Page 19 of A Reputation Dark & Deadly

"Of course it still bugs me, Peyton," Rikki said, shaking her head. She reached into her purse and pulled out a cigarette. Peyton almost lectured her about smoking in someone else's house without asking for their permission, but upon reaching walkway to the front door, the strong, pungent scent of weed hit her like a wall of bricks and she kept her opinion to herself. "I thought I was in love with the guy." Rikki lit her cigarette and took a long drag, making sure to exhale away from Peyton. "He kept staring at me all throughout class. I heard he had a thing for brunettes. I mean, all his TA's are brunette." She flicked her gaze at Peyton, almost accusingly. "Except you."

Peyton was saved from having to respond because they reached the front door. Peyton was never sure what proper etiquette dictated when it came to parties. Did they knock? Did they just go in? Rikki, on the other hand, had no qualms with sticking her cigarette in her mouth and opening the door without announcing their presence.

They stepped inside and Peyton felt her body tense on its own. The older fraternity house was white with dark accessories. The floor was a chestnut wood and the hallways were narrow though the rooms were wide and had a lot of space to occupy. It was just after eleven, so the hallways were filled with students, leaning, sitting, some even lying on the floor. Red cups littered the hallways, the tickling scent of spilled beer and hard alcohol filling her senses.

"Hello!"

A deep male voice came upon Peyton and Rikki and Peyton spun around instinctively. The student, probably a couple of years younger than she was, started laughing at her reaction.

"Whoa, lady, no need to react that way," he said. He had to shout due to the heavy bass music. "We're all friendly here. Can I get you a beer? Can I get you a drink? Some pot's going on upstairs if that's more your thing."

"It's not," Peyton said flatly.

"God, you're such a wet blanket," Rikki muttered, rolling her eyes. She took another drag of her cigarette as the guy - whose name Peyton still didn't know - threw his head back and laughed. For a moment, Peyton wondered if his overly dramatic reactions were genuine or if they were drunk cries for attention. Then, she realized she didn't particularly care. "We'll take two rubies."

"What's a ruby?" Peyton asked, shifting her eyes over to the guy, like he was going to help her. He gave her a wink and disappeared. Peyton hoped he didn't think he was being mysterious.

Rikki rolled her eyes. "Come on, Peyton," she got out. "I know you're a virgin but you can't be that innocent."

Peyton's eyes shot to the retreating figure of the guy. He stopped upon hearing the word virgin but didn't say anything. In fact, he didn't even look back and instead, continued to press through, going to fetch them their drinks.

"I'm going home," Peyton said, throwing her arms up, her eyes throwing daggers at her friend. "Enjoy your misery, Rikki."

"Okay, okay, okay." Rikki shut her heavily-lined eyes before slowly opening them and giving Peyton a soft look. "I'm sorry. I just haven't been all that happy. This whole grad school thing isn't what I thought."

"Because you didn't get Logan as your advisor?" Peyton asked before she could stop herself.

"Logan?" Rikki asked, furrowing his brow. "You're on a first-name basis?" She cut her eyes over to Peyton suspiciously before narrowing her eyes. "What does he call you?"

"What?" Peyton asked, shifting due to the direction of where this conversation was going.

"He calls everyone something," she explained slowly. "He called me Braids because I always had at least three or four braids in my hair during undergrad. I thought it was a term of endearment but..." She shook her head. "What does he call you?"

Peyton thought long and hard about how she should respond. She knew that if she told her what Logan called her, it would start a fight. Rikki would get offended and huffy and storm off, probably abandoning her at the party in some way. Peyton would be upset and annoyed but not enough to leave her friend, especially since they came together. However, her night would be miserable and tonight was not about Logan Jeffrey indirectly making her night worse rather than better. She would not allow him to cause a rift between her and her friend. On the other hand, she also didn't want to lie to Rikki. Not only was she bad at it, but Rikki had this innate ability to find out the truth, no matter what that was.

Before Peyton could respond with anything, the guy showed back up with two red cups in his hands.

"What is this?" Peyton asked, tentatively taking the cup and looking at its contents with uncertainty.

"A ruby," he said. "The name's Chuck. I'm a senior and one of the members of this frat."

"Rikki," Rikki said and nodded over at Peyton. "Peyton."

"Peyton Hart?" Chuck looked back at Peyton with an appreciative stare. "You're Jeffrey's TA, right? My little brothers taking his 101 class and wouldn't shut up about the hot TA in short shorts." His eyes dropped to take her in, his eyes taking over her before he met her gaze once again. Peyton shifted under the scrutiny, put off by the fact this guy thought he had the right to look at her this way just because his teenage brother saw her in a pair of shorts. "Wait, you're not sleeping with Jeffrey, are you?"

"Excuse me?" Peyton's voice was flat and unflinching, her eyes narrowed and unmoving.

Rikki, on the other hand, reacted by throwing her head back to laugh. "Yeah, right," she did. She had stomped out her cigarette and was now taking long, quick gulps of her drink. "Logan Jeffrey isn't interested in the good girl, and Peyton here is the purest grad student you'll ever meet. See her dress?"

Chuck swept his eyes back over to Peyton, his lips cocked up into a grin. Peyton squeezed the red cup within her hand, trying to ignore the fact that not only had her friend outed her as a virgin but she was laughing because Rikki thought someone like her didn't have a chance with Logan Jeffrey.

What the hell was that supposed to mean?

"Maybe," Chuck said slowly, "but I hear she's his only TA because he's arrogant as shit and nobody likes him. Desperate times and all that." He shrugged his shoulders.

"I'm sorry," Peyton said, unable to keep quiet any longer. Her forest green gaze hardened to emerald as she looked at the frat kid. "Are you saying that if Logan Jeffrey were sleeping with me, it's only because he's desperate?"

Chuck looked at Peyton and realization dawned on him that perhaps his choice of diction wasn't conducive to getting laid. He started to stutter, trying to backtrack and Rikki started laughing.