“—and I told you I won’t if that asshole’s there and you invited him anyway!”
“Hey.” Summer frowned. “Who’s the asshole?”
“Nobody,” Eli mumbled sullenly, at the same time that Jay bit off,
“Theo fucking Rothfuss, that’s who. We were supposed to go to the movies next weekend but this dick invited Theo.”
“He’s my friend!” Eli flared.
“He pissed in my fucking Gatorade!” Jay shot back, and Summer nearly choked.
“Okay. No more yelling in the middle of the hall,” he said, and gently gripped each boy’s upper arm, just enough of a touch to nudge them along. “Come on. We’re going to head to the infirmary, and we’re going to have a little talk—and then the two of you can work this out in detention, so that’s solving the problem of your weekend plans right there.”
Both boys groaned.
But they didn’t resist, bowing their heads and letting themselves be shuffled along.
While Summer tried not to be painfully aware of the pair of intense silver eyes, watching him from one of the open doorways and seeming to track his every last step.
Long night.
Long, long damned night.
And Summer thought he might just collapse where he stood.
It had taken less time to get the boys cleaned up and bandaged by a very tired-looking Nurse Atherton than it had taken to get them to sit down and talk. But once Jay had opened up, sitting in the library with Summer and Eli where no one else could hear and judge, a story had come pouring out about one of the other seniors—Theodore, one of the bigger boys who liked to bully the others just because he could and because, in a social hierarchy defined by whose parents had the most power and money, Theodore was very close to king with a family entrenched in centuries of luxury hotel operations around the world.
He’d done worse things than urinate in Jay’s drink.
Much worse things.
And as the litany had come out, Eli had shrunk smaller and smaller in his chair, refusing to look at Jay even while Jay was practically pleading with him not to be friends with someone who could hurt him so deeply.
All of it was, quite frankly, a hot mess.
And too complex to be dealing with in the middle of the night, but then messes didn’t really wait until more convenient times.
What had followed was nearly an hour of quiet talking. Of trying to get both boys to see the nuance in the situation—that it was painful for Jay to see Eli ignore the way Theodore had hurt him, because to Jay that meant condoning it. But also trying to make Jay understand that to Eli, it felt like Jay trying to control who he could be friends with...and that for Eli, aligning himself with Theodore was likely a matter of self-protection to keep from becoming Theodore’s next target.
That had sparked Eli’s ego, set off a defensive mess of denials and accusations about Jay needing to be more honest about what he really wanted out of their friendship, and Summer having to intervene until Eli calmed down and admitted he didn’t even really like Theo that much and he didn’t want to lose Jay as a friend or roommate, just...
Much of it had been less about lecturing and more about nudging. Summer had figured that out a long time ago; people in conflict never liked to be told what they should do. Instead ask leading questions, offer answers if asked, but point them at each other and let them work it out until they were at least honest with each other, no matter the outcome.
And he thought, maybe, this outcome might actually be good.
He’d at least gotten them to talk about their feelings, which, with teenage boys?
Was a world-class feat of strength in and of itself.
They could work the rest out in their room. And in detention. Including that if they stuck together, they were strong enough to hopefully resist bullies like Theodore.
Summer sat alone in the library for long minutes after he’d sent the boys back to their room, pressing his face into his palms and just breathing. That had been...intense. And while he’d just reacted in the moment and thrown himself into doing what was necessary, now that he was coming out of it he was fucking exhausted, bone-weary...and had a throbbing bruise forming on his ribs.
He wasn’t about to drag Nurse Atherton out of bed again.
He valued his life too much.
He’d stop by the infirmary in the morning, and for now just...try to sleep.
Maybe he’d stop by the guidance counselor’s office, too. Let them know they needed to keep an eye out on some of the power dynamics in the school. There was only so much they could legally do with matters of liability, but...
When someone could urinate in another boy’s drink and get away with it, there was something seriously wrong here—and the boys should feel like they could turn to someone who would be on their side, no matter what.
Tomorrow.
He’d worry about it tomorrow.
As he didn’t think Iseya would appreciate him showing up completely wiped out, groggy, unable to focus, and manic on a double-shot espresso.
Scrubbing at his eyes, he pushed himself to his feet and stepped back out into the darkened, empty halls. When he’d been a boy, everyone had always found the school to be creepy at night, with the silhouettes of mist-shrouded trees through the windows, the shadows hiding in the rafters, the creaking floorboards and the looming haunts of strange crevices and fixtures. Summer had rarely had occasion to spend time at the school at night as a student, with living in town...
But the few times he had he’d found it comforting, not creepy.
A place where old things lived, silent and settling into their bones.
He ran his fingers along the wall as he walked, the texture of the wood under his fingertips, the coolness of it the same as the coolness of the floorboards under his bare soles. Head down, watching his toes and the deep wood grain,
