apologetically. Nicholas shrugged again. He didn’t see what Eugene had to be sorry for.
“My cousin’s friend works part-time at this store which mostly sells, um, maybe stolen phones,” suggested Eugene. “Maybe he could help?”
He escorted Nicholas down the narrow, winding backstreets of Kingstone until they passed a wall with some graffiti on it. Beyond some smoking kids and above what used to be a stable door, in white letters on black paint, was written NEEDFUL BLING. Nicholas felt this was definitely more his sort of place.
Eugene’s cousin’s friend wore an old Kings Row hoodie and was chewing gum and barely took his eyes off his phone. Eugene explained the problem.
“Bro, you gotta help us,” said Eugene. “We can’t go back to that store.”
The guy finally lifted his eyes from his phone. Nicholas gazed at him in mute appeal.
“I was a scholarship kid myself,” said Eugene’s cousin’s friend. “I’ll see what I can do about the watch.”
Nicholas grinned at him shyly. “Appreciate it.”
Nicholas thought that’d been a totally successful trip into town, but for some reason, Eugene remained unusually quiet and thoughtful as they strolled out of the store and down the hill toward their school.
“My family doesn’t have a lot of money compared to some of the other Kings Row kids. We can’t, like, take vacays in Europe. I sometimes feel kinda lousy about it,” offered Eugene as they walked back through the winding streets.
“Oh really?” asked Nicholas. “I thought you guys were totally rich. Like, you have all those brothers and sisters, and I heard them mentioning having their own rooms? Even though there are so many of them!”
Nicholas hadn’t always had his own room, even though there was only one of him. Sometimes he slept on the sofa for a few months, until they had to move again. When they’d had a studio, he’d slept on the floor.
Eugene was quiet for a while longer.
“It’s relative, I guess, bro.” He shook himself out of whatever had him twisted up to add, “Those guys from our school? Don’t let them get you down. They’re jerks and bullies.”
“Oh, whatever.” Nicholas rolled his eyes. “They can try. Kind of adorable, if you ask me. Wow, I’m so sad—I totally didn’t notice I don’t have any money until you pointed it out, dudes! C’mon.”
He mimed wiping away tears running down his cheeks with his fists. Eugene was still looking a bit shell-shocked, for some reason.
Nicholas searched his mind for something to cheer up Eugene.
“Hey, you wanna know something funny? I thought you were trying to bully me the first time we met. When you gave me the wrong directions on my first day of school, and I got lost in the woods.”
Eugene, to Nicholas’s surprise, looked dismayed rather than amused.
“No!” he exclaimed. “Oh no! I thought it was a totally awesome prank! ’Cause, like… you were new, and you didn’t know which way to go, and you’d get… lost in the woods. In a hilarious way. ’Cause pranks are fun, right?”
Nicholas shook his head, grinning a little.
“You know we’re bros now, right?” Eugene asked anxiously.
Nicholas’s grin spread. “Yeah, I know we’re bros now.”
They fist-bumped. Eugene went home for dinner, since it was Saturday, and Nicholas walked slowly back to Kings Row alone.
He and Eugene were bros, but Eugene didn’t get it. He couldn’t, not really. Other people weren’t gonna make Nicholas feel lousy. It wasn’t about what other people did. It was about what Nicholas did, or failed to do. Or who Nicholas failed to be.
Hey, Dad, Nicholas thought defiantly, taking a detour to stop by the framed photograph of Robert Coste beside a shining trophy. Even in his mind, it felt like a lie. Robert’s blue eyes were fixed on his glittering prize. He couldn’t see Nicholas.
Nicholas didn’t care about limos or watches or morons. But he cared about other stuff.
Robert Coste didn’t know about Nicholas, and he wouldn’t want him if he did know. Robert knew about Jesse, though, and Jesse fit in at a school even fancier than Kings Row. Jesse was one of those rich kids who always got what they wanted.
Everything in the world that Nicholas wanted… it all belonged to Jesse. Even Seiji.
10: HARVARD
Harvard was pretty nervous about his second date of the weekend. He was afraid he’d spend another night feeling the same absolute wrongness he’d felt on Friday, wondering why he wasn’t happier to be there. He never wanted to feel that vacancy in his chest again, the knowledge he was expected to do something