The Academy

by Quinn Anderson

  With a sigh, Nick took the outfit Sebastian had gotten him off the bathroom door and pulled it on while he recounted everything. From the first time their eyes had met, to Sebastian’s hot-and-cold attitude, to the drunken texts.

  Deen listened without comment, which was good, because the words seemed to rush out of Nick, beyond his control. By the end of it, his mouth was dry. He stopped to fill a glass with water from the sink before he turned to Deen.

  “So, what do you think?”

  “First of all—” Deen held up a finger “—you look amazing.”

  Nick glanced behind himself at the bathroom mirror. He had to admit, the crisp white shirt and dark pants combo worked for him. The vest was icing. “Thank you. I actually agree.”

  “Second of all—” Deen held up another finger “—I think you should give Sebastian another chance.”

  Nick forced himself to swallow the sip of water he’d taken instead of spitting it out. “What? After all that? Rehashing it made me think I should’ve told him to fuck off from day one.”

  “I admit the whole thing is a bit bizarre, and way overcomplicated for what it is. But what if we uncomplicate it? He likes you. You like him—” Nick tried to interrupt, but Deen glared at him. “You do. It’s obvious. I’m not saying it’s the greatest love story of all time, but he makes your meatsuit dewy, and you know it.”

  Nick muttered under his breath. “Fine. That was a terrible reference, though.”

  “The point is, it sounds like he’s realized he made a mistake and is trying to correct it. I think he didn’t know when he met you that he was going to like you as much as he does. I know Sebastian’s reputation as well as anyone. He’s a hit-it-and-quit-it kinda guy. When he met you, he approached you with that intention, but then you called him out, and he’s been obsessed with you ever since.”

  Nick rolled his eyes. “So obsessed he left me on read for five days?”

  “Hey, I’m not a mind reader. I don’t know everything he’s thinking, but it sounds like he’s as confused by all this as you are. Didn’t he say in one of his texts that he’s terrified?”

  “Yeah.” Nick paused. “I don’t know. There’s so much about him I don’t understand.”

  “For what it’s worth, he really wouldn’t shut up about you at the party. There was even this other blond guy hanging all over him, and Sebastian totally blew him off.”

  At that, Nick felt a pang of something he prayed wasn’t jealousy. “I can’t imagine why. It’s not like we’re dating.”

  “Beats me. But while we’re on the subject, I get the feeling something’s going on in Sebastian’s life. I’m no expert, but he was drinking like he was on a mission, and there were times when he stood on the sidelines alone and seemed downright miserable. At his own party. In my experience, drinking too much and isolating yourself at social gatherings are bad signs.”

  That reminded Nick of what Sebastian had told him what felt like years ago. That Nick looked sad sometimes, and that Sebastian could relate.

  “Maybe.” Nick sighed. “But I’ll never know for sure if he doesn’t tell me.”

  “Does that mean you’d be willing to give him a second chance if he did?”

  Nick pulled his phone out of his pocket. “I suppose. Assuming he ever speaks to me again.”

  “He will. I’d bet money on it, and gambling is against my religion.” Deen winked. “If you don’t want to be late, you should get going.”

  “Right. Thanks for the advice, fashion and personal. I’ll see you later.” Nick grabbed his bag, slung it over his shoulder, and started for the door. Right as he reached it, he turned back. “Hey, Deen? You’re the best roommate ever.”

  Deen grinned. “Right back atcha, buddy.”

  Nick trekked to the edge of campus and then stopped to check the directions Dante had texted him. Dante lived in an apartment complex five minutes away that wasn’t associated with the Academy. According to him, it was much quieter than the party-oriented housing Sebastian lived in and much more anonymous than living on campus.

  As Nick walked, he made a mental note to talk to Deen about getting a place there next year. It sounded perfect. Using the navigation on his phone, he found the correct street and strolled down to a modern, two-story apartment complex. Dante’s place was on the first floor, number sixteen. Nick found it without ado and knocked. It was only after he did that he felt his first spark of nervousness. The meeting was innocent, but it wasn’t every day he went over to a hot guy’s place to study. Mere seconds later, the door opened.

