“Yeah. Apparently that’s not the point.”
“Then what is?”
“He says I need to learn to work with people. That I’m too impulsive. Too aggressive.” I kicked at a pebble near my foot. “He’s grooming me for captain, but he thinks I need to prove I can lead without, you know, punching people.”
“He’s not wrong.”
I shot Noah a look.
“What?” Noah held up his hands. “You punched Marcus in the face. I love you, man, but that’s pretty impulsive.”
“Marcus deserved it.”
“True. But you took the rivalry to another level.” Noah leaned back. “Don’t get me wrong—watching you deck Marcus was beautiful. I get why you did it. But the whole thing spiraled pretty fast.”
I didn’t have an answer for that.
“How long are you stuck in the double?” Noah asked.
“Until Hale decides I’m ready. I might even row double for Head of the Charles.”
“That sucks, man.”
“I know.”
Noah’s eyes lit up. “I talked to a friend in the computer science program—he’s really good with digital forensics stuff.”
I looked at him. “And?”
“He thinks he might be able to track where the video came from. IP address, metadata, that kind of thing. It’s not guaranteed, but he said if we send him the text, he can try to trace it back to the source.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. I mean, it might take a few days, and he can’t promise anything. But it’s a shot.” Noah met my eyes. “At least then we’d know who’s doing this shit.”
“That would be...” I exhaled. “Yeah. Let's do it.”
I opened my phone and forwarded Noah the message.
“Thanks, man.”
“Of course.” Noah started gathering his papers. “Trivia night at The Grindhouse on Wednesday. You, me, Emily. We should go.”
“Trivia night?”
“Yeah. I need the practice slaughtering idiots.”
I laughed. “Let’s do it.”
Noah stood up and clapped me on the shoulder. “I gotta go to class. Cya later.”
He left before I could respond.
I sat there for another minute, watching students cross the quad. Someone was throwing a frisbee. A couple was making out under a tree. Normal college shit.
My phone buzzed.
Emily
