The sickly-sweet scent of flowering purple wisteria and white roses invaded my nostrils, triggering bittersweet memories of my childhood.
At the end of hot summer days, lightning bugs would flash along the edges of my mother's garden where she planted the beautiful southern flowers. Caleb loved to try and catch the bugs, but would squeal like a little girl when one actually touched his hands. The familiar smell was a welcome surprise. It clung to the strands of my hair while I sat in front of Madison's desk like a child ready for a makeover.
"What kind of perfume is that?" I glanced over my shoulder.
"It's called Southern Seduction." Madison's soft hands maneuvered my head until I was staring forward at the mirror on her desk again. "Head straight. Don't mess up my masterpiece," she mumbled with a bobby pin hanging from her lips.
I laughed and stared at her through the mirror. "Are you serious?"
She nodded as her fingers weaved in and out of my hair so gently it threatened to lull me to sleep. She stuck the bobby pin in my hair to hold one of the braids. "You have beautiful hair." She lifted a few of my dark curls closer to her face and analyzed them in the light.
I played with my fingers in my lap. "Thanks. I want to add some color to it, but my momma always told me to leave it be."
"You're eighteen. It's your hair. You can add some color to it if you want. Your momma can't do anything about it." She snapped her fingers, giving off plenty of sass by bobbing her head back-and-forth.
"True."
As usual, Madison was right. College was my chance to do and be what I wanted. While I was away from my mother, I didn't have to keep up the image of perfection.
If only it was that simple.
Madison secured the last bobby pin in my hair and stepped out from behind me. "Done." She spun the chair around as she placed another mirror in my hands.
She had intricately twisted my dark hair into two separate braids that fell along my shoulders, leaving only small wisps of curls to frame my face. "Are you sure you don't want to become a hairstylist?"
"Hell no." She shook her head with a fierce quickness. "I grew up helping my mom in her salon every day after I got out of school. She met a lot of great people in her little downtown Atlanta shop, but she didn't get paid enough for the kind of luxurious life I want to live." She applied a matte red Tom Ford lipstick and readjusted the straps of her little black dress.
My eyes wandered to her closet which I knew housed a few pairs of red bottom heels. The shoes were most likely more expensive than my whole wardrobe put together, but Madison got them as gifts from her much older ex-boyfriends. From what she said, she only dated men in a certain tax bracket.
"You want to live in New York after you graduate, right?" I asked.
"Yes! The lights, the weather, and all the opportunities. Dreams come true in New York." She dug through her purse on the bed to find her phone. "What about you? Where do you want to live after college?"
I said nothing because I had no answer. I had always focused on surviving one day at a time, so I'd never thought about life after college. My mother wanted me to return home to live in a small house in town. She wanted to keep me close enough to rub my good life in people's faces.
For so long, it sounded like the perfect thing to do. I'd be able to keep my mother happy and take care of Caleb, but after just two weeks in college, I realized a future under my mother's ever-watchful gaze was less than ideal.
My fingers brushed along the hem in the sleeve of my cardigan. "I didn't get to tell you about who I met in the hallway earlier."
Madison typed away on her phone, but paused to look up at me. "Oh, girl. I was pissed at you for being late. Who was this very important stranger?"
"Daxson Winters."
His name rolled effortlessly from my tongue like I had said it a million times before. My cheeks flushed as our encounter replayed inside my mind.
Madison's sharp squeal broke my train of thought. "You mean the Daxson Winters? That man is sculpted by the hands of God himself into a perfect piece of chocolate thunder." She bit her lip. "He's my favorite flavor, too."
"He seems nice, but we didn't get to talk much because people kept interrupting." I shrugged as I stood from the chair and stretched my arms above my head.
"Of course people are going to interrupt. He's basically a celebrity." She tilted her head. "What exactly did you guys talk about?"
"Nothing much. We talked about our hometowns and about old southern sayings." I folded my arms across my chest.
Her eyes rested on my face. "Hm. That's interesting. I heard from some people he doesn't talk to white girls."
"Why?"
Madison laughed with a shrug. "Who knows? Some white people refuse to talk to black people for no reason at all."
She assessed my outfit and raised an eyebrow.
"What's wrong?" I pulled my cardigan further around me to hide my white jean shorts and black t-shirt from her view.
"Are you sure that's what you want to wear to Kappa Psi's hottest party of the year?" She resumed typing away on her phone.
"Yes. You look fantastic, but there's no reason for me to wear some short dress like that." I motioned to her dress before folding my arms across my chest. "I wouldn't look good in it anyway."
