Social Media
When Jon walked into the fraternity, one of the brothers waved him over. "You've got to see this," he said, grinning. The cell phone screen displayed a video that showed Andrew Lodge strike Jon, and everything that happened next.
Lodge returned from the hospital with big bandages over his broken nose. He had two temporary plastic teeth that weren't the right size or color. Someone managed to sneak a photo and post it to social media. Both the photo and video were copied and forwarded all over campus, and by the end of the day most of the students saw both. The photo came with an interesting caption: Courtesy of The Dentist of Delta Delta Delta. From then on, Jon's nickname was The Dentist.
There were plenty of fraternity brothers who thought Lodge was a rich, entitled snob - which was absolutely true - but there were others who thought Jon had violated some unwritten rules. Lodge came from a rich, powerful family; that was why he consistently got away with bad behavior that got ordinary guys in trouble. A bully like Lodge didn't have friends; instead, he had toadies. They gathered in Lodge's room and agreed that they needed to put Jon in his place.
Jon was a smart guy who realized that Lodge and his entourage were surely plotting against him. They didn't know Jon was wealthier than all of them combined. Before leaving home, Jon's father gave him some good advice: Don't let others know he had money. "Money attracts the wrong kind of people," his father said, advising him to avoid displays of wealth.
Jon arrived on campus with the kind of possessions you'd expect of a guy from the middle class. He had a nice car, but it wasn't new or fancy; it certainly wasn't the kind of chick magnet driven by Lodge the other rich guys. He had a nice laptop, cellphone, and wardrobe, but nothing extravagant. He'd removed a lot of content from his social media so it didn't show photographs of vacations to exotic places. It had worked; no one suspected Jon was the son of one of the richest men in North America.
Jon had to watch his back. But he also wanted to do everything he could to let Lodge know he wasn't intimidated. He found himself looking at the wolf's head mounted on the wall, and it gave him an idea. That day he went to the art supply section of the campus bookstore, where he bought some sandpaper and epoxy. That night, while everyone was asleep, Jon used the sandpaper to clean every speck of blood from the teeth he'd knocked loose. He mixed up a small batch of epoxy and sneaked downstairs. There, he glued the teeth to the front of the wolf's snarling fangs.
It looked very, very weird - as though this wild animal had somehow grown two human teeth. The epoxy cured by the next morning, but no one noticed Willie the Wolf's strange new smile. The day came and went, and Jon was a bit disappointed. The whole point of Jon's little art project was to humiliate Lodge in a new way.
But the day was nice otherwise. Leah asked him to come for a visit, which they both knew meant she wanted to have sex. And that's just what Jon gave her. Once again, Leah made a lot of noise in bed, and Jon felt a bit conspicuous as he walked out of the sorority.
The next morning, one of the fraternity brothers finally spotted Jon's dental work on the wolf. Jon had tucked the upper part of both teeth beneath the wolf's upper lip, making it seem like they belonged there. The frat brother pointed the teeth out to other guys immediately, and everybody knew it had to be the work of The Dentist of Delta Delta Delta. Photos were on the web within minutes.
Lodge was one of the last of the brothers to see Jon's work. He tried to pry the teeth loose, but they were glued so securely Lodge couldn't remove them without destroying the trophy. He was outraged, gathering his toadies together to make plans to show that little peasant the consequences of challenging an aristocrat.
"Nice dental work on the wolf, Major," several brothers said.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Jon replied, an answer that invariably triggered boisterous laughter.
They hate Lodge,
Jon thought.
How has he gotten away with so much crap for such a long time?
Because Jon's family was so rich, and Jon was the kind of guy who always followed the rules, he hadn't yet learned that most rules don't apply to rich and powerful people. But Lodge knew. He'd been breaking rules for his entire life, and his parents had ensured that he never suffered consequences.
The photo and video of Lodge made quite an impact on the sisters at Sigma Phi. By now most of them had heard about the way Jon rescued their sister Leah from the clutches of a predator. They knew he'd fought with Lodge. They'd heard about Noelle. But it was an abstraction - something they knew but didn't understand.
Seeing the extensive damage done to Lodge's face clarified the issue for everyone. Damn. That little freshman upstart had big, heavy balls. The video made a particularly powerful impact on Margeaux Laurent. She'd been there when Jon returned the drunken Leah to the safety of the sorority. He was funny. He was handsome. And that video showed that he had big, heavy balls. She watched it over and over. It made her heart go pitter pat.
It turned out that Margeaux had been searching for a guy with balls. She hadn't been laid since arriving on campus the previous fall. It wasn't because she wasn't trying. She'd had dates with a handful of young men who seemed to have potential. But she soon realized that they were all boys dressed in men's clothing. Jon was the real deal. He possessed an actual backbone. As Margeaux admired the photo of Jon's amateur dentistry, she decided that she would do whatever it took to get his attention. Margeaux was one of the most beautiful coeds on campus, and she felt confident that Jon would be her boyfriend soon.
But then she discovered it wasn't possible. Margeaux was walking down the hall to her room. The door to one room was open, and several sisters were inside, giggling. Margeaux walked to the doorway and realized what was happening. Leah's room was next door, and it was especially easy to hear the loud moans and groans of lovemaking through the thin walls.
"What's going on?" Margeaux asked.
"Can't you tell? Leah's got a boyfriend. From the sounds of it, he's a keeper," one girl said.
Indeed. Leah's sexy sounds made it obvious that whoever was in there with her knew what he was doing. Margeaux felt it was wrong to eavesdrop on a sorority sister like this, but she couldn't pull herself away.
"Who's her boyfriend?" she asked.
"Jon Major. Who else?" a girl replied.
Of course. The damsel in distress. The knight in shining armor. It made perfect sense that Leah and Jon would become a couple. It also made perfect sense that Jon was the kind of lover who could pleasure a woman well enough to inspire the sounds that came through the wall. Amateur dentistry was not his only talent.
"Leah sounds like she's having a fit," one sister said.
"Yeah. And a tight one, too," another said.
The girls giggled. "What is Jon doing to Leah?" one sister asked.
I wish he was doing it to me
, Margeaux thought. She felt jealousy. Envy. Margeaux had no reason to dislike Leah; she was actually happy for her. But she felt disappointed that the man she wanted for herself was taken.
