Page 1 of Scandal
Chapter One
MERCURY
You know the feeling of a scratchy shirt tag on the back of your neck? Or a bug bite that just won’t stop itching? You try to ignore it, but the more you do, the more it drives you crazy.
That is what LuAnn Miller’s laugh sounds like to me.
It’s high-pitched, off-key, and far too loud for such a small restaurant.
I should never have agreed to this. But when your sorority sisters plan an evening out to catch up, it’s not really a request. It’s a summons, and I’ve had it on my calendar for weeks…and it’s not like I have a lot of options when it comes to social events lately.
Back in college, I naïvely thought that joining a sorority would be a quick way to make friends. The numbers seemed to work in my favor. There was a large number of girls in a relatively small space. Surely, I’d connect with at least a few of them, right?
But I failed to factor in the fact that most girls who joined my particular sorority were, in fact, very different from me.
I was dead set on finishing college with a perfect GPA, two majors, one minor, and the knowledge that I had done sowithout any help from my very influential family. My sorority sisters? They, too, were overachievers, but instead of being laser-focused like me, they wanted the full college experience, full of frat boys and beer pong.
I guess I missed the memo that college is supposed to be fun.
Four years later, I’m sitting in a fancy restaurant, listening to LuAnn Miller ramble about her first year of law school and the internship she’s trying to land, still unsure if I understand what the word means.
But I definitely know this isn’t it. This dinner is the opposite of fun.
“First-year students rarely get selected, but I’m hoping to be an exception,” she says with an obvious pause at the end. Her chestnut hair is swept back into a flawless ponytail, and it annoys me how similar we look. Right down to the designer jeans and blouse.
Lauren, a curvy blonde with a serious pick-me complex, is the first to fall for the bait. “You’ll get it, LuLu. They’d be crazy not to pick you.”
“Well, I did wear my favorite low-cut sweater for the interview.” Her lips curl into a wicked smile. “For luck, of course.”
Ew. Gross.
She laughs again, along with a few others at the table. The sound of it makes me want to scale the walls and fling myself out the window.
Aren’t we supposed to be the generation fighting sexism in the workplace, not promoting it?
Trying to tune her out, I look around the table and am surprised when I notice a few of my sisters who look just as uncomfortable as I do.
Clearly, I’m not the only one who doesn’t want to be here tonight.
“Mercury,” LuAnn, who has appointed herself the leader of tonight’s festivities, turns to address me. She’s always enjoyed being the center of attention, after all. “What have you been up to since graduation? Are you dating anyone? Where are you working?”
Everyone turns their heads in my direction. I feel like I’m right back in that stuffy old sorority house during one of our monthly meetings, and she’s just asked me if I have anything to contribute to the conversation.
I know what you’re thinking. Why didn’t you just drop out, Merc? Leave the sorority life behind if it wasn’t for you?
I should have. Especially when I discovered the only reason they accepted me was because of my last name. My family, thanks to my father, is legendary in the music industry and, therefore, legendary in Los Angeles, where I went to school. His company, the Creed Agency, manages some of the biggest talent in the world.
In a sorority of overachievers and nepo babies, I fit right in.
Or at least, I should have.
But I’m stubborn. Annoyingly so. And once I start something, I find it hard to walk away, even if I hate it.
Even if I’m miserable.
“Uh, no. I’m not dating anyone. And I’m?—”
She snorts. “I forgot. Mercury doesn’t date, does she?” Why is she talking like I’m suddenly not here?
