geed | clairo

thirteen

it was a typical monday afternoon at the theta xi house. aaron, blane and john gordon godke, the freshmen spring pledges were sitting on the sofa in the house while brady, jesse and i stood over them, watching them intently.

"john gordon, how many years was it between the time james adams disassociated from kappa pi to form theta xi?" i asked, looking at the pledge.

"twelve?" he said, seeming to guess. it turned out to be a lucky guess.

"correct," chimed in brady.

"aaron, how many brothers were in the first class of theta xi men?" questioned jesse. aaron crossed his right leg over his left knee before answering.

"uh, nine."

"correct," chimed in brady. brady had nothing to add due to the fact that he had spent most of his pledgeship drunk and couldn't remember any information unless he was in the state.

"blane, who established the new orleans university theta xi chapter?" i asked.

"john harden."

"good job, boys. you may go back to whatever you were doing before this," dismissed jesse. aaron, john gordon and blane scurried off quickly, leaving the house and presumably going back to campus.

jesse, brady and i settled into the couch and began to think.

"i think we should do the initiation ceremony two weeks from now. it gives us time to prepare everything and it's not too close to the spring formal," said jesse. i nodded in agreement while brady got up and went to the kitchen.

"who should initiate them?" i asked.

"i think zane should initiate someone since it's his final semester and he's never done it before," replied jesse.

"do you wanna initiate someone?" i questioned. he shook his head as brady returned with a bottle of beer.

"zane should totally initiate john gordon since they're on the tennis team together," suggested brady, taking a sip of beer. jesse and i nodded in agreement.

"yo, you should initiate blane and be his big," said brady.

"really?"

"yeah, you're a chill ass dude, you're involved with shit and you're fucking a theta phi. you're like the gold standard of your pledge class, paul," complimented brady.

"uh, i can initiate blane, but, uh, i'm not dating georgie," i corrected.

"damn, that's a shame. she's fine and she's a god at skating. are you seeing anyone or are you just playing the field?" asked brady.

"i'm seeing this girl, uh, her name's lara." jesse remained silent as tension between brady and i rose.

"lara holland? isn't she that weird geed chick?" questioned brady.

"i gotta go. uh, i gotta bring millie grocery shopping," said jesse, excusing himself by using his great aunt and getting up from the sofa. after he left, it was just brady and i sitting together.

"paul, when i say fuck geeds, i don't actually mean fuck them," said brady. he finished his beer and set the empty bottle down next to his feet.

"she's a cool girl and i like her."

"aight, i can't tell you who to fuck, but i swear to god if she makes you one of those sensitive art cucks, i'm gonna firebomb the art building," threatened brady.

brady field was easily the biggest wildcard of theta xi. it could've been the fact that j.d. was his big or the fact that he was part of the field family, one of the wealthiest families in louisiana but absolutely hated it. he was the younger son of his family, meaning he wasn't groomed to take over the family business of merchandising, but was left to his own pursuits. his pursuits being geology, day drinking and golfing meant he was out of the public eye and therefore could do whatever he wanted. this combination both interested me and scared me considering he was easily one of the more powerful students at our university, he just didn't realize it.