Word Vomit.

Friday night Mark asked me to bring Yvonne down to the Theta. Rich was getting some shit from the guys that his new lady-friend wasn’t coming around enough. I certainly wasn’t going to tell Yvonne that, but any excuse to drink beer and dance with Mark I would take.

I was dressed in skinny jeans, strappy sandals (because we can wear those until Halloween here), and a thick strapped, high-low tank top. I never liked to get too dressed up for these parties, because you never know who is going to spill Jungle Juice on you. Yvonne clearly didn’t take my easy-breezy-nice-and-easy approach to dressing for the row (the row is what you call all the fraternity houses collectively). She had on a pair of maroon denim leggings, a black blouse, insane amounts of jewelry. I needed to her cool it with the Yurman, otherwise she was going to make a spectacle of herself.

I tried to broach it easily, “Hey E, why don’t you just wear the pearl bracelet and the earrings. I think it makes a stronger statement alone. They are so pretty you’d hate for people not to notice.” She had on 3 other bracelets, a necklace, two rings, and earrings.

She laughed. “I’m going a bit overboard, aren’t I?”

I was afraid to answer that. “No! No! It’s just you’re going to the Theta house, and you’ll probably stay there... with any luck. So, don’t bring so much stuff that you have to collect in the morning.” I thought I handled that well!

She nodded. “Gosh, Kathleen, you’re right! You’re so much better at this stuff than me. The other night at dinner, Rich took me to FIVE, he was like telling me how he really liked me, but he wished I was less nervous.”

I tried to smile, but just couldn’t. “Look, he likes you. Stop trying to give him reasons not to. Now, take off everything except one bracelet and the earrings, and let’s go! I want to get drunk, and I just finished my last bit of rum!”

She laughed. “You mean you just finished my last bit of rum...” She shot me an accusing look, which I knew was just a joke.

As we walked in, Leslie spotted us. “Oh yay!! Do you have any other of your pledge sisters coming in tonight? The boys think your pledge class is adorable!” She was really drunk and talking quickly.

“Maybe!” I said brightly. “I’ll see if I can corral a few.”

She nodded and walked back to her beer pong game. Yvonne nudged me as she spotted Rich, and we walked his way. He wrapped us both up in a big hug. “There’s my girls! Hey, there are some cups and juice in the kitchen. I’ve got some liquor in my car, here are the keys. When you two come back I expect you to have full cups! You hear me?” I hugged him again and went to find Mark while Yvonne went in search of drinks with Rich’s keys.

I felt a tap on my shoulder as I was walking into the hallway. I spun around and was greeted by open arms from Mark. “Hey Sweetie!” He spoke loudly. He picked me up and twirled me around, causing a spectacle and garnering a few claps and snickers from his fraternity brothers.

“You’re in a good mood, buddy.” I smiled and kissed his cheek.

“You are now looking at the Theta Pledge Class President!” PCP wasn’t really an awesome job, and he knew that. But it was a good way to recognized and put on Executive Council after your pledgeship. Sadly, PCP mainly planned clean ups, scheduled mixers, and made sure that the pledges were on time to pledge meetings.

“Mark! That’s awesome!” I kissed his cheek again, and gave him a big hug. Just then Rich walked up behind us with Yvonne in tow.

“I was going to get on to you,” he began wagging his finger at me, “but I see you were canoodling. I can allow canoodling to overtake the instruction to get drinks.”

As if on command, Yvonne shoved a cup in my face. “I got you rum and pineapple juice. You’re welcome.” I hugged her and then Rich pretended to pout.

About that time my phone went off in my hand, and so did Yvonne’s. It was a group text to me, Yvonne, and Ashley from Ree.

You guys... This lake weekend BITES.

Oh Lord, I thought, as I took a big gulp of my drink. I looked at Yvonne with sympathetic eyes. She spoke up. “We will deal with her tomorrow. Tonight, I’m hanging out with my boyfr---“ She froze. She and Rich hadn’t had the whole “Are we or aren’t we?” talk yet. So she definitely jumped the gun. My eyes bugged out at looked at Mark. He swiftly grabbed my hand and took me to the living room far, far away out of hearing distance.

I cringed as we sat down. “How’s he going to hand this?”

He out my hand in his and put it on his lap. “Fine. He was going to talk to her about that tonight anyway. He’s been getting a lot of crap about not locking it down. Honestly, it probably made the segue easier for him. He’s lucky. I had struggle... If we recall.”

I nuzzled up into his neck. “I’m anything if I’m difficult. But I sure am cute!”

Just then, Luke came busting in. “PCP! Vomit in the girl’s room downstairs! Assemble a crew IMMEDIATELY!”

And that’s when I realized, this was actually going to suck...