"Allyson, your little cheerleader body would look hot in a dress. You can wear what you want, but I just wanted to make sure." She grinned at me with a groove of her shoulders and click of her tongue. "I don't know about you, but I'm trying to get some dick tonight."
Being Southern Baptist, I was taught to save myself for marriage. It was best to remain pure in the eye's of God until your wedding night. A few of the girls in my high school didn't have the same morals, so they'd sneak off to drive the backroads with the boys on the weekends. Not long after their flings, nasty rumors spread through the school about so-and-so being a slut. For the girls, the attention was always negative, but the boys turned it into a game with some stupid prize for sleeping with the most girls.
"I don't think you're going to find any men around here that can afford red bottom shoes or Louis Vuitton." I gave her a sweet smile.
"I only look for Mr. Money Bags when I date a guy, but my standards lower a little bit when I'm looking for a good time." She pulled her purse over her shoulder and pointed to the door.
I exited the dorm into the hallway that mirrored mine a few floors down. The only difference was the light didn't flicker overhead. A soft jingle of keys filled my ears as a blonde girl with her eyes glued to her phone screen passed on her way to the elevator.
"Have you ever dated a guy because you love them or is it always for the money?" I turned to look at Madison from the middle of the hallway.
Madison locked her door. "At first, it's always for the money, but sometimes I end up falling for them." An unusual twinge of sadness clouded Madison's light brown eyes as she walked the long hallway. "I haven't dated anyone in the past year because I'm still hung up on my ex."
I increased my pace to keep up with her long legs. "Bad break-up?"
"It was something like that. Can we talk about something else?" She hurried down the steps in the stairwell. "Tell me about your boyfriends."
"There's not much to tell," I responded as we exited the residence hall.
The campus hummed with life. Students walked in large groups along the sidewalk to avoid the pep rally in the street. Low bass from the drumline vibrated the ground beneath my feet. The trombones entered as words to the Alabama fight song filled the air, earning shouts from the crowds of students.
Tailgating fans littered the courtyard with their tents and lawn chairs. The smoky aroma of burgers and hotdogs wafted from grills, forcing a growl to erupt from my stomach. The night before the first football game of the year should be a national holiday in the south.
Madison tapped my shoulder with a swift jab of her finger. I turned to her with a puzzled look.
"What?" I asked, leaning closer to hear her over the crowd.
She raised her voice. "I said, I know you have something to say about a boyfriend. You're drop dead gorgeous. I'm sure you've had guys falling all over you."
I laughed and shook my head. "Thanks, but honestly there isn't much to say. I've always been too busy to have a boyfriend."
My only real relationship with a boy happened in my junior year of high school. Mrs. Tassie at Piggly Wiggly had asked my mother why I'd never dated anybody, and it worried my mother. She didn't want everyone to think something was wrong with her daughter, so she took it upon herself to set up a date for me with the principal's son. Everything was fine until Nicholas thought he was going to get lucky on the first date and tried to slip his hands beneath my dress. He didn't realize I wasn't his usual easy prey, and well, I punched him in the face.
The whole incident could've been quite the scandal. My mother was furious with me and spent the next few weeks on damage control by volunteering to help Mrs. Wright at her store in the square. She wanted the Wright family to sweep the incident under the rug. My mother's image would be damaged if word got out that I had disrespected one of the most important families in town. I didn't want to disappoint her, but she should've known I wasn't going to let Nicholas touch me. She's lucky I kept it a secret from my father because he would've taught that boy a lesson.
After that mess, I wasn't interested in dating anyone, and Caleb hated change anyway. He would throw a tantrum if a new guy came into the picture, so for now, Caleb and my father remained the only men in my life.
"You're a strong, independent woman. You don't need no man. I respect that, but sometimes its nice to have someone." Her pointy shoulder bumped against mine.
I smiled as we approached the historical Kappa Psi fraternity house. It sat on the crest of a hill, positioned so that it faced the street in front of the stadium. We climbed a set of cracked concrete stairs that led from the bustling street to the green yard that surrounded the grand structure.
The house was beautifully symmetrical with two wings stretching to each side and almost touching the fences. Decorated signs supporting the football team hung from the railings of the second floor and flapped in the breeze.
Once we reached the yard, I grabbed onto Madison's elbow as we weaved through the mass of people loitering around with drinks in their hands. Music with bass that shook my lungs blared from the open windows of the house and made my skin tingle. Over the roar of music, hazy chatter and laughter filled the yard.
"Where are we going?"
