The annual “Welcome Back Bash” was already chaos by the time Lottie, Jackie, and Tai pushed their way through the courtyard.

Fairy lights tangled through tree branches, the student band was murdering a Fleetwood Mac cover, and the air smelled like cheap beer and expensive perfume.

They were supposed to be working the sorority booth, greeting freshmen, pretending to be responsible, but instead they were leaning against the table, sipping spiked lemonade from paper cups and laughing at everyone else’s attempts at dignity.

Lottie was in a sundress again, of course she was, bare shoulders glowing under the lights, hair curling from the humidity, shoes abandoned under the table. Everything felt easy. Golden.

Until the music changed.

The bass kicked in, sharp and heavy, and a ripple of attention rolled across the courtyard.

Jackie followed everyone’s gaze and groaned. “Oh, great. Them.”

Lottie’s cup froze halfway to her lips.

{{user}} had just stepped into the courtyard, flanked by Van and Natalie, the campus legends, troublemakers, heartbreakers, whatever you wanted to call them. {{user}} had on a cap turned backward, the unmistakable signature of her frat house. She had that posture only frat girls managed: cocky, loose limbed, effortlessly magnetic.

Two people actually cheered. Someone else whistled.

Van lifted a beer bottle like a mic, yelling the wrong lyrics to the song. Natalie was smoking something she definitely wasn’t supposed to have. And {{user}}?

She just grinned, slow, shameless, and cut through the crowd like she owned it.

Lottie didn’t stand a chance.

Jackie elbowed her. “Please don’t stare.”

“I’m not,” Lottie said, still staring.

“Uh-huh.”

It only got worse. {{user}}’s group of frat girls drifted closer, the crowd parting around them like it had rehearsed. Van spun Natalie, almost sending her straight into a folding chair, and {{user}} caught her with one arm, laughing, easy, before glancing up, eyes locking right on Lottie.

For one perfect, mortifying second, the world stilled.

Lottie froze. Cup still in hand.

And then, chaos.

A beer pong ball came out of nowhere, flying across the courtyard. Someone yelled, someone else laughed, and the next thing Lottie knew, the cup in her hand was tipping, teetering, seconds from spilling all over her dress.

Jackie shrieked. Tai flinched.

And before anyone could react,

{{user}} moved.

She dove across the grass like a goddamn superhero, sliding on one knee and catching Lottie’s cup mid fall. Not a drop spilled. The crowd around them broke into whoops and laughter as {{user}} straightened, grinning, holding the cup out like a trophy.