The truth

Athena sighs. She doesn’t look surprised that you’re calling her out on this. You want to give ground, but you don’t. You could easily back off, apologize, and tell her that she doesn’t have to talk about it if she doesn’t want to… but that is not the right move. It’s obvious that she’s keeping a secret, but this isn’t about the secret, it’s about giving her a chance to talk about what’s bothering her.

She gazes at you. She’s deliberating.

“Are you cold?” you ask her.

She looks surprised, then she smiles and cocks her head. She’s snug under her covers. You’re the one who’s mostly naked and sitting on the edge of the bed.

“Sure,” she says, lifting the covers. You eagerly climb in with her and snuggle beside her. Like that, with her warm body against yours, you look up at her expectantly.

“You were saying?”

“Oh my god,” she says with a laugh, putting her arm around you. She sighs again and looks at the ceiling. “Look, Meri. I have to bend over backward right now to keep CGH happy.”

“Why?”

“Because we can’t afford to have trouble with them.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Look, there’s always been a lot of… pranks and stuff. Most of it is fine, but there’ve been some problems. We can’t take on that kind of liability in the shape that we’re in,” she explains sensibly. This is why you are so attracted to her. Is this a kink? “OK, if one of them comes here and does something and gets hurt, or god forbid one of us does something stupid… the university has never loved CCL, and they wouldn’t mind an excuse to get rid of us.”

“Oh,” you say. You never thought about all this.

“Sal is smart,” Athena says, as though the fact annoys her. “She knows. And she wants us gone too.”

“Why?”

“Because we keep hurting CGH’s bottom line. Look, the Gurlberg campus of UoF is known for one thing: CCL. CGH wants to mean something.”

“Athena, there’s room for two sororities,” you say.

“Of course there is. We appeal to different things. Having CCL on your resume is good when you want to show that you have spirit. Having CGH should be good on your resume for sports… in theory. But if you look back, CCL’s had a way of poaching girls that frankly belong in CGH.”

“Like who?” you ask.

“Like Yuki,” Athena says bluntly. “And maybe you. You’re a fast swimmer, right?”

“I’m not really competitive,” you say, embarrassed.

“Maybe you should be. My point is that how does it look for the sporty sorority when some of the sportiest girls are partying will CCL? Besides, if we were gone, everyone who wanted to be in a sorority would have to go to CGH. Half of them are gay anyway. Even girls who just join for the sex,” Athena says, and you twitch guiltily, “…could still have fun there. Sal knows. This isn’t a big town. This campus isn’t amazing. Why would she want to compete with CCL if she didn’t have to?”

“Because not everything has to be a competition,” you say.

Athena smiles down at you. “You’re sweet, Meri. But that’s just not how it works.”