Hope for Her (Hope #1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

planned.
    In the two weeks since arriving in Florida, I met two guys. One seemed afraid of me, and the other seemed annoyed with me.
    Neither guy seemed in the mood to pursue me. Matt, my high school boyfriend, had noticed me and pursued me.
    Maybe Jessica was right. If I wanted a guy, I needed to go after him. The thought made me nauseous. I had limited experience in this arena.
    I liked Jackson's confidence, and let's face it, the man had an amazing body. My hormones reacted when I thought of him.
    Josh's quiet nature also attracted me, and he was easy to look at, too. The sadness behind his eyes made me want to save him, but at the same time, we jabbed at each other like a couple of boxers.
    I have issues; I know.
    I wanted them both.
    Melinda had gone out with a different guy every night since we arrived on campus with ease. I was a college student. I was allowed to do stupid stuff.
    How hard can it be?
    I answered Jackson's text message.
    Carrington:  Congrats on putting a well-structured English sentence together. Your punctuation was correct, too.
    Jackson:  LOL. Lookin forward to seeing you.
    Carrington: I'll try and make it.
    Jackson: ☺
    I sent Josh a text asking him the details for the party he mentioned. I figured I’d hit both.
    He texted me right back.
    Josh: Phi Kappa Pi House, 444 West Park Avenue. See you at 9:00 pm
    My heart sank.
    Jackson's party and Josh's party were one and the same. Turns out both guys belonged to the same Phi Kappa Pi fraternity. I got two invitations on the same night by two different guys to the same party.
    Seriously, this stuff only happens to me.
    Carrington: See you there.
    I created a new definition for playing the field; two guys on the same night and in the same fraternity. In a campus of over 45,000 kids, what were the odds?  I rolled over and reread the text to make sure I had it correct. Same place, the same night, the same party. I screamed into my pillow as Melinda and Jessica walked in and stood by the door.
    "What's wrong?" Melinda asked.
    "You guys want to go to a party tonight?"
     

Chapter Five
     
    Carrington Olivia Butler
    Our first time going out ritual involved hair, makeup, the proper outfit, two bottles of wine, and a bottle of tequila. Melinda's brother, a senior at FSU, dropped it off at the dorm before he headed out for the night. We drank the wine first. When we worked ourselves into a good buzz, we broke open the tequila.
    "You didn't tell me who invited you to this party. PKP is my boyfriend’s fraternity," Jessica said.
    "Some guy in my Calculus class." I flipped through my closet trying to find an outfit that would deliver the right message.
    I needed the lay of the land before I arrived. I figured with so many people; I needed to keep them in two different parts of the house.
    Oh yeah, and not get caught.
    "How many people are at these parties, anyway?" I asked.
    "Oh, it will be wall to wall. Sweaty bodies pressed up against each other the whole night."
    I fell on my bed shoulders slumped. Who was I kidding? This never worked on television. I pictured the Friends episode where Phoebe dated two guys. She had fun, but it left her exhausted.
        I reached over and grabbed the tequila bottle. I took a shot and got dressed. By the time we started walking toward fraternity row, I had forgotten my nerves, and by the time we made it to the frat house, I had formulated a brilliant plan. Hook up with the first guy I saw.
    Josh's whole adorable and needy thing tugged at my heart. Jackson's body awakened other things. He was hot; no other adjective existed to describe him. I just wasn't sure who to root for.
    What should have been a ten-minute walk to fraternity row took a long time. We waited for Melinda's date for twenty minutes in the student union. We lost another thirty minutes partying at the wrong fraternity house. We found the right house and waited for Jessica's boyfriend to come and get us because the line to enter snaked down the lawn and into