FenceStriking Distance - Sarah Rees Brennan Page 0,46
pun as well, was just like Aiden. He was always whip-smart, hilarious, and secretly sweet beneath everything else.
When scorned guys asked Harvard how he put up with it, Harvard understood what they meant. He’d just answer: “I like it.”
He did. He’d always wanted to be good, for his mom and his team and in general. He didn’t want to let anybody down. He enjoyed doing his best, but watching Aiden go his wild way gave Harvard a sense of freedom, too.
Harvard had always thought this made him and Aiden a good team. The best.
Aiden’s rush was halted when a tall guy gave him a very obvious once-over.
“Hey, you,” said Aiden. “Congratulations! You’re going on a date with me tonight.”
“Uh… great,” said the guy. “Do you want to know my name?”
“Let’s keep the mystery alive between us,” drawled Aiden, already turning away.
Harvard mouthed Sorry before he followed Aiden.
The guy mouthed back his name.
“I’ll tell Aiden,” said Harvard. “See you later, bye! Looking forward to it.”
Aiden would like Neil, Harvard was sure. Neil was so fun and nice. And of course, Neil would like Aiden. Nobody could help liking Aiden.
This date would be amazing.
15: SEIJI
That morning when Seiji came to breakfast, he discovered Dante attempting to take the seat beside Nicholas.
“Hey, dude, no, I’m saving this seat for Seiji,” said Nicholas.
Dante rolled his eyes without a word and went around the table.
Seiji took the seat with a faint feeling of satisfaction. Naturally, Nicholas didn’t want to sit beside Dante. Who would?
“There’s no actual need to save a seat for me,” Seiji informed Nicholas.
Nicholas waved him off as if he were an annoying fly. “I’m gonna, you can’t stop me.”
Seiji supposed he couldn’t. He started eating his breakfast, though Nicholas eyeballed Seiji’s protein-rich green smoothie suspiciously. Nicholas had no idea about the importance of nutrition.
Bobby and Dante were gossiping, which meant Bobby was talking and Dante was listening. Seiji listened as well, to be polite, though it was not a particularly interesting conversation.
“My hand to God, Aiden was asking people out in the hallways,” Bobby said. “I heard it from Brian and Juan told him, and Eduardo was there watching it happen with his own two eyes. So weird. Aiden always waits for them to come to him!”
Nicholas snorted. “Why would anyone come to Aiden? Like, then you have to listen to him talk. Blah, blah, blah, rich boy being rude to people. Um, fascinating, I don’t think so. Dante, are you gonna finish your eggs?”
Dante gathered the eggs toward himself, glowering. “Yes.”
Nicholas drew back a questing fork. “Just asking, asking’s not a crime.”
Seiji mulled over what Nicholas had just said, remembering what Eugene had told him about the boys from Kings Row framing Nicholas. He’d known that Nicholas didn’t like Aiden, but Seiji didn’t like Aiden much himself. He hadn’t realized what Nicholas’s dislike was based on.
“What do you mean,” Seiji asked, “rich boy?”
“Oh, you know, Seiji.” Nicholas gestured with his empty fork. “Rich boys. They’re the worst.”
This was becoming alarming. Aiden’s father was a notoriously wealthy lothario, but Seiji had to wonder what the cutoff in Nicholas’s head was. Seiji was always offending people, and his father’s income was far above average.
“My father is rather well-off,” Seiji admitted.
Had Nicholas not realized?
“I figured. I didn’t mean rich as in rich,” said Nicholas.
“That was the precise word you used!”
It appeared Nicholas really had decided words had no meaning anymore. Life would be so confusing from now on.
“No, see,” said Nicholas, and adopted a peculiar nasal intonation. “There’s a particular type of rich boy, who’s all ‘Daddy, I want this; Daddy, I want that; Daddy, I want to treat other people like dirt because I think it’s amooosing—’”
“Aiden doesn’t sound like this—” Seiji protested.
“It’s a state of mind, Seiji, c’mon,” said Nicholas. “You know the type. You must, they’re all over Kings Row. Bet there’s worse at Exton. They’re so rich but they take cheap shots, and it’s so dumb, right? They don’t even mean them. They’re not sincere enough to mean anything. The point is to say they’re great by saying you suck, and they never do anything great, so why do they open their mouths?” Nicholas shook his head. “I don’t get it.”
Seiji put down his spoon and stared at Nicholas. At this late hour of the morning, the room was social chaos. The very chains from which the lights hung suspended were swaying with the volume of people and conversation, but it wasn’t as unpleasant as usual, because Seiji had something