Moving in Reverse by Katy Atlas Read Free Book Online Page A

you seen Darby anywhere? I was supposed
to meet her.”
    “ Oh,” she giggled.
“Yeah... I saw her earlier. She was, um... she was a little drunk,
I think.”
    “ Is she still
here?”
    “ I dunno—” Mandy looked
around, as if you could see anything through the groups of people
around us. “I think maybe...”
    “ Hey—” A guy came up to
us, snaking one arm around each of our shoulders. “Mandy, who’s
your friend?”
    I watched Mandy’s smile flicker for a
second, and then she giggled again. “This is Casey,” she said.
“She’s going to be one of our new pledges, hopefully. Maybe you can
convince her.”
    “ Hey Casey,” the guy
turned to me, leaning his head down closer to mine. “You’ve got to
be a Kappa. Please, every one of their girls is a ten. It’s
basically the only place you’d fit in.”
    “ Thanks,” I said, trying
to keep my face natural. In all of high school, I’d never really
been hit on by a guy — when my few flings had happened, they were
usually with guys I’d known since grade school, guys I knew so well
that if they tried to be smooth, we’d both end up cracking up. And
Blake and I had basically gone from total strangers to living
together on the tour bus, so we’d bypassed a lot of those first
awkward moments at hyperspeed.
    “ Casey’s looking for her
roommate,” Mandy said, lifting the guy’s arm off her shoulder.
“Jeff, maybe you could help her find her?”
    Jeff grinned at me, finishing the last
of his beer in one gulp. “Sure,” he winked. “What does she look
like?”
    “ Um,” I said, kind of
grateful for the help. If Darby was alone and drunk somewhere at a
frat party, I kind of wanted to make sure she wasn’t going to
become a Lifetime Original Movie about date rape anytime soon.
“She’s blonde, pretty, a little taller than me. Southern accent.
She’s wearing a black dress.”
    He grinned. “I think you just
described three quarters of the girls here.”
    I shrugged, looking up at him
helplessly.
    “ Maybe we should do a
lap,” he said. “You could use a beer, too.”
    “ I guess,” I said,
thinking about the two I’d already had at the club. “I’m sure she’s
around here somewhere.”
     
     
    Twenty minutes later, it was pretty
clear that Darby was no longer at the party, and neither, it
seemed, was Mandy, Jen, or anyone else I knew. I texted Darby twice
to see if she was still around, but hadn’t gotten a
response.
    “ I should probably go
check our room,” I told Jeff and the two pledges who’d joined
us.
    “ I’ll walk you,” Jeff
said, touching my arm lightly.
    “ Oh, I’m good,” I took a
step back, diffusing what seemed like another advance.
    “ What dorm are you?” He
asked me, setting his beer down on the side of someone’s desk,
which was now overflowing with discarded red plastic
cups.
    “ McCall,” I said, pulling
my sweater over my shoulders. Packing fifty college students into
three rooms had made the party about as hot as the club had been,
but I knew I’d be freezing once I got outside.
    “ I’m going the same way,”
he said, helping me with the other sleeve. “We can walk
together.”
    “ Okay,” I said
uncertainly, glancing down at my phone again for any new text
messages.
    We said goodbye, walking out of the
party into the chilly October wind.
    “ Are you cold?”
    “ I’m fine,” I said, trying
not to feel weird about this random guy who’d basically talked me
into letting him walk me home.
    “ Do you want my jacket?”
He was already taking it off and putting it around my
shoulders.
    “ Thanks,” I said, pulling
it around me. Now that we were outside the crowded party, it was
pretty cold outside.
    “ So you’re a — senior?” I
tried to think of something to say.
    “ Guilty,” he grinned. “But
I’m staying in New York next year, so I’ll be close. I’d come back
for some of our Rush parties next fall if that wouldn’t make me a
big loser.”
    I laughed, despite myself.