FenceStriking Distance - Sarah Rees Brennan Page 0,34

voice when he’d said that. He hadn’t sounded pleased like Harvard had thought he would be. Harvard had frowned, about to turn and check on him.

Then someone had whistled and called out: “Hello, gorgeous!”

There had been a moment of confusion. Harvard had glanced around for Aiden, expecting Aiden to be a step behind him the way Aiden always was. That was how they’d walked forever, since they were kids and Aiden was so much smaller than Harvard but trailed persistently after him.

Only Aiden hadn’t been there. Aiden stood alone, attention distracted by the whistle that was clearly aimed at him.

“Hey,” said the boy who’d whistled. “Yeah, you! What are you doing later?”

After a startled instant, Harvard had seen a slow smile steal across Aiden’s face. He’d tossed back his hair—when had it got so long?—so he could see the guy who’d whistled better. His gaze had slid to Harvard, uncertain.

What had Harvard expected, for Aiden to stay in his shadow forever? Even if that were what he’d wanted, it wouldn’t be right or fair. Nobody shone like Aiden.

Harvard had taken a step back.

That was the first time Harvard had realized they wouldn’t do everything together forever. They hadn’t gone to the fair together. Aiden had gone with some guy, and Harvard had stayed home alone.

“Sometimes it’s right to let go of people,” Harvard told Nicholas now, thinking about that day. “But you can still be there for someone, even if you have to let go.”

“Sometimes I feel like I’m messing stuff up just by being here,” muttered Nicholas.

“No,” said Harvard. “Being there for someone is the most important thing you’ll ever do. Not winning or losing. Just being there.”

The night they’d thought Harvard’s dad would die, Aiden’s latest stepmother had tried to pick up Aiden from the hospital.

“I have no idea who this woman is!” little Aiden had claimed, always so smart even when they were tiny. He’d used the lethal combination of being articulate and having the cutthroat instinct for knowing exactly what to say, and secured the nurses as his allies.

When Aiden’s latest stepmom couldn’t tell them what Aiden’s middle name was (Harvard had felt sorry for her and mouthed Lionel in her direction, but Aiden elbowed him), Aiden’s stepmom had eventually slunk away in shame. Aiden got to stay almost the whole night.

His dad came out of a meeting to get Aiden, and he’d carried Aiden away, Aiden yelling his head off and kicking his feet against his dad’s ten-thousand-dollar suit jacket. Let me down, I want to stay! I want to be with Harvard, I have to be with Harvard!

The hour Harvard had spent alone in the hospital outside his father’s room was the longest of his life.

In the gray early morning, Aiden had showed up again. Harvard had been sitting on the chairs in the waiting room and Aiden crept in, wearing his pajama top with his jeans, hand in hand with one of the nurses he’d won over earlier.

Harvard had blinked his dry eyes, sleepless and burning. “How’d you get here?”

Aiden had shrugged his thin shoulders and smiled his timid little smile.

Harvard only found out later how Aiden effected his return. Seven years old, and he’d stolen his stepmom’s credit card and called a taxi to take him to the hospital.

Aiden had climbed up onto the hard gray hospital chairs with Harvard and they’d slept, holding hands, curled up under the same thin blue hospital blanket.

“I have to be with you, too,” Harvard had mumbled.

Dad had got through the crisis. Dad lived, and Harvard did, too. Because of Aiden.

Aiden’s just heartless, boys would tell Harvard, and it was as if they were talking about a stranger. Aiden had more heart than anyone Harvard had ever met. If those guys didn’t get that, none of them was the right guy.

One day, once Aiden was done having fun, there would be a right guy. Harvard had made his peace with that long ago.

But Harvard was tired of being good, yet not quite good enough for his mom and for his team and for Aiden. At last, he wanted something of his own.

He was, he admitted to himself, really hoping this date worked out.

Nicholas cleared his throat, and Harvard’s attention was recalled to his teammate in need. “I want to keep things the way they are now. For a little while longer. Have you ever felt that way?”

Yes, Harvard thought, thinking of childhood, of being the most important person in Aiden’s life as Aiden was the most