“Busy night?” I ask, surprised it comes out as cool as it might if I hadn’t seen him fucking floating with his boyfriend.
“Eh, just the usual. When did you guys start hanging out?”
“Shortly after the ’80s movie party at Alpha Alpha Mu,”Alexei says. “Malcom wanted some guys to game with, and Matteo was free.” He turns to me, smirking.
It’s concerning how good the guy is at making up a plausible lie on the fly. Alexei’s got secrets, and plenty of them, apparently.
“I didn’t know you liked gaming,” Brad says.
“We don’t know everything about each other, I guess.”
Isn’t that a fucking understatement?
Brad doesn’t seem to pick up on the dig. Just shrugs, then groans. “I should take a shower, but I think I’m just gonna pass out.”
“Cool, cool. I’m gonna head out,” Alexei says, slipping past me.
“What? Right now?”
He grabs his coat off my desk and heads for the door. “Yeah, man. See you around.” And I figure he’s saying that for Brad’s benefit.
I consider following him, but this isn’t the kind of thing I can discuss with him in the hall, and he’s just going down to his room, which Luke will be in, so I’ll have to sit with all this on my own…
Fuck, I won’t get any sleep tonight either, will I?
7
ALEXEI
Saturday is Cody’sbirthday, so I get together with the Sinners at the pizza place down the street. When the pizzas and Brad’s and Luke’s calzones arrive, the guys dig in, but I’m not that hungry. I’m on edge—for a variety of reasons.
Guilt from spying on people who are supposed to be my friends.
Tension because tonight’s the night the Saints are meeting with the guide to decide if they can help me with getting answers about my brother.
Uneasiness from avoiding Matteo the past few days.
Since I showed him what these guys could do, he’s been trying to get me alone again. Thursday afternoon, he was at the pickup game. For a guy who’s shown up maybe one other time in two weeks, and who was too distracted looking at me to play well, I knew what he really wanted.
After seeing what the Sinners got up to, he has more questions, but I can’t share everything with him. I can’t tell him about the monster those guys unleashed. Or what happened the night I was attacked. Then he really wouldn’t want me casting this conjuring spell.
After I ignored him through the game and in the shower room, he started texting:
Alexei, we need to talk.
Come on.
Write me back.
He’s blowing up my phone like I imagine some girls blow up his when they want to mess around with him again.
As Cody grabs a breadstick, Seth pops his mouth open, and Cody grins before tearing off a piece and tossing it, landing it right in Seth’s mouth.
“Hit me, Codes,” Brad says, opening his mouth before Cody tosses another piece.
Brad has to shift a little, but like Seth, gets it right in.
“Luke?” Cody asks, and they make an attempt, but it lands on Luke’s cheek before he catches it in his hand and pops it into his mouth.
