Chapter 1
Shannon
It was so cold on campus the week before Christmas you would have thought this was Alaska, not a small town in the rural midwest. An unprecedented snow storm had moved in, and Blackwell University was in no way prepared for the icy cold front.
I didn’t own a winter coat since my family was from Florida. The warmest item of clothing I owned was my college hoodie, and one step outside confirmed what all the weather reports had been saying.
It was icy cold.
I set one foot outside, and the wind and the snow swirled in my face.
“Are you freaking kidding me, Blackwell?”
This had to be some kind of a mean joke being played on me. I chose this college specifically for the weather, and I wasn’t about to put up with this cold weather that seems to defy all current climate models.
Shivering, I turned right back around and went back into my off-campus apartment. This was one of those days I simply was not going to venture outside, I decided.
Almost all students left campus the day before, but I had to stay for a makeup lab exam for my chemistry class. Since I was a double major in Chem and Dance--two obviously disparate subjects--I had to overload my schedule so it was sort of my own fault.
My apartment was getting ridiculously cold, so I checked the thermostat.
Fifty-two degrees? Are you kidding me?
Just then, my Mom called.
“Hi Sweetie, how are things in Blackwell?”
“Freezing! And my roommates left. When do you think you’re going to be here to pick me up?”
“Well honey, here’s the thing. There’s a road advisory coming out of Jacksonville. They’re calling this a ‘hurricane snow tornado’ and they don’t really know what to make of it. And, well, I called the airport to see if they have any extra tickets. They are running reduced flights, and the ones that are heading back here to Florida are booked solid.”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “So you’re saying...what are you saying?”
“I’m saying it’s a dangerous time to be on the roads. We’ve literally never had weather like this. No one’s ever seen it. So I think it’s best if we just wait until the storm has passed and we touch base tomorrow. Is that okay?”
A clump of nerves formed in my stomach. I pursed my lips together and took a step toward the stove, where the boiling water from the teapot was currently the only source of heat in my apartment. A shiver ran through my entire body.
“Honey? Are you there? Everything okay?”
“Yeah Mom,” I swallowed. “It’s just the heat in my apartment hasn’t been working too well. I’m literally freezing right now.”
“Oh my gosh, did you call the landlord?”
“I’ve been texting him for weeks about the plumbing. He hasn’t responded once.”
“Well honey, that’s not good. Don’t you have a friend you can stay with? Maybe the dorms are open.”
I took a deep breath. “I’ll be fine. I’m sure. Don’t worry about me. Let’s just text, and when the snow storm is over we’ll talk. I’ll figure something out.”
“You better text me updates every hour,” my Mom said. “I’m worried about you.”
“Please Mom, I’ll be fine.”
“I know you will. You always were the smart one. Now if this was Ralph, I’d be worried. He would probably light the house on fire trying to keep warm or something.”
I smiled a little at the mention of my twin brother. He was a grade A doofus who was lucky he was so good at baseball he didn’t have to worry about grades.
My parents liked to joke that I stole his intelligence in the womb.
“Bye Mom, love you.”
I spun around and poured my chamomile tea, considering my options. Through the window the snow raged. You couldn’t see ten feet in front of your face.
Still, I had plenty of food. In a worst case scenario I could wait it out under my covers and stay warm, right?
Worst case scenario, I could watch my basketball crush Chandler play games on TV today.
And if that got boring, I could watch reruns of my baseball crush Jake Napleton winning the world series from last year.
Ahh. Jake Napleton. So gorgeous. And so married. Lucky girl.
Noticing my phone was down to 12 percent, I plugged it in.
Nothing happened.
Uh oh. I could live without heat. But no heat nor electricity seemed borderline dangerous.
Looking outside, I came up with a plan. I’d walk to the dorm rooms, and they’d have to be open. They’d have heat there, right?
At the very least they would have electricity in the lobby where I would be able to charge my phone.
I put on jeans, a long-sleeved shirt, a baseball cap and my hoodie and set outside against the wind.
It was a tough walk but I made it to the main dorm hall-Seymour. I’d stayed there two years ago as a freshman.
My hand shook as I tried to pull the door open.
Locked.
The clump of nerves returned, the knot forming again in my stomach, When I turned around to see the snow keep coming, I tried to take a deep breath. Cold as I was.
Uh oh. Was I seriously going to be trapped, with no electricity or way to get warm?
I swallowed hard as I trapsed back to my apartment, almost slipping on some black ice. I slid, but managed to keep my balance and not fall flat on my face.
I could still barely make out the sidewalk twenty feet in front of my face.
However as I walked back, I heard something loud and I couldn’t tell where it was coming from.
Until the letters from the Delta Iota Kappa Frat House came into view to the left of the sidewalk.
The house was literally thumping with the base from their speakers of God-only-knows what type of music.
Apparently their electricity was working.
I hesitated for a split second, letting the cold wind blow against my already red face.
I hated everything about the DIK house.
Even thinking about their abbreviation summed up pretty well what they were. A bunch of dicks.
Their parties were legendary, and even I had spent some time there freshmen year getting a little drunk.
I may or may not have booty dropped to a couple of EDM songs.
So no I didn’t particularly feel like knocking on their door.
But then I didn’t have to. I realized the door was wide open as I got closer.
Peeking inside, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
Luther Huxton, the biggest dick of all the DIKs, was dancing around inside, shirtless, in the front room. I squinted, cocked my head, and drew closer to the door out of sheer curiosity.
Where I was shivering, he was covered in a glaze of sweat.
My jaw dropped.
Luther freaking Huxton: known asshole and ladies man on campus.
Pretty much all of the girls had heard the rumors about him: six feet three, washboard abs, and the ability to keep girls up all night screaming in pleasure.
My best friend used to date a DIK. She said she couldn’t believe the sounds that came out of his room.
He was in my chem lab, and he barely passed by shamelessly flirting with the female T.A. who helped him with every single experiment.
As I paused to stare at him, a strong gust of the cold wind caught me by surprise, and I lost my balance. To try not to tip over, I stepped backward quickly.
Right onto some of that black ice I’d seen before.
I toppled over and went right into the snow.
“Owww,” I muttered. I’d fallen smack dab on my ass in the snow.