  “Nick!” Dante greeted him with a brilliant smile. “Glad you could make it. Come on in.” He stepped back and opened the door wider.

  Nick followed after him, observing first that Dante was dressed impeccably—as Deen had predicted—in white skinny jeans and a black sweater, and second that his apartment didn’t look like any college pad Nick had seen. There were no posters taped up, no cheap futon in the living room. It looked adult. Real furniture, new appliances, and framed modern art on the walls.

  Whistling, Nick checked the apartment out. “Nice place you got here.”

  “Thanks. My mom and I decorated it together. She’s an interior designer, and I think the only reason she let me move away from home was because she got to experiment.”

  “Well, good taste must run in the family. This place is great.” Nick pointed to a white sofa. “May I?”

  “Please.” Dante walked past him toward an attached kitchen. “You want anything? Water? Beer?”

  Nick paused. “Actually, a beer would be great, thanks. I probably should have brought over a bottle of wine or something. Sorry about that.”

  Dante’s muffled voice sounded from the kitchen, along with clinking bottles. “No worries. I know booze is hard to come by for us poor twenty-year-olds.”

  Nick’s conscience prodded him into saying, “Actually, I’m twenty-one. I took a year off.”

  “Oh, right. I think I heard that somewhere.” Dante reemerged from the kitchen, handed a beer to Nick, and clinked his own against it. “Cheers. To the new school year.”

  “To finding a good study partner.” Nick took a sip. He’d never been much of a drinker, but he had to admit, if he could afford beer this good, he might become one of those people who drank one with dinner. For the taste.

  Dante sat down a comfortable distance from him and waved to an open lab book on the coffee table. “How far into the reading are you?”

  Nick pulled his messenger bag into his lap and dug through it for his notes. “I’m mostly caught up. I haven’t done the reading for this weekend yet, because I wasn’t sure if you had anything specific you wanted to cover.”

  “I was gonna pull a high school and make some flash cards to be honest.”

  Nick produced a stack of index cards out of his bag with a flourish. “Dude! I’m so down.”

  “Nice!” Dante held up a hand, and Nick smacked him five. “Let’s never tell anyone we got this excited about flash cards.”

  They settled in to work for about ten minutes. Nick read aloud from their textbook while Dante made the cards and color-coded them with some highlighters. It seemed like any other study session, until Dante cleared his throat.

  “You were missed at Sebastian’s party last weekend.”

  Nick did his best not to tense up. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dante glance over at him, but he didn’t look back. “I wasn’t in a partying mood.”

  “That’s a shame. It was an eventful night. Would have been even better with you there.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  Dante chuckled. “Well, for one thing, Theo wouldn’t have been so gloomy. I think he was looking forward to seeing you.” For some reason, Dante’s voice got tight. “You two have become really close, huh?”

  “As close as two people can get in two weeks, yeah.” Nick studied Dante’s profile. “He’s great. Smart. Funny. Empathetic. He’s going to be a hell of a therapist someday.”

&nb
sp; “Gotta agree with you there. It gets a little annoying. Like, sometimes you want to vent, but he wants to discuss how your childhood interactions with your father shape your current relationships, or some shit.”

  Nick laughed. “Yeah, that sounds like him. Still, he’s a good guy. I don’t have a whole lot of friends here, so I’m lucky to have him.”

  At the word friend, Dante seemed to relax. It occurred to Nick that Theo had told him a while ago that he had a thing for someone. But neither of them was making a move because they didn’t want to mess up their “group dynamic.”

  Could the guy Theo likes be Dante?

  Now that it occurred to him, he wasn’t sure how he hadn’t realized it before. It made perfect sense. They were best friends, they’d grown up together, and though Nick had never seen them interact, they obviously got along. It also made sense that they’d be scared to take a chance, in case things didn’t work out. The prospect of losing a close friend would be daunting for anyone.

  “You know,” Nick said before he could think through the wisdom of it, “since Theo’s such a great guy, he must have a lot of admirers.”

