My Date with the Frat President

Ch. 16 - An Adorably Loyal Puppy

"You can forget the article. It's not happening."

Kevin stares at me with complete shock and a little bit of disgust on his face. "Chapman, I have spent months waiting on you and your stupid little article. Are you kidding?"

"I'm not writing it, Kevin," I say firmly. "You can give the highlight story to Gabby's article."

The other students at the newspaper were sitting in a shocked, mutual silence. They stare at the two of us with wide eyes and dropped jaws. No one talks back to the head editor like this.

"Gabby's article sucks!" Kevin screams. "This could've been huge, Chapman. Like I said, Barstool, Channel 8, even Good Morning America!"

I cover my mouth with my hand to hide a laugh. "I think that's a bit of a stretch."

"You are making a career-ending mistake."

"Kevin, I'm twenty-one years old. This is just the start of my career." I pick up my backpack from the corner of the room and walk out.

Total girl boss move.

I hear the gossipy whispers as I walk down the hallway and roll my eyes. Please, as if I care about what Nosy Nelly and Gabbing Gabby think about it.

Joseph chases after me. He still looks awestruck from my announcement. "What happened? What made you decide to drop the article?"

"I can't do it to Aiden. I know we talked about blurring his face in the video, but the whole newspaper still knows which Frat he's in. I know one of those big-mouths would leak it for their fifteen-seconds of fame. Aiden would still end up getting in trouble."

I know I made the right decision. It felt so good finally dropping the article. I can finally be a hundred-percent real with Aiden without this secret lingering between us. It's done.

"You know I support whatever you do, Brook, but I just... Is he worth it?"

I think about the way that Aiden makes me feel, so confident and cool and beautiful. He makes me feel like a strong woman. I just know that it's special.

"He is," I say sheepishly. "I know it's only been a few months, and we just started officially dating, but he's different than anyone I've ever met."

Joseph nods. "Then I support it. And you know Sophie's going to be so happy to hear this. She would not stop complaining about it to me." Joseph goes on to make a terrible impression of Sophie.

I interrupt him. "I'm going to the store today. What do you want me to get for Friendsgiving?"

"Oh," Joseph sighs, "I thought Sophie told you."

"Told me what?"

"I'm actually going to go home with her this year. Be with her family instead."

Because I live a plane ride away, I usually stay on campus for Thanksgiving break with Joseph, who is also on campus for work. I wait until holiday break to buy my tickets instead of spending the money back-to-back.

We always go all out for our annual Friendsgiving the past two years. We buy and stuff a turkey, mash the potatoes, make the cornucopia, all the works. Last year, we ended up getting too drunk off wine and burnt the turkey.