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judging my
size.
    “ No pastels today?” I
asked, genuinely curious.
    “ Today everyone wears
black cocktail dresses,” she said seriously. “Didn’t you even read
the invitation?”
    I hadn’t, actually. Someone had
slipped it under our door while I was at class, and it had informed
both Darby and me that we’d made it to Kappa’s second round. And,
apparently, it had dictated the dress code for this
afternoon.
    “ Wait,” I said, darting
past Darby and into the closet. “I have something that could
work.”
    I rummaged past a few garment bags
(Darby’s) and pulled out a dress on a hanger — the asymmetric black
dress I’d worn the night I met Blake, when Madison and I had tried
to sneak backstage at his concert. I’d borrowed clothes all summer,
so I hadn’t actually worn it since that night.
    Darby raised an eyebrow, but decided
not to pick a fight. “It’s not exactly cocktail attire,” she
wrinkled her nose. “But I guess you can get away with
it.”
    I shrugged off my tee shirt and pulled
the dress over my head, remembering the night I’d changed into it
in the back seat of Madison’s car after sneaking out of my house.
It fit like a glove, and I smiled for a second at my reflection as
Darby tugged the rollers out of her own hair and brushed it
through.
    “ Ok,” I exhaled. “Here
goes nothing.”

Chapter Six
     
    After some negotiation,
Darby and I came to a compromise: I’d go to the concert and then
swing by the sorority party on my way back. Blake had a study group
session for a class I wasn’t in, so I hopped on the subway downtown
alone, dressed in jeans and an oversized sweater that I’d grabbed
from our room after the afternoon Rush party had ended.
    Liv was outside, talking
to the doorman as I walked up to the concert. I spotted a
photographer lingering by a side door a little bit away, but he
didn’t pay any attention to me as I walked by. It was still a
little surreal to have to worry about paparazzi, but Blake and I
had mostly fallen off the radar since starting school in
September.
    “ I’m so glad you came,”
Liv grinned, grabbing my hand and leading me inside without paying
the cover. “We go on in ten. Let’s get you a drink.”
    My eyes adjusted to the dark club,
which was already pretty crowded. We wove our way over to the bar,
and Liv handed me a beer. “Want to go backstage?”
    “ Nah,” I said, trying to
avoid the awkwardness of last night. “I’ll just watch from here.
You go get ready — we can hang out later.”
    I knew she was probably itching to go
over last-minute details with the rest of her band. Fall Guy was
big enough that this had to be a huge night for Liv, and being
excited for her made me think about touring with Blake over the
summer, watching my favorite band get ready for shows, night after
night. I felt a grin creep on to my face involuntarily.
    “ Break a leg,” I
said.
    “ I’ll come find you
after,” she called over her shoulder as she walked towards a door
next to the stage.
    I staked out a spot halfway between
the bar and the stage, not wanting to get in the way of the girls
who’d claimed the front-row area an hour before Fall Guy came on.
Teen groupies could be scarier than a zombie mob, and just as
vicious when there was something they wanted.
    Pulling out my cell phone, I quickly
typed a text to Madison telling her about the show. NYU was only a
few blocks away, and I’d barely seen her since classes had
started.
    “ No cell phones in here,”
a guy’s voice behind me startled me as a hand promptly lifted my
cell phone out of my grasp. “I’m going to have to confiscate
that.”
    I wrinkled my eyebrows and looked
around the room, where at least a dozen people were holding phones,
checking email or texting. I turned around to face the person who’d
spoken to me.
    The guy standing behind me was a few
years older than me, with a tousled hair, piercing brown eyes and a
muscular build. He was wearing jeans and a white