SSS(SS) - Part 6

“Oh gosh,” Lindsay says as she walks into the kitchen to find Sal still her in sweaty workout clothes, moodily eating a pint of ice cream with the lights off. “What happened?”

“Nothing,” Sal replies, well aware that she’s not convincing anyone. The house is full, but everyone has things to do.

“Is this really happening?” Lindsay asks, sitting across from her. “Are you getting your heart broken by a CCL girl? That’s like getting your heart broken by T Swift. It’s like what did you expect?”

“It’s not that,” Sal says with an eye roll. Fooling around with Meri had been nice, but Sal hadn’t been making plans around her. The fooling around had just ended a little more suddenly than Sal had been ready for. Maybe it wasn’t over. She just didn’t know.

“This will sound bad, but I’ve never seen someone who needs dick as much as you do right now.”

“That does sound bad,” Sal says.

Linsday shrugs. “I’m not taking it back.” She falls silent as a girl enters the kitchen to wash her hands. When she’s gone, she forces eye contact. “What’s the problem?”

“I might have messed up.”

“Since when are you supposed to be perfect?”

“Since,” Sal begins, annoyed. What is the answer to that question? She pictures Athena sitting across from her in that booth. Athena when Sal bullied her. Athena a few hours ago at the gym. “Since I’ve kind of gotten to see how someone better than me at this acts.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Never mind.” Sal waves her spoon. “I’m stressing out because I might be in trouble, I guess.” That was both true and easy to understand.

Lindsay nods. “Can I help?”

“You’re helping,” Sal assures her. It means something to her that Lindsay noticed and cared enough to check on her. Athena probably doesn’t have this problem. Sal has listened… at length… to Meri talking about her perfect, angelic, goddess Onee-Sama.

Sal never saw that side of Athena, but she’s seen it now and it’s hard not to feel insecure. She’s not unpopular. She won her election comfortably and the vibes in CGH House are fine. But nobody is talking about her the way that Meri talks about Athena.

But what’s the difference between them? Athena’s a year older, sure. She’s pretty.

Athena might be smart, but Sal is a D1 athlete. She doesn’t need to feel inferior about something like this. What is it? That Athena is a symbol of progressive values because she went with CCL? No. CGH might look old-fashioned next to CCL, but at this point, the two sororities are more similar than different.

There’s something about Athena, though. It’s her poise. Holding it together in bad situations. It’s elegant.

Sal scowls and shovels ice cream into her mouth.

Bad situations.