to, but he couldn’t find the words.
Sunk lower than the sun and trembling, Aiden whispered, “Arrêt.”
When Harvard let go his desperate hold on Aiden’s fencing jacket, Aiden whirled and ran. The door slamming behind him echoed all throughout their room. Harvard listened to Aiden’s retreating footsteps echoing down the hallways of Kings Row. He turned his face to the wall and the window, leaning his forehead against the cold glass. He kept his eyes closed until the sun had set and he’d convinced his wildly beating and breaking heart of what he already knew: This was for the best.
Then Harvard crossed their room, took the bear from their date out of the trash, and hid it in his backpack. He could take the bear home with him, to keep. Aiden never had to know.
30: NICHOLAS
The sun was setting, and it was almost time for the team bonfire Coach had promised them, when Nicholas found Seiji.
“I’ve been looking for you everywhere,” he grumbled.
He felt aggrieved to find Seiji in their room, sitting on his bed and frowning at his screen, with a heap of his belongings laid out on his neatly tucked blankets. It was possible that Seiji was the only one still trying to write that essay. Nicholas had given up. He’d just run suicides until he died or whatever Coach wanted; he couldn’t say any more about his childhood.
“I don’t know why you would do that, Nicholas,” said Seiji. “Searching for your roommate is pointless. You literally know where they sleep, because you also sleep there.”
Nicholas shrugged. “Well, I wanted to talk to you as soon as possible.”
“Why?” asked Seiji. “People don’t tell me I’m an endlessly charming conversationalist.”
Nicholas grinned. “Yeah, and they’re not gonna start. Maybe I just wanna have a chat with a master criminal. You know, for my street cred.”
Seiji lifted his eyes to the ceiling. It wasn’t one of the fancy wedding-cake-looking ceilings like in the halls or some of the classrooms in Kings Row, but Seiji still liked to sigh and stare at the ceiling a lot. Nicholas just seemed to inspire this urge in him.
“I’m not a master criminal.”
“Oh man,” said Nicholas. “I feel all shocked and betrayed. But maybe not as shocked and betrayed as the weight lifters will.”
“I don’t know how everybody in Kings Row doesn’t realize this,” said Seiji, “but money can be exchanged for goods?”
Realization dawned, bright as the sun setting on the heap of not-actually-stolen watches in front of Seiji. Nicholas had known Seiji wasn’t a master criminal, but he hadn’t been sure about exactly how Seiji’s plan had gone down.
“You bought all those watches.” Nicholas was certain now.
“I consulted with my father to see if I could,” Seiji stipulated conscientiously.
“Yeah, I just bet you consulted with your father!” said Nicholas. “You must’ve spent hundreds of dollars!”
Seiji paused. “Approximately.”
“So you bought a huge pile of watches, and then you lied about seeing a stolen stash hidden in one of the students’ rooms, and you made sure Kings Row was buzzing with gossip so the students’ rooms actually got searched.… All before anybody actually checked with the jewelers to see if they were robbed.”
“Eugene mostly did the gossip part,” claimed Seiji. “I don’t gossip. It involves talking to several people.”
“Must have been slightly embarrassing for the school when the jewelers said they weren’t robbed. Must have been slightly embarrassing for you when they gave you back a pile of watches and you had to explain where you’d got them, and how they turned up in someone else’s room.”
When Seiji shook his head, Nicholas realized he’d underestimated Seiji. Probably, Seiji would be a great master criminal if he really wanted to be.
“I said I wished to donate the watches to a charity,” said Seiji. “My father suggested I should do this, so it wasn’t a lie. I believe the school authorities think those boys stole my charity watches as an unkind prank, and they are still in trouble. Though not expelled for stealing watches.”
He seemed faintly regretful about that. Seiji and Eugene had really taken a dislike to these guys. Nicholas wished he could remember anything they’d ever said, but when he tried to think back he only recalled a generalized Blah blah, don’t mind us, we’re jerk faces.
Nicholas whistled. “Gossip, misleading the authorities, and a pretend heist. Why’d you do all that?”
“It should be perfectly obvious why I did all that,” said Seiji.
“For me,” said Nicholas. “Because you thought those idiots hurt my feelings.”
Seiji glanced up, a look of