Under the Rose

Je

“Do you think she’s going to go tell her society our business?” I asked Josh. “You know every other society on campus is going to crow with delight if they hear about this.”

“Hear about what?” said Josh. “She left before Je

“You’re dating Amy’s roommate?” Je

“Shut up, Je

“I believe her,” I said.

Josh sighed. “So do I. Everyone’s on their way.”

“Everyone?”

“The non-Elysions,” Je

“Tonight?” I said. “On Saturday?” I probably won’t be in until late, George had said. No kidding.

“That’s why we’re concerned,” said Josh. “It must be important if people are giving up their weekend for it. It may be about the information they think Je

Soon after, the rest of the group arrived.

“This had better be good,” said Clarissa. “I’m supposed to be on another date with Mr. Wonderful.”

“Two nights in a row?” said Mara, picking over the pizza. “Wow, it’s true love.”

Greg snatched the last slice of pepperoni out from underneath both of us, and began chomping. “We all canceled plans to be here,” he said. “I expect there’s a reason.”

“I canceled nothing,” said Harun. “And yes, I own my loser status. If you all had parties to go to, the least you could do would be to take me along. Whatever happened to supporting a brother in all his endeavors?”

“We were supporting you in your loserdom,” said Clarissa.

Odile and Demetria arrived and stood on opposite sides of the room. Lover’s spat, perhaps? I raised my eyebrows at Demetria, but she ignored me.

“How long is this going to take?” Demetria asked. “If we’re waiting around for George or Nikolos to get home from the bars, we’ll be here all night.”

“That’s not where they are,” said Josh through clenched teeth.

I’d gotten dressed in Lydia’s room while Je

“I’m getting kind of sick of these constant powwows,” said Odile. “I thought we signed up for two meetings a week, not seventeen.”

“Don’t worry,” said Josh. “This may be the last. Of any kind.” He opened my bedroom door. “Come on out.”

Je

“Holy shit, it’s Boys Don’t Cry,” said Odile.

Je

Only Harun returned her salutation. Everyone else looked pissed.

“So you found her,” sniffed Clarissa. “Great. Can we string her up now?”

“Not quite yet,” said Josh. “Give her five minutes.”

So we listened as Je

And then she segued into the true purpose for the meeting: Elysion. We passed around the printed e-mails and list of participants. To most of the girls, it came as a shock. Mara didn’t look too dismayed, and the boys greeted the news with more disappointment than surprise.

Josh looked at Harun and Greg. “I take it your experiences were pretty much like mine?”

Greg shrugged. “Some of the guys would make these offhand comments,” he said. “I thought they were merely taking the piss out of the girls, and never paid much attention.”

“I think they were judging our responses,” said Josh. “And when we didn’t seem to express any interest in the idea, they didn’t invite us in.”

“I got invited,” said Harun, softly. “At least, in retrospect, I think that’s what they were trying to do.”

All eyes turned to him.

“It was a few months ago, just after Straggler Initiation Night. I went out for drinks with Ben and Nikolos and we were shooting the shit, talking about investment banking, things like that. I didn’t understand how the society worked yet. I thought they were trying to recruit me into some sort of Digger fund-raising committee. I didn’t have time for it—not with all of my other activities. So I said no.” He looked around at all the stricken faces. “I didn’t know what it was. I thought they were trying to get me to volunteer. That was the last I heard of it.”

“So if you’d known, would you have joined?” asked Demetria.

“Hell, no,” Harun said. “I don’t roll with that sexist crap.”

“Really?” said Juno. “I’d have thought—”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “Thanks. I seem to have left all my burkas in my other bag, or I’d give you one.”

“Peace out,” said Demetria. “Can we do the racist commentary later?”

“For your information,” Juno said with a sneer, “it has nothing to do with race. I was going to say that Harun told me he didn’t know they let women in until he arrived in August. I got the impression he wasn’t pleased.”

“It was you who weren’t pleased, if I remember correctly,” said Clarissa. “Hypocritical, sure. But you weren’t pleased.”

“Just because I don’t agree with the principle behind a tax cut doesn’t mean I’m not going to pay anyway,” Mara replied.

“All right, guys, leaving behind the sticky logic for a moment, let’s move along to the point where we figure out what we’re going to do next.” The sooner this was decided, the sooner I could go to bed.

Mara eyed Je

Now who was the paranoid one? Of course, if I’d had a few moments of sleep the previous evening, maybe I’d have ruminated on the possibility as well. “That’s awfully diabolical of her, wouldn’t you say?”

“Takes one to know one,” Clarissa said. “What plan to take down a diabolical organization wouldn’t be equally diabolical?”

“You’re speculating,” said Josh, “that these last few days have been part of an elaborate plot to convince us to trust her when she presented information showing a third of our club has been conspiring against us? Wouldn’t we have believed her more readily before we knew she’d betrayed us all?”

Clarissa pursed her lips. “Okay, you’re right. When you put it like that it does sound a little unlikely.”

Greg snorted and held up one of the Elysion e-mails Je

“Well,” Je

“They can’t do that, though, right?” I asked. “Even if it’s all part of the Tobias Trust Association, they can’t just decide on a new budget that includes secret funds to Elysion without the vote of the board, or of the club. Right?”