Bran looked up into the faces of almost thirty upset and angry girls and briefly wondered how things had gotten to this low point. He sat in a sorority house tied up on the ground with half a sorority, reinforcements on the way, out for his blood.
He thought back on how his brother's fraternity had sent him over to negotiate.
Him
. He wasn't even a fucking brother of the fucking house and they'd sent him to do their dirty work! This was the last time he was letting Daniel pull the "remember who got that chick to pop your eighth-grade cherry...?"
Of course, things hadn't been quite how they had described. Bran had been led to believe that things would go smoothly; all he had to do was ensure that several disposable cameras with sensitive pictures of several sorority girls would be returned with their film intact for the return of a stack of sex tapes the fraternity had been creating.
When he had arrived to negotiate, he'd been jumped and tied up with what looked and felt like bondage gear. Black, frizzy rope wound around him all over, leaving his arms tied uncomfortably behind his back and his left leg curled up like he was sitting on his knees. He grunted as a foot prodded him for an answer.
"Who the fuck told you it was okay to come here
without
proof that you're gonna make good on what you say? Do you think we're stupid?" the apparent chapter president asked impatiently.
"The fuck is wrong with you?! What proof?!" Bran snapped back.
The girl didn't look pleased with his answer. "The cameras, asshat!" she shouted.
"Well how can I go get the cameras if I'm tied the fuck up?! Nobody told me I was supposed to bring them
today
!" Bran was fuming mad. There were two girls looking through his wallet in front of him on top of the fact that the chapter president was berating him like he was some kind of idiot for walking into a clearly unstable situation.
She rubbed her face with her hand in an exasperated gesture. "I knew we should've just sent Tracy. My
god
, this is just never-ending with these guys."
Bran managed to get one of his hands loose from the rope and worked his forearm out of his messy bindings as the girls spun off into a different conversation and the room got rather noisy all at once. Bran noticed that the attention was no longer on him for the moment.
The girl with his wallet tossed it into his lap and he cringed as an undue amount of pain from his anatomy flared up. This was getting on his last nerve. Getting tied up was one thing; getting hit in the nuts was another. He pushed his legs out with everything he had in him, and surprisingly, the rope loosened completely around one of them. He raised his knee to his chest and then kicked out again, feeling the rope slacken around him.
Spurred on, he wrenched his arm free and most of the rope fell away from him as everything loosened. He figured that this was his only chance and decided to bolt for the open front door. He grabbed his wallet and almost leapt the distance from the living room wall to the door, surprising everyone in the room and riling up the little terrier that one of the girls kept here.
He rounded through the doorway and almost took out a sister coming into the house with grocery bags in her hands. Narrowly missing her, he bounded off the front porch and skipped the steps entirely. By now, the girls were starting to pile out of the house after him with shouts and orders being raised all at once. Bran hit the ground and something pulled tight around his shins. Almost immediately, his legs came out from under him as if someone had pulled his ankles over his head behind him.
He fell face first into the yard and slammed his head against the ground. Stars flashed before his eyes and pushed himself to his knees woozily, looking toward his car down the street. A glance back at the house let him see what had caught his legs.
The black rope around him was almost completely unwound now, and several girls were sitting on top of it in a pile of tangled limbs, having stepped on it and been thrown off their feet as it came out from under them. Unfortunately for the recent hostage, that same effect had pulled his own feet out from under him. Bran kicked his legs free and got to his feet, heading toward his car as fast as he could hobble with a throbbing skull. The terrier barking from behind him didn't help his head.
Fortunately, the trip-up at the door had most of the girls trying to get around their friends and off the porch. Another sister that had been outside blocked Bran's way, and he did his best to shove her aside without outright hurt her. Even given the shittiness of the situation, he wouldn't just punch a girl in the face unless his life was actually threatened.
Still, she grabbed at his shirt and her nails tore it most of the way around as she caught skin. Bran just pushed through it and took the pain, sprinting blindly across the street. If he got hit by a car, the sorority would be paying for it.
He made it across the street with enough of a lead to get to his car without having to kick someone off his door. He shoved the key into the ignition and his Forerunner cranked to life with a roar. He shifted into reverse and something landed in his passenger seat with a jungle.
He didn't look at it as he turned around in his seat and reversed as fast as he could to get the hell away from the cul-de-sac the sorority house was located in. Nearly getting T-boned by a minivan on his way out, he floored it down the street and checked his rearview almost ten times before he called things clear.
Something from his right started breathing heavily and he looked over into his passenger seat to find the terrier from the house sitting there, wagging his tail and panting like nothing was wrong. Bran almost stopped the car and screamed.
He decided to just go back to his house and sort everything out there. Fuck, this was too much to deal with! What the fuck was that all about at the house anyway?! Bran ran his hand through his hair and let out a long, frustrated sigh.
From the other seat, the terrier barked out at the couple walking on the sidewalk, feet up on the edge of the window and tail wagging back and forth like a light-speed pendulum. Bran quickly realized why the dog was here. He thought he was going for a ride. It helped his mood just a little to know that at least one of them was having a good day so far.
- Theta Kappa Kappa Sorority House -
Karen put her face in her hand and growled unceremoniously as the sisters who'd gotten hurt falling down the steps were helped into the house. She went over the current situation in her head for a few moments before just giving up on how fucked they were right now.
They'd let the frat guy get away, and now he'd taken-
"Where's Toby?" Ellen asked from the yard. "C'mere Toby! C'mere boy! Toby!"
"Ellen," Karen said. "He took Toby. He's with that guy now."
"What?!" the sister shrieked in disbelief. Karen could already see the tears starting to well up in the brunette's eyes. "He..." She outright started crying before she could even finish what she was going to say, and several sisters hurried over to bring her out of it.
God, she loved that yappy little mutt like he was her baby. Given, he was absolutely adorable and she'd trained him pretty well. Well enough to stay at the house while Ellen was away and not be trouble for the sisters. Usually he stayed with the treasurer Helen in her room, but sometimes he'd wander around the house and get attention from the sisters.
Right now though, he was a hostage for the fraternity, Pi Gamma Epsilon.
Karen pulled herself together and put on a strong front for the sisters as she walked back into the house and gathered up the sorority for a battle strategy.
