Read Online The Atonement by Lawrence Cherry - Free Book Online

out of the way.
    “It’s not even 11:00 and the place is 30
minutes away. Honestly, Monica, try not to wet your diaper,” said
Allyson.
    “I bet you’re wetting yours thinking about
Maxwell. You think you’re ready to kiss and make up?”
    “I’m over Maxwell. I’ve got my eye on someone
with much more potential.”
    “Like who?”
    “What?”
    “I said, who?”
    “Hunh?”
    “Who? Who?!”
    “Excuse me, I don’t speak owl.”
    Courtney let out a loud shriek before
cackling wildly.
    “Ha-ha, how funny” scowled Monica, “By the
way would you mind keeping your eyes on the road.”
    “You have to admit you walked right into
that, Money,” replied Courtney.
    This was the last place where Allyson wanted
to be: in a car full of self-centered, spoiled, and privileged AKA
witches. To say that she hated being an AKA was an understatement.
The only reason she joined was to shut her mother up and keep her
from getting into her business. To Allyson, the AKA’s were the
lowest of the sororities on campus. Most of their pledges came from
middle class and buppie families with only a few rich girls here
and there. In addition, she felt being with them isolated her from
the other rich kids on campus, and limited her social stratosphere.
She was convinced the rich white girls that she used to hang out
with had started distancing themselves from her because she was
part of a black sorority. This hampered her chance to make a
connection with any of the premium guys that were not in the old
money African – American circles. The only consolation to being an
AKA was at the same time a burden. As one of the few rich girls,
Allyson had a lot of rank with her sisters that she would not have
had otherwise. However that rank came with a price. She was always
the one that ended up paying the expenses for nights out and the
different social functions they attended.
    Tonight they were headed to a bar in the
burbs above the Bronx that was frequented by the Alpha Phi Alpha
guys from their school. Word was out that there was going to be a
crush of them there that were honoring their new pledges. All of
the high profile guys would be there, and there was one in
particular that Allyson was looking out for, making this event a
priority. Since it was a bar and not a frat house, there would be a
cover charge and then they’d have to pay extra for drinks. Allyson
spent the last of her allowance on her hair, designer heels, and
dress for this occasion. So she had no choice but to get money from
her brother to cover the rest. Leaving her sisters hanging was not
an option: to do so would have amounted to social suicide in her
world. Frat communities, especially within the black bourgeois,
were very tight, and if you didn’t adhere to the unspoken social
rules, you were excommunicated. Once you were out, you weren’t let
back in, no matter how much status and money you had. As much as
she resented them, Allyson needed the AKAs. Being shut out of the
wider American aristocracy, the black bourgeois was the only world
she had access to and it was the only world that she knew how to
operate in.
    It wasn’t long before they had arrived at the
Riverdale Boat Club, and when they went inside it was packed with
Alphas who were already getting sloppy drunk. Most of them were the
scrub pledges that were being plied with drinks by the senior
members. There were also some other AKA’s from another chapter at
New York University. Allyson and her sisters slinked over to a
table next to one where a group of senior Alphas were sitting. Not
long after they took their seats, one of the staff came to their
table with a bottle.
    “ Courtesy of the gentleman
at table 7 over there,” said the woman waiting on them.
    Allyson looked over and saw Maxwell raising
his glass to her. She shot him an icy look before returning her
attention to the party she was with.
    “ Here we go,” said
Courtney.
    “ I told you. I’m done with
Max.”
    “ Well, based on this