Chapter 4
Lizzie, Charlotte and Jane made their way towards the Kappa Pi house at the end of the block. The fraternity certainly wasn't attempting to hide the fact that they were having a party as music coming from the house could be heard several blocks away. Lizzie couldn't help but sarcastically comment on how well they were keeping the party calm and discreet, which earned her amused looks from the other two girls. The Kappa Pi house was massive, somehow even bigger than the Xi Chi house, and had long white columns along the edge of the porch in the front. While Lizzie had certainly seen the Kappa Pi house before, walking home from campus, she had never been paid this much attention to it before.
Jane and Lizzie led Charlotte up the walkway to the house, headed towards the long porch of the house. At first, Lizzie couldn't help but feel a little intimidated, walking up to such a large house, but she quickly reminded herself of how many fraternity parties she had been to and reminded herself that this was no different from any other party. She couldn't help but wonder why this party in particular made her stomach churn, but she decided not to think about that too much.
Just as the three girls made it onto the porch and started to head directly for the door; a short man with sandy blonde hair stopped them before they could reach the front door. "Who do you know here?" the blonde man asked while attempting to puff out his chest in an act to look taller. This young man certainly looked very young, but they could tell that he was a member of the fraternity by the pin attached to his shirt.
"How old are you exactly?" Lizzie challenged back, with one eyebrow quirked, at the blonde boy attempting to block her entrance.
"Lizzie, be nice!" Jane admonished before looking at the young man, "We are in Xi Chi, and a couple of our sisters told us about this party."
The short blonde stared Lizzie down for a second before busting out laughing. "Sorry, sorry! I was told by Carl to sound more authoritative at the door, but unfortunately I think I just looked like a little boy trying to impersonate his dad," the blonde boy laughed and brushed a hand through his hair. "We gotta keep our reputation up as this exclusive, cool guy fraternity, but I'm afraid they picked the wrong pledge to guard the door. The name is Pat, welcome to the house, Xi Chis," Pat opened the door and showed them inside.
"It was nice to meet you Pat, maybe next time go more for a 'cool guy' vibe than a 'tough' vibe. I think you'll have better success," Lizzie offered as she touched his shoulder to brush past him. "The name is Lizzie, by the way," Lizzie said over her shoulder at Pat.
The three girls entered the house and looked around. "I can't believe they throw parties here," Charlotte began as she looked around. She opened her arms in a wide gesture before saying, "I mean look at this place; it's incredible."
Lizzie nodded her head in agreement, as she stared wide-eyed around the entryway. The house literally looked like it could be an exhibit straight out of a museum. Usually, fraternity houses were pretty grimy and dirty, with any expensive items owned by the fraternity hidden away in the house attic or storage locker somewhere off-campus. This was not the case at Kappa Pi.
The Kappa Pi house had priceless pieces of art hanging on the walls, which was in direct contrast to normal fraternity houses. Usually house foyer featured tacky posters and composite photos of the fraternity that people would usually draw on with markers, but things were different at Kappa Pi. It was only the loud thumping sound of the music downstairs that reminded the girls that they were indeed at a fraternity party and not the opening of a new art exhibit.
"If you ladies are done gawking at my beautiful house like a bunch of freshman," Pat called behind them with a laugh, "the actual party area is down the stairs and to the left. Head towards the basement kitchen to get your drink."
"Oh, yeah, right, thanks, Pat!" Jane called back towards Patrick, clearly flustered at being caught staring at the house with such obvious awe.
Jane corralled Charlotte and Lizzie away from the gorgeous entry and down the stairs. As they continued down the stairs the music became louder, and the girls knew they were headed in the right direction. Eventually, the narrow stairs opened up to a large basement with a kitchen to the left and a large open space on the right featuring a DJ booth, a dance floor, a beer pong table, and several other tall tables surrounded by groups of people. The girls did a quick survey of the area surrounding them and quickly headed for the kitchen to grab a quick drink before going out into the throngs of dancing people.
