FenceStriking Distance - Sarah Rees Brennan Page 0,85
talk to you when you were older, and—it never was. It got more difficult instead. Love was always easy for me and your mother, and I suppose we believed that it would be easy with our child, too.”
This was an extremely embarrassing subject, and Seiji could not think what to say or why his father had chosen to bring it up now. Surely this was all understood between them.
Seiji had always known he was difficult to love. His father didn’t need to tell him that.
Seiji gave a noncommittal murmur. The noncommittal murmur served Seiji well at parties, in between the thank-yous and goodbyes, and Seiji hoped it would suffice as an answer.
“The only thing that seemed to make you happy was fencing,” said his father.
Apparently, noncommittal murmuring would not be enough. Seiji searched desperately for something to say that wouldn’t disappoint his father and came up with nothing.
“Of course, we’re very proud of you and your fencing triumphs,” said his father after a pause.
It made sense that excelling would please his parents.
“My name has been mentioned regarding the Olympics,” Seiji offered.
“I know, Seiji,” his dad told him with a touch of weariness. “And we’re proud of you for fitting in so well at this new school. It sounds like Kings Row is going well.”
“I must have described everything wrong,” said Seiji. “You do understand that most of my fencing team is not even ranked in the top fifty?”
His father coughed again—several times.
“I think you must be getting a cold,” said Seiji, concerned. “Will you help me with my prank?”
“I will. Thanks for calling, Sei-kun,” said his father. He hadn’t called him that often, not since Seiji was small. “I’m glad you did.”
Seiji cleared his throat. He was happy if his father was happy, naturally. “I’m glad I did, too. You should see a doctor as soon as possible for that cold.”
The call had been mystifying in several ways, and Seiji was certain his father had been annoyed to have his work interrupted. Especially when he was ill. And as it turned out, neither the call nor the prank had been necessary. Seiji had made a complete fool of himself.
Seiji fervently wished there was some way to escape this appalling situation.
Even as he had that thought, he saw headlights through the trees, and when he cautiously approached, he noted, to his surprise, that a limousine was driving down the road.
He was even more surprised when the limousine halted, and Jesse emerged.
“Seiji!” he exclaimed. “There you are at last.”
“Hello, Jesse,” said Seiji. “What an extremely strange coincidence.”
Seiji nodded, and turned away from the road. This day was just getting worse and worse.
Jesse left the limousine, and walked onto the tree line, twigs snapping under his crisp steps. He snatched Seiji’s arm and whirled him around.
“Get into the limo immediately, Seiji,” said Jesse, who was slightly wild-eyed. “You cannot stay here. You must see that.”
Seiji blinked. Had news of his prank spread to Exton already?
Jesse continued: “This is a postapocalyptic nightmare land, populated by gibbering lunatics draped in raw flesh!”
“Oh that,” said Seiji. “That was days ago. Many things have happened since then.”
“Worse than that?” Jesse asked, sounding appalled. “That has been haunting my dreams. Come away, Seiji. Do you want to be subjected to more horrors? Isn’t it humiliating for a fencer of your stature to be treated like this, forced to roll around in the mud, playing pointless games with pointless people? Let’s leave while you still have some shreds of your dignity left.”
Seiji stayed in the circle of leaves and dirt created when Jesse spun him around. Jesse’s blue eyes were as relentless as his grip on Seiji’s wrist. He was pulling Seiji forward.
“Don’t you want to come?” Jesse asked.
“In a way, I do,” Seiji admitted slowly.
“There you go,” said Jesse, used to hearing exactly what he wanted to hear. “I knew you would. Come away at once.”
He tugged, but Seiji planted his feet in the ground and refused to move. Jesse gave him a look that went almost past bewildered, as though they were both lost in the woods.
“I—” stammered Jesse. “I—I’m prepared to make concessions.”
“Are you?” Seiji said quietly.
Was Jesse going to apologize? If he did…
“I’ll never mention this ridiculous time you spent at Kings Row,” Jesse promised. “I won’t let anyone else mention it, either. It will be like it never happened.”
Like Kings Row and Nicholas didn’t happen.
“But it did,” said Seiji.
“But it didn’t,” insisted Jesse, fully prepared to argue with reality until reality backed down. “Because