“Not so fast,” Ez said.
“Yeah, wejuststarted dating,” a girl said. I was pretty certain it was Opal, but I didn’t know her voice as well as the others.
“Things can move quickly when they’re meant to be,” Eddie pointed out.
“What’s going on?” I asked as I found a chair and sat.
“Opal and Ez are dating,” Alistair blurted.
“Congratulations. That’s great,” I said, sincerely happy for them. They made a really good couple.
Ez lowered his voice. “Hey, could we not announce it to the whole Institute? These people don’t need to know who I care about. Too many inmates are willing to use that against you.”
“I think they already know, Ez,” I pointed out. “It’s pretty obvious you and Opal share something special.”
“Thanks,” Opal said. “We do. It’s not that we aren’t proud of our relationship. We just… don’t want each other getting hurt.”
Alistair chuckled. “Still have a bunch of girls pining after you, Ez? I heard that center spread in the magazine was quite attractive.”
“That’s old news,” Ez said. “Please don’t make a big deal out of this. You and Eddie should think about being more discreet about things, too.”
“Why?” Alistair demanded. “Because we’re gay?”
Ez lowered his voice. “No, because Eddie’s an Elf. He’s already got a target on his back for that. If anyone wants to hurt him, they’ll go after you.”
Alistair scoffed. “I’d like to see them try.”
Eddie didn’t sound as confident. “Thatisa concern. Have we been that obvious?”
I chuckled. “Alistair can’t stop talking about you. With his big mouth, I’m sure the whole school knows how he feels.”
Alistair laughed. “Let ‘em. I’m not afraid. If any of these suckers come after me, I’ll show them what I’m made of.”
Alistair wasn’t taking this seriously, and it worried me. I lowered my voice. “And what if one of thosesuckersis the Warden?”
Alistair went completely silent. He had nothing to say about that.
“We should probably get going, Ez,” Opal suggested. “I need to get some saltwater on my fins before swim class.”
I waited for the couple to leave before I leaned over to Alistair and Eddie. “Ez and Opal are right, you guys. You don’t want these inmates to know your weaknesses. Kallie and Marcus already got wrapped up in that kind of thing, and I couldn’t stand to watch either of you end up hurt.”
“What happened to Kallie and Marcus?” Eddie asked.
I froze. I didn’t want to tell them about Marcus being part of the Dead Men, because I feared it would put them in danger. Alistair would want to help Marcus get out of the gang— which was impossible— and Eddie would be pissed that I was hanging around in fight club and getting my ass kicked every weekend to protect Marcus. The less they knew, the better.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said.
Alistair cracked his knuckles. “Who are these losers that hurt Kallie and Marcus? I’ll take care of them.”
“It’s… complicated,” I said.
“Dealing with your enemies is simple,” Alistair retorted. “All you have to do is get rid of them. Boom. Problem solved.”
“It’s really not that easy—” I started, but I cut off.
Alistair was right. The way to solve our problems was to get rid of the enemy.
Not the Warden— we’d already discussed that. It’d be next to impossible to murder that man with our limited resources.