  Dante jerked his head toward him. “What do you mean?”

  “You know. People who want to date him. Since he’s such a complete package and all.”

  Dante narrowed his eyes. “I suppose. Know anyone who’s interested in him?”

  Nick had to struggle to keep a straight face. He could almost hear the jealousy in Dante’s voice. In the interest of not being mean to someone who could be a new friend, he said, “Not that I know of, but Theo told me there’s someone he likes.”

  “Oh?” Dante leaned closer. “He didn’t happen to say who it was, did he?”

  This close to Dante’s handsome face, it was hard for Nick to resist telling him whatever he wanted, but for Theo’s sake, he held strong. “No, sorry. But I’m sure it’s someone special. The way Theo talked about them made me think he must really care.”

  Dante let out a breath and leaned back in his seat, flash cards abandoned. “Too bad he’ll never make a move. He’s more the wait-and-see type, which occasionally drives me batty. Never take him to a restaurant that has a multipage menu. You’ll be there all night.”

  Nick laughed. “Sounds like he needs someone in his life who’s not afraid to be decisive. Someone to make the first move. And fast, too. Theo’s not going to be single forever. As wonderful as he is, someone’s going to fall hard for him.”

  Dante muttered something under his breath that Nick swore was, “Someone already has,” but he let it slide. Dante took a long drink from his beer before setting it down with a pronounced clunk. “I have a hypothetical question.”

  “Go for it.”

  “What if the person Theo likes is a friend of his? And that person is afraid to make a move because it might ruin everything? What if that person likes Theo so much, they’d rather be friends with him than risk not having him at all?”

  Hypothetical. Right.

  Nick wanted to drop the act, but he got the feeling Dante needed this pretense. “I’d tell that person that they’ll never know if they don’t try. That sounds cliché, but it’s true. Really strong friendships can survive anything, and it sounds like the risk could have a truly incredible reward. That makes it worth it.”

  There was a long pause.

  Then, Dante let out a breath. “Thank you. That’s very good advice. Especially coming from you.”

  Nick frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.” Dante grinned. “But it’s a little funny to hear you say ‘go for it’ when you’ve been fighting your attraction to a certain someone since the start of the semester.”

  Nick felt himself go red in the face. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Oh, come on. You don’t have to play coy with me. I’m one of Sebastian’s best friends, which means I’ve heard how he talks about you.”

  Nick sat up straighter. “What does he say, exactly?”

  Dante looked at him sidelong. “Still gonna pretend you’re not interested?”

  Damn. Busted.

  Nick slumped in his seat. “Okay, you got me, but that doesn’t really mean anything. Things are . . . weird. I haven’t spoken to Sebastian all week, for example. He drifts in and out of my life like a ghost. It’s frustrating.”

  “I can imagine. As I’m sure you’ve realized by now, his confident schtick is an act, and he actually has no idea what he’s doing. Oh, and I wouldn’t worry about getting to see him. You two are going to be reunited sooner than you think.”

  “What makes you—” Nick’s sentence was interrupted by a knock on the door.

  Dante was on his feet in an instant. “I’ll get it.”

  As Dante walked to the door, Nick watched him with the special kind of dread that came from knowing a trap was about to be sprung but being powerless to stop it.

  Dante flung the door open, and for a moment, the setting sun outside shone directly in Nick’s eyes. He blinked, and the figure standing in the doorframe came into focus.

  Sebastian Prinsen. Of course.

  Sebastian was looking at Dante, his handsome features pinched with annoyance. “Dude, I’ve been calling you for the past hour. Why didn’t you pick up?”

  “Sorry, buddy. I was a little busy.” Dante turned half away from the door to nod in Nick’s direction.

  Nick swallowed hard.

  Sebastian glowered, eyes still focused on Dante. “Well, I can’t imagine what was so important. If I’m late to my own party, there’s going to be hell to p—” Finally, he glanced Nick’s way, and his jaw dropped.

