Indecent Experiment by Megan Hart Page A

he felt like it. But he’d sort of outgrown the whole “brothers” thing a long time ago, while dudes like Damian had totally embraced it, even eight years after their freshman pledge class had first bonded over cleaning disgusting toilets and other pledge chores.
    Matt closed his fingers over the slip of paper in his hand. Damian had a trust fund or some shit like that, money from mommy and daddy, not to mention summer and holiday jobs in daddy’s company to pad the bank account. Damian would probably even spot him a pitcher and a platter, he’d done it before. But Matt didn’t want to be beholden to the guy any more than he already was, even if they were “bros.”
    “Can’t, man. Got a major test coming up.” Matt didn’t have to fake the look of disappointment. He really had been looking forward to just hanging out tonight, maybe watching the game, just…chilling.
    “Dude. You can’t work all the fucking time, you know?” Damian clapped him on the shoulder again. “Seriously. I know it’s grad school and all, but really.”
    “Yeah. I know.” Matt wasn’t happy about it, but he’d rather tell the other guy he couldn’t come out because he had to work rather than tell him the truth—he was flat broke.
    “Shit.” Damian looked vaguely concerned. “But you’re on for Cancun, right? Spring Break, man. Your last one.”
    Matt had never actually gone on a Spring Break trip, not to Cancun or any place else. He’d spent every Spring Break for the past eight years working his ass off on the loading dock at the same factory job he’d had since high school. He was going to grad school just so he didn’t have to work there the rest of his life. “I’d like to, but….”
    “Dude. Don’t bail. We got a totally sweet deal on a condo. Eight hundred bucks each, including airfare, and the place is all-inclusive. You know what that means, right? All the food and booze you can eat and drink. And the babes, dude. The babes.”
    Damian’s expression clearly showed what he thought of that. It was something akin to the look a religious man might have upon seeing the Virgin Mary in a piece of toast. His hands shaped a female figure in the air, out then in, then out again. A girl with tits and ass that curvaceous would be so top heavy she’d probably be unable to walk, Matt thought, though he totally got the appeal.
    “Yeah, I know I said I wanted in, but that was before the holidays, and I thought I’d be picking up more hours.” In fact, Matt had spent most of the holiday break on his parents’ couch watching TV, the hours simply not to be had at the factory. Times were tough.
    “Dude, we’re holding your place. Need your money by the end of the month, or we’ll have to give it to someone else. And trust me, man, you don’t want to miss this. Can I count on you?” Another clap on the shoulder, this time with a squeeze of fingers. Damian looked serious.
    “Yeah.” Matt nodded, thinking of sand and sun and booze and babes. Of a great Spring Break blowout, the last possible one before he’d graduate and hit what he kept thinking of as “the real world” even though the one he’d been living in had seemed pretty fucking real. “Don’t worry, man. I’ll get it to you.”
    Somehow.
     
     
    “Melissa, it’s good to see you!” Ada beamed as Melissa came into the tiny classroom where the interviews were being conducted. “C’mon in. Randy’ll be here in a couple minutes. What can I get you to drink?”
    “Is this part of the experiment?” Melissa asked with a grin.
    Ada laughed. “Oh, gosh, no. Don’t worry, we’re not studying the effects of caffeine addiction on stress management or anything like that. Not this time, anyway.”
    Melissa settled into the uncomfortable, hard-backed chair. “In that case, I’ll take a Coke on the pysch department’s dime.”
    “No problem.” Ada looked up as her partner Randy came in. “Can you grab Melissa a soda?”
    “Sure thing.” Randy nodded