Lizzie led the way into the kitchen and was quickly surrounded by a large group of drunken young people laughing and talking. Lizzie always got a bit overwhelmed by fraternity parties at first, so a drink always helped loosen up her anxieties a bit. So, as tradition, as soon as Lizzie saw all of the people around her she headed straight for the drink line, and the other two girls followed her lead.
"Oh, Lizzie! I'm surprised you're here!" Lydia yelled coming up behind the group and swinging her arms around Lizzie and Jane.
"Lydia, you saw me getting ready, we even talked about the party tonight," Lizzie responded while rolling her eyes at her silly sister.
"Oh yeah, well I didn't think you'd actually make it out of the house. I kinda thought that maybe I was dreaming that you weren't even there at all," Lydia responded laughing while taking a sip out of her drink. "Anyways, did you hear the latest scouting report?" Lydia asked seriously while stepping in front of Charlotte, effectively cutting her out of the conversation.
"No, what do you mean scouting report? I didn't know that you were interested in sports, Lydia," Jane began with a confused look on her face, "Which sport are we talking about? I'm afraid I don't know much about any sport other than tennis–"
"Don't fall for it, Jane, it's a trap!" Lizzie quickly cut in dramatically, eyeing Lydia suspiciously.
"Shut it Lizzie! Why Jane I am talking about the most important sport of all… Man hunting!" Lydia exclaimed with a laugh.
Lizzie looked behind Lydia to Charlotte who was attempting to appear annoyed with Lydia's blatant gossiping, but Lizzie could tell through Charlotte's intense eyes and the fact that she was physically leaning in towards Lydia, that she was interested in what Lydia was saying. Lizzie laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation: Lydia swelling with pride over the important gossip, Jane blushing at Lydia's clear forwardness and Charlotte pretending she didn't care about any of it.
"Lizzie, I am so glad you are laughing at some very important information that I know for a fact involves you," Lydia responded with her head turned up faux-indignantly. Lizzie put a hand on Lydia's shoulder, a friendly gesture encouraging her to continue. "So I just heard about the future President and VP of Social Activities of Kappa Pi, so the main two people you guys will be directly working with on this upcoming party!" Lydia exclaimed excitedly.
"Whoa, whoa, Lyd that's a big if for me. We all know Jane will be our next President, but honestly it will be a miracle if I make it onto executive board," Lizzie looked pointedly at both Jane and Lydia. Jane blushed at Lizzie's clear vote of confidence and Lydia waved both of them off, as if it were obvious that both Lizzie and Jane would win the election.
"Ok, ok, enough being all shy and self-conscious, it's unbecoming of you Lizzie. Anyways, back to the gossip! So apparently both of them are super gorgeous, like real model material and also they are super, super loaded!" Lydia squeaked out, "The President is named Charlie, and he is super friendly and kind! I heard that he also is super beautiful: dark curly hair, blue eyes, six foot five, the whole package. Someone even described him as the male Jane, ha, as if he could ever be that friendly! I don't really know anything about the Vice President other than he is blonde."
Jane laughed, "Oh Lydia, I'm sure is much friendlier and kinder than me. I am barely either of those things. Oh, well I am excited to meet the new President, he sounds quite amazing."
"Yeah, so amazing he sounds unreal, probably because he is," Lizzie responded, "Oh hell yes, we are almost to the front of this line." Lizzie reached up and grabbed three red plastic cups filled with some mix of fruit juice and really strong alcohol. As a freshman Lizzie was always very wary of these mysterious mixed drinks, but at this point Lizzie trusted Greek life enough to know that other than a wicked hangover, nothing too bad could really come from these drinks. Lizzie handed one of the cups to Jane and the other to Charlotte, and Lydia led the whole group over to a table in the main room.
Once the group got there they met another young man who introduced himself as Dennis, a pledge of Kappa Pi. "Oh, Denny, won't you pretty please introduce us to the President of Kappa Pi? We have in our very midst the future President of Xi Chi, Jane," Lydia began, turning on her full charm, "Oh please, please. It would make me so very happy, then maybe we could dance together?"
