“Okay, thank you.”
I waved and gave Aiden and Luca an upward nod as they approached.
“Morning, gentlemen,” Atlas said to them.
“Good morning,” Luca said.
“Morning, Atlas,” Aiden said as he looked at Atlas. He turned to look at me and said, “Good morning, Ryder.”
“How was your evening?” Luca asked me.
“Good,” I said. I tried to push the thoughts about talking to Atlas about the porn out of my head.
“Ryder slept exceptionally well,” Atlas said. “While you gentlemen are out, please do a little sightseeing and show Ryder around some.”
“Yes, sir,” Luca said.
“Ready?” Aiden asked me.
“Yeah.” I zipped up my jacket and shoved my hands in the pockets.
“Have fun, and I’ll catch up with you later this afternoon, Ryder,” Atlas said as the four of us walked toward the entrance of the hotel.
“Hey, Oscar!” I called out and waved at Oscar when I saw him waiting by the Bentley for Atlas.
I must have done something wrong because Oscar stared at me and then looked in the direction of Atlas.What?Oscar waved at me hesitantly, and when I looked at Atlas, he smiled at me. He looked at Aiden and Luca before saying, “I’ll see you this afternoon.” I turned my head to look at Luca and Aiden and noticed that Luca was covering his mouth and his eyes were wide. It was as if I made some major social mistake. Aiden had a huge smile on his face.
“What?” I asked quietly.
“Come on, Ryder. Let’s go.” Aiden flung his arm around my shoulders and guided me in the direction of the SUV parked a short distance away. He walked with his arm around me the entire way. I kind of liked it. I felt like I was important to him and a friend, even though we hadn’t known each other very long.
After we got into the SUV, I noticed there was tinted glass separating the front seat from the back seat. I felt that our conversation was private back here, so I felt safe in asking them what crime I had committed.
“What did I do wrong?” I asked. Luca and Aiden looked at each other and smiled. “Tell me so I don’t do it again.”
“Dude, you just drew attention to yourself. Omnias don’t draw attention to anything,” Luca said as he laughed.
“By saying hello to Oscar?”
Luca looked at Aiden and asked, “Did you see the look on Oscar’s face?”
“I’m not allowed to be friendly?” I asked.
“You are. And we all know you’re new and will learn about how to carry yourself in public. There wasn’t anything wrong with wanting to be polite and greet someone. That’s definitely encouraged.”
“Just not the yelling part,” Luca added.
“Okay.” I thought for a moment about how immature I probably looked on the sidewalk and how it might have caused people passing by to turn and look. And that might not be good. “I’ll try to think more before I do things.”
“It’s okay, Ryder,” Luca said.
“The academy and council are a bit more lenient with first-year students.”
“Could I have been in trouble if I had done that on campus?” I asked.
“Being new, they probably would have just talked to you first. But if you did that at an off-campus event, you probably would have been flogged for it,” Aiden said.
My stomach dropped, and I felt really hot all of a sudden.
