“You took your sweet time getting here,” Aleah said to me sharply as I walked through the front door of the GAT house. There were about twenty girls sitting in the living room all of them with varying levels of annoyance written on their faces. Why were we here? What was going on?

“I walked as slowly as I could,” I snapped back. She rolled her eyes and pointed to an empty chair across from Tiffany.

“Okay, now that EVERYONE is here,” She said, glaring in my direction. “Let’s get to work on our little problem.”

“Wait, what problem?” I sat down and surveyed the room, most everyone was looking at me. I was starting to get really, really worried. “What did I do?”

“It isn’t something you did,” Aleah sighed. “Okay, everyone, I’ve called this meeting because Audrey’s ex made good on her stupid threat, whatever her threat was supposed to be. The situation is this: She’s called Panhellenic and told them that we’ve been allowing a boy to live in the house.”

There was an audible gasp throughout the room, clearly it was news to many of them, and especially me.

“Don’t panic,” Lauren stood up to address all of us. “Seriously, don’t panic, it’s not going to help anyone right now. Panhellenic is sending a representative out here and they’re going to question all of us, so…all we need to do is get our story straight.”

“Wait,” I blurted out, turning bright red as everyone in the room turned to look at me. “What…what are you going to tell them? You can’t just-“

“We’re going to tell them the truth, Audrey,” Tiffany told me softly. “We’re going to tell them that we’ve been helping you with your transition, and that we’re hoping to bring you on as a pledge next year. National will love it, we’re being inclusive, we’re helping you. We’ll be fine.”

“No wait wait, wait,” I shook my head and gripped the armrests. “It’s…it’s enough that Tri Pi knows, and you guys know but…I can’t have this getting around. What if more people find out? I…I don’t want this to happen, you can’t do this.”

“Sorry, Audrey,” Aleah stood and stepped toward me. “This isn’t about you anymore, this is about the survival of our chapter. If they think we’re keeping a guy in here, they’re going to shut us down, and then what?”

“Yeah but-“

“No buts!” Courtney interrupted. “Panhellenic isn’t going to spill your secret, they’ll just come here, they’ll do an investigation, everyone will tell them the truth, and it’ll be over with. Then we can go on with our lives like nothing happened.”

“No,” I shook my head. “No, no, other people could find out, I don’t want them to know. Seriously, there has to be another way.”

“Jesus, Audrey, calm down,” Tiffany rolled her eyes. “If anything this is going to help you. If Panhellenic already knows about you and knows that we’ve been working with you, then it’ll be a lot easier for you to get in next year. A LOT easier than if you’d just appeared out of the blue. Do you want to join GAT?”

“I…I do,” I nodded. I really did. I loved the idea of being part of a sorority and as crazy as it sounded, GAT had sort of become like family to me over the last few weeks. Yeah, that did sound crazy after everything they’d done, didn’t it? “I just…I’m afraid.”

A silence fell over the room, I had nothing more to say really, and I guess they were trying to figure out what they wanted to say to me. Tiffany, laid an arm on the rest of her chair and stared at me from across the room. Aleah, looked down at her phone for a moment and then let out a sigh.

“Our Panhellenic investigator will be out here…tomorrow,” She laid the phone down on the endtable beside her chair. “I guess they want to get this over with fast. Go figure.”

“Then,” Lauren clapped her hands. “I want to make sure everyone is clear on what we’re doing. The investigator isn’t going to just talk to us as a group, she’ll separate us and try to get us to say something different. She wants to catch us in a lie. There are like, too many of us to pull off a large scale coverup, someone is going to slip up, so what you tell her is that we met Audrey a few weeks ago, she wanted help with transitioning, and we obliged.”

“Fan-fucking-tastic,” Aleah shook her head.

“We can’t really get away with this, can we?” A girl asked from the other side of the room. “I mean, you let Audrey stay here a few nights, that’s against the rules, we’re going to get found out.”

“Not if you don’t say anything,” Aleah pointed out. “We’re all here, and that’s the one thing all of us need to agree on: Audrey has never stayed the night here, Audrey has never posed a threat to the house, and we haven’t hurt Audrey in any way. Now, we need to practice, make sure we all line up, because-“

“No way,” Another girl said, standing up. “I can’t do this. This is more than just our charter, if this gets back to the dean we could all be expelled, I can’t be a part of this.”

“Then leave,” Aleah snapped. “But don’t screw it up for everyone else.”

“I’m with her,” A redhead stood up. “You’ve taken this way too far, we’re going to get hosed.”

“I’m sorry, Audrey,” A blonde girl, Erika I think, said to me. “I like you, a lot, but I’m not going to risk my education. My parents would kill me.”

“You’re all being over-dramatic,” Tiffany rolled her eyes. “What’s the worst that can happen?”

“You attacked her, you tied her up, and you’ve been basically manipulating her for weeks,” Erika said. “So what if she tells them that?”

“I’d never say that!” I suddenly shouted. “Oh my god who do you think I am?! We all played a part in this! It’s my fault, it’s your fault, it’s everyone’s fault, and it’s fucking unfortunate but-“

“Audrey, calm down,” Aleah instructed me. “I have a plan, it’s going to work, we just have to stick to it.”

“I’m sorry, but no,” Erika stood and walked toward the stairs. “I’m getting my stuff, and I’m leaving. I can’t be a part of this anymore.”

“Same for me,” Another girl said, following Erika toward the stairs.

“I’m sorry,” Someone else said.

All in all, ten girls, stood and left the room, off to their own rooms to pack.

“That’s fucking unfortunate,” Tiffany muttered. “Okay, are the rest of you onboard? Great, so let’s rehearse our story.”

“I’m going home,” I sighed. “I…I need to be somewhere else, anywhere else.”

“Fine, Audrey,” Aleah said. “Just make sure you’re around if we call.”

“You know where to find me,” I walked to the door now on the verge of tears. It seemed to me that like always, I had ruined everything with my presence. My soul was sinking into a pit of despair, my legs like lead as I exited the GAT house. I was always the problem, and it would never change.