All eight of the bulbs lit up red.
He turned to locate Dirk, but Dirk was already attacking from the baseline. He dropped his ball and charged, on a course to intersect him three feet before the basket. Dirk had to crossover to avoid a pole, confusing his footwork. Aiden beat him to the plant, to the launch, threw his body up in Dirk’s direct line, screaming with force, arms straight up to stop the ball toward the hoop—but there was no ball.
Dirk adjusted, his delayed step allowing him to change directions in the air, sailing past Aiden and dropping the ball in for a layup. The only contact Aiden made was swiping his shoulder on the way by, a foul.
The team erupted. “Yes, Dirk, that’s what I’m talking about!” Coach Bryant shouted.
“That’s bullshit—that was a fucking travel!” Aiden screamed.
“Not a travel,” Dirk protested, his accent even thicker with a mouth guard in. “It’s called Eurostep. Sarunas Marciulionis does this for Lithuania.”
“That’s the most made-up shit I ever heard!”
“Sit down, Aiden,” Coach Bryant said. “