  Nick stared at him, paralyzed despite himself. He’d never admit it aloud, but the warmth that washed through him at the sight of Sebastian—especially after a week apart—was like sinking into a relaxing bath.

  Eventually, he unglued his tongue from the roof of his mouth. “Hi.”

  “Hi,” Sebastian parroted, eyes wide. They were dark as ink, thanks to the sun behind him.

  Dante’s eyes darted back and forth between them, his smile growing with each pass. “Well, this ought to be fun.”

  Sebastian was going to kill Dante. And he was going to get Theo to help him hide the body. There were all sorts of little nooks and crannies around campus where they could bury him. Or better yet, they could sail out to the middle of Lake Michigan, and—

  “So,” Nick said, looking skittish as a cornered mouse, “long time no talk. How have you been?”

  Sebastian’s murderous thoughts cut to white noise and then to blinding panic. He should have known Dante was setting him up. That phony text he’d sent Sebastian, claiming there was an “emergency” mere hours before they were set to host another party at Sebastian’s place, was classic Dante. It was Sebastian’s surprise nineteenth birthday all over again. Present Sebastian wanted to kick Past Sebastian in the shins for not seeing through the ruse.

  He’d been silent for way too long. He worked up a lie. “I’ve been great. Couldn’t be better.”

  Dante stepped back to let him into the apartment. Sebastian followed, glaring daggers at him as he shut the door.

  “Glad to hear it.” Nick’s tone was overly cheerful. “I, uh, haven’t seen you around lately.”

  Sebastian shrugged. “I’ve been busy. A few of my classes gave out their first assignments at the same time. I was swamped.”

  That much was true. Sebastian had written his first essay of the semester—a ten-pager worth a sizable chunk of his grade—and he’d had to put a presentation together for another class, on top of his usual reading assignments and studying. It really had been a hell of a week. But it wasn’t the real reason he’d never contacted Nick. His radio silence had been caused by sheer cowardice.

  On Sunday, as he’d nursed his hangover, Sebastian had debated what he was going to say to Nick. Apologizing for drunk texting him was a no-brainer, but beyond that, he had no idea if he wanted to own up to the texts or play
them off. The first route was more honest and appealing, but also more terrifying and confusing. The second was just plain easier. The way his life was right now, easy was too attractive of an option for him to dismiss outright.

  The more he’d thought about what he’d done, the more embarrassed he’d gotten, until he’d become convinced that the next time he encountered Nick, he was going to get rejected. So, he’d done what any insecure twenty-year-old would do. He’d avoided Nick like the plague.

  It wasn’t the most mature solution, but it’d bought him a couple of days of much-needed peace. Except now, thanks to Dante, his avoid-the-problem plan was pressing its nose against the glass after having gone out the window.

  “Make yourself comfortable.” Dante moved toward the couch. “Nick and I were studying. We have that class together, you know.”

  Sebastian eyed Dante warily. He couldn’t fathom what his purpose was in Parent Trapping them, but there was no doubt Dante would make it known soon enough.

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to leave?” Sebastian asked. “Since you two are busy and all?”

  “No!” Nick said, and then immediately looked down at his lap. “Don’t go. It . . . really is great to see you.”

  Sebastian’s heart palpitated. “Oh. Yeah. You too.”

  “Seriously, stay.” Dante flopped onto the couch. The motion seemed casual enough, but Sebastian couldn’t help but note how closely he sat down next to Nick. “The more the merrier.”

  Sebastian was about to retort when Dante slid an arm onto the back of the sofa. Directly behind Nick’s shoulders. Like a boyfriend.

  To his credit, Nick appeared as surprised as Sebastian felt, and he didn’t lean into it, but he didn’t scooch away from Dante either. In fact, he stared at him with big, blue eyes that Sebastian couldn’t read.

  Is this . . . a date?

  “Why don’t you have a seat?” Dante nodded at a chair perpendicular to the sofa.

  Bewildered, Sebastian hesitated for a fraction of a second before walking over to it and plunking down. Silence descended on the room. If Sebastian had ever killed a man, he might confess to it right now just to have something to say.