected for safety first. That’ll take at least a week.”
“A week?” I hear audible gasps from the other ladies who live in the building.
Dean Caruso approaches out of nowhere.
Was he here all this time? Watching the fire, just like us?
“Don’t worry, ladies. I will immediately ask my contacts so they can set up different accommodations for you.” He sighs out loud. “In the meantime, book a hotel room and send the receipts to my office. But only for one night. I’ll get something up and running tomorrow.”
He’s talking to the crowd like there’s nothing to be worried about. But I am fucking worried.
And when his eyes connect to mine, I know this won’t end well for me.
“Everyone back to their houses. Show’s over,” he announces to the crowd gathered to watch the fire, but his eyes are still locked on me.
“Tilda, I’ll leave this to you,” he says.
Tilda gazes at the firefighters. “Can I borrow this just a second?”
They nod. “One minute.”
She takes the item and walks over to me. “Penelope … I’m sorry, but you can’t stay in our sorority anymore.”
My eyes widen. “What? You’re kicking me out?”
When she nods, Dylan steps in. “Hey, she didn’t do anything.”
Tilda holds up the item. It’s a piece of fireworks, badly burned, but a piece of laminated plastic is stuck to the shell. Beneath it was a piece of paper with my first name written.
This has to be a cruel joke.
It just has to be.
“What?” I mutter.
“Since your name is on this, we have no choice.”
I’m incensed. “You’re accusing me of setting this fire? I wasn’t even here.”
“She was with us,” Felix says from the back, folding his arms.
Tilda briefly acknowledges him with a glance. “We don’t know who did,” Tilda says with a stern voice. “But your name is on this thing, and I cannot take the risk.”
“That isn’t fair to her at all,” Dylan interjects, but I raise my hand to quiet him.
I don’t need them to fight for me. I can do that myself.
“I’m sorry, Penelope. But enough is enough. You’ve already broken the rules, and I warned you there was a limit to my patience,” she says. She turns around and hands the fireworks back to the firefighters before returning to me. “I need you to leave the property. When the house is open again, you may return to get your things. But you won’t be allowed to join us again.”
It hurts so bad that tears sting my eyes, but I refuse to let them fall.
I’m not the culprit of this blazing fire, but I sure as hell will go down from it with honor.
“Fine. If that’s the way you want to deal with this,” I turn away from her, closing my eyes as I walk away.
Kayla and Crystal follow suit. “Wait, Pen, you can’t be serious, right?” Crystal says.
“You’re just gonna let Tilda kick you out?” Kayla adds. “I know you didn’t do it.”
“I didn’t, but that won’t matter to her. She needs someone to blame, so I’ll play the fucking martyr.”
I look at the boys. Those boys whose influence reaches far beyond the walls of this university. Whose deadly encounters leave behind countless enemies, all set on revenge.
It’s because of them, and they know this. I can see it in their eyes.
I take in a deep breath.
“They aimed for my sister’s room,” I say. “So it’s a vendetta against us both. That, or they aimed wrong.”
“Doubt it,” Dylan says from a few feet away.
“Are you telling me they were trying to … kill you?” Crystal asks, her face turning as pale as snow.
“It’s a possibility,” Felix fills in for me, and he steps forward. “Which is why she’s coming with us.” Felix’s fingers slowly dig into my shoulder as he grips me tightly. “She’ll be safe at the Skull & Serpent Society.”
Kayla snorts. “I find that very hard to believe.”
Dylan’s whole body tenses up. “If anyone ever tries to put a finger on Penelope, I will fucking gut them myself.”
Kayla’s pupils dilate, and Crystal holds her gasp.
They’ve never said it out loud before, especially not in front of my friends.
And it’s as if the world has gone completely silent.
Felix squeezes my shoulder again. “C’mon. Let’s go.”
“Wait.” I pull free from his grasp to hug Kayla and Crystal.
“I just want you to be okay.”
“I’ll be fine, don’t worry about me,” I reply as I lean back. “Talk later.”
“Text me every day so I know they haven’t murdered you,” she says.
I chuckle as we stop hugging and I make my way back to the boys. “Will do.”
“Murder … her?” Crystal repeats with a shaky voice.
“I was joking,” Kayla muses, but I can tell from the way she’s looking at me as I walk off she definitely was not. But Crystal doesn’t have to know.