"Oh, fine Lydia. Come this way ladies," Dennis relented and led them over to the corner where two men were standing, looking out at the crowd of people. Lizzie could tell that these guys were the very ones Lydia had been gossiping about previously, since everything about them oozed importance. They were both standing in the corner surveying everything happening in the party around them. The man on the right must have been the one that Lydia called Charlie, he was tall, dark haired and beautiful. The other man, the unknown social VP, was shorter, although still tall in his own right, and had messy blonde hair and brown eyes.
The shorter man was smiling and chatting to the tall President, the short man seemed rather friendly in stark contrast to the President, who didn't appear to live up to Lydia's description of nice and kind, as he had a rather unbecoming scowl plastered on his face. Even with the scowl, Lizzie couldn't deny that this Charlie character was absolutely gorgeous, with the mess of dark curls on his head and piercing blue eyes, she couldn't help but feel a little pang of jealousy that Jane would get to work with Charlie.
"Hey guys, sorry to bother you, but I just wanted to introduce you to some Xi Chi sisters, this is Lydia over here," Dennis gestured to Lydia, who shamelessly batted her eyes at the two guys, "And this is uh…" here Dennis left off, clearly forgetting the other girls names.
"I'm Lizzie and this is Jane and Charlotte. It's really nice to meet you guys" Lizzie filled in for Dennis; she offered her hand first to the blonde guy and then to the dark haired guy. The blonde shook her hand emphatically while the dark haired man merely raised an eyebrow at her and refused to meet her hand.
The shorter, blonde fellow smiled and responded, "Hello, nice to meet you, my name is Charlie and this is Will Darcy," Charlie gestured to the man that Lizzie previously believed to be Charlie. "I'm the incoming Vice President of Social Activities, and Will here is future President of Kappa Pi!" Charlie continued with enthusiasm while quickly glancing over everyone until his eyes landed on Jane.
"Oh, what a coincidence! Jane here is going to be our new President and Lizzie is likely going to be our Vice President of Risk Management!" Lydia replied cheerfully before grabbing Dennis and Charlotte and leading both of them to the dance floor.
"Oh, well, hopefully future President. Elections aren't until Sunday, and I really don't want to jinx anything," Jane elaborated to Charlie.
"Well, as we just had elections last weekend, I would love to give you any tips on elections," Charlie began, "Not that you would need it or anything, or that my tips would be any good really. Sorry, I really didn't mean to come off so arrogant or sexist there." Charlie grimaced at his own words until looking up at Jane's smiling face. Lizzie instantly liked that Charlie had enough sense to check his privilege and not man-splain.
"No, no, I would love any advice you have. I am honestly quite nervous about the whole thing," Jane laughed and looked at Charlie genuinely.
"Here, let's go refill our drinks and talk some more about it," Charlie replied, but then suddenly seemed to remember that Lizzie and Will were still there. "I mean all of us, c'mon Will," Charlie continued and grabbed Will.
"If you insist Charles," Will replied tersely. It wasn't until the group of four made their way towards the kitchen that Lizzie was finally able to get a good look at Will up close. She had previously been so distracted by the Jane and Charlie's interaction that she hadn't gotten the chance to really look at Will. She still hadn't quite gotten over the shock that Will was not the sweet and outgoing Charlie, as Lydia had previously described. As they made their way over to the kitchen, Lizzie continued to stare at Will, trying to figure him out.
Lizzie began to think about what exactly she knew about him: he was tall, gorgeous, and according to Lydia, rich. He didn't shake her hand when she offered hers and he was the only person to call Charlie, Charles. Also, he was the President of Kappa Pi, so that meant they would be spending a lot of time with him. Just as Lizzie was thinking about just how much time they would have to spend together, she was suddenly interrupted by slamming into, what felt like, a giant, hard wall.
"Oh, sorry, I wasn't paying attention. I didn't mean to –" Lizzie began, looking up, realizing that she had just ran straight into Will.
"Clearly," Will responded while staring at her sharply, "Maybe you've already had a bit too much to drink if you can't walk without slamming into me."
