Chapter 4: Saylor's House

Corey called me at 5:02 a.m.

"He's wrong."

"Good morning to you too."

"Saylor doesn't even know how to change her own phone case. She's not running some burner thing."

"He didn't say she runs it. He said she's on the other end of it."

"It's a mistake. There's a hundred ways that number gets texted."

"Name one."

He didn't.

He breathed hard into the phone for a while.

"Her sorority has its back-to-school party Friday," I said. "At her house."

"No."

"You're taking me. As your plus one."

"Joni, I swear to God."

"Rule one. Wear something nice."

I hung up on him.

Friday night, Corey picked me up at Ashgrove in his truck and didn't say a word the whole drive.

I'd borrowed a white sundress from the girl down the hall.

He looked at it once and looked away.

The sorority house sat at the top of Greek Row with columns.

Music thumped through the open doors.

Forty girls in pastels stood around the front room holding wine glasses.

All forty of them turned when I walked in on Corey's arm.

Saylor came down the stairs in pale pink.

She kissed Corey on the cheek.

Then she looked at me.

"Oh," she said. "You brought the stepsister. That's so generous of you, babe."

"She needed a ride," Corey said.

"Of course she did." She smiled at me. "Come in. Get a drink. I insist."

She took a glass of red off a tray and held it out to me.

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