Madison tilted her head as we entered the fraternity house. "We're going to grab some drinks and get turnt. Roll tide!"
People chanted "Roll Tide" in return as they danced around us. Madison stopped at a long table shoved against a picture-covered wall. A crooked metal sign that read "frat history" hung above the hundreds of framed pictures. Her eyes searched the spread of alcohol on the table in front of us before her slender fingers wrapped around the neck of a half-empty vodka bottle.
She held it up to me. "This shit always gets me lit."
I stepped away from Madison. "We aren't old enough to drink alcohol. My momma would kill me if she had to bail me out of jail."
Madison rolled her eyes and unscrewed the lid from the bottle. "Look, Allyson. I know you're a church-going goody-two shoes, but you need to let loose. Nobody is going to criticize you for being wild for one night. This is the reason everyone loves college." She turned the bottle up and took a long sip before she held it out to me.
The clear, liquid poison sloshed against the sides of the bottle with the sway of her hands.
"I really shouldn't do it."
The smile on Madison's face grew wider as she shook the bottle in front of me. I took the bottle in my hand and stared down the neck.
This was my chance to do something imperfect without having to worry about my mother's disapproval. After a deep breath, I put the bottle to my lips and took a quick drink. The vodka burned the back of my throat as I thrust the bottle at Madison.
"Damn. It's like drinking acid." The heat raced across my skin beneath the soft fabric of my cardigan.
"The burn is worth it." She winked before taking another drink from the bottle.
After helping Madison finish the bottle of vodka, I felt numb for the first time in my life. My limbs were as light as air and thoughts of my mother faded into the back of my mind.
I felt free.
At some point during the night, Madison wandered off with a guy and left me in the middle of the crowd. My neighbors bounced to the music like Tic-Tacs being shaken in a box. Two girls from my chemistry class made their way to me. We tried to have a conversation, but our words were slurred and senseless. Our talking turned to giggling as we danced along the edge of the crowd. A guy wearing some expensive shirt that wreaked of alcohol danced behind me. He winked at me before grinding his crotch against my leg.
I quickly pulled my phone from my pocket as an excuse to leave. The guy rolled his eyes before turning his attention to Kristy from my chemistry class. I took a deep breath and glanced at my phone.
Three missed calls from Caleb lit up my screen.
My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach. It felt like an invisible hand clasped over my mouth as I shoved my way through the crowd, and an equally ghostly needle of adrenaline unloaded into my heart. My fingers fumbled across my phone screen as I tried to call my brother back.
Why was Caleb calling so late?
My ribs heaved, but it was as if they were bound by ropes.
What if he got hurt?
My head became a carousel of fears as I stumbled into the yard.
"Please, please pick up, Caleb."
The blaring music shook my brain inside my skull and triggered nausea in my stomach. I grabbed the railing with a shaky hand as I dragged myself down the stairs and further from the house. When I dialed the number again, it went to voicemail. I stumbled into the street as I stared at my phone.
Without warning, the glare of headlights appeared from my left. I stared at the bright lights knowing I should move, but I was paralyzed with fear.
The vehicle drew closer.
"Allyson!"
My name from his lips aided in the weakness of my knees. Blackness spread across the front of my mind, and with one step back, I crumbled like a puppet released of its strings.
Before my head hit the concrete, a strong arm wrapped around my waist and seemed to pull me from the street. My eyes fluttered open in time to see the driver of the vehicle lay on the horn as they swerved away. The concrete was hard beneath me as my hero placed me safely on the ground. A strong earthy cologne filled my nostrils and overpowered my senses. It reminded me of freshly turned soil after a summer storm.
"Hey, are you good?"
The words left my lips before I could stop them. "My brother needs me. I have to call my brother."
"I got it, here," he whispered, sliding my phone into my hand.
Before I could lift my phone, the darkness settled inside my mind again, and even the shuffling of footsteps failed to wake me from my slumber. The warm voice of my hero spoke to someone else before his strong arms lifted me from the ground.
"Don't worry. I've got you."
He whispered the words as if it was a secret between us. The desire to smell his cologne compelled me to tilt my nose until it was against his throat. The sway in his walk and smell of the cologne settled my uneasy mind.
"Don't get too comfortable," he whispered in response to my movements with a tone of amusement in his voice. "I don't stay the night."
My fingers dug deeper into his shirt. I wasn't even sure who this stranger was, but there was something about his words that made me feel safe. Like I knew everything was going to be okay.
His throat rumbled when he spoke to another person with him, lulling me back to sleep. The last thing I remembered was my body sinking into a mattress.
Then, everything went black.