"OK, well first off, who the hell do you think you are?" Lizzie replied icily, while pointing a finger at Will.
"Excuse me, I have to go," Will replied quickly, before Lizzie could finish, and left the room.
Lizzie was beyond livid. She couldn't believe the nerve of Will, accusing her of drinking too much and then leaving because he couldn't take the heat for his own comment. Lizzie was about to follow him and give him a piece of her mind when she was suddenly stopped by the image of Charlotte standing by herself in the corner of the room. While Lizzie was certainly angry at Will, she was more overwhelmed with concern for her friend, so Lizzie headed over to Charlotte, and filled her in on what had just happened.
"Well, at least Jane seems to be doing better than you," Charlotte replied with a laugh and pointed over to Jane and Charlie on the dance floor together. "They seem to be getting along, really great," Charlotte said while wiggling her eyebrows in a pointed fashion.
"C'mon let's go leave those two crazy kids alone and play some beer pong!" Lizzie exclaimed while dragging Charlotte across the room to the beer pong table. Lizzie and Charlotte put their name on the list hanging on the wall next the room and watched a couple of games to help pass the time while they waited until it was their turn.
Lizzie then noticed that Charlie and Will were standing a few feet away from her and they were talking in hushed tones to one another. So Lizzie got Charlotte's attention and gestured at the two men. Both Lizzie and Charlotte silently walked closer to them until they could make out exactly what they were saying.
"Oh, c'mon Will, you should dance! You know that Carl is still the President for this party, so it's not your job to watch over the party quite yet. You might as well enjoy this party while you can. Why don't you dance with someone? What about the other Xi Chi girl, Jane's friend, Lizzie? She was really quite pretty as well, and plus she's into risk management like you!" Charlie said to Will.
Lizzie blushed at the compliment Charlie gave her, and Charlotte gave Lizzie an approving nod and smile.
"Oh yes? The one who gets so drunk she can't walk straight? I bet she drinks so much that she can't even remember most nights. If that's what their risk management is like, I am really not looking forward to this social with Xi Chi," Will responded icily.
"Whoa, slow down, what's your damage, Will?" Charlie asked confused by Will's obvious contempt for the girl they just met, "She seemed fine to me."
"Yes, well, let's just say that you clearly don't know her like I do. Besides she's not my type anyways, she's too chubby. Just drop it Charlie, go back to dancing with that Jane girl. She's actually pretty and can at least handle her alcohol," Will replied before they both walked out of earshot of Lizzie and Charlotte.
Once they left Lizzie turned her head to see Charlotte looking at her with concern. "Are you alright Lizzie? None of what he said was true, you know that right?" Charlotte began while grabbing Lizzie into a tight hug.
"Well, I guess I didn't expect a glowing review after the total shit conversation Will and I had before, but I didn't think he would actually hate me before he got to know me," Lizzie began. "Hey, Char, I'm alright, really. Let's just kick some ass at beer pong," Lizzie concluded while maneuvering herself out of Charlotte's embrace.
The girls played a few games of beer pong, at which they were undefeated, before Jane found them. Jane cheered them on for their last game, but after that the three realized how late it was and decided to go home. Charlotte agreed to stay in Lizzie and Jane's room that earlier that night, as the three of them planned on talking about what happened at the party. However, as soon as they made it back to their room in the Xi Chi house and changed into sweatpants, they were all too tired to stay up and talk. The girls agreed that they would talk about it in the morning, and then promptly fell asleep.
Author's Note:
OK, so I am just officially changing my update day to Wednesday, because clearly that is when I am actually able to finish chapters by. (Since it's Wednesday in Ireland, that's what I'm going with.) I tried to make up for the fact that I was late by making this chapter long and juicy.
A huge shout-out to ReaderLoverNumber1, IrishJessy, Faye, . .dicho, and swimmy6 for reviewing! Your reviews make me want to write and update faster, so please keep writing them! What did you guys think of Darcy and Bingley?
So we still don't know who the 'Reluctant Prince Charming' is, but don't worry, you'll be getting some clues soon enough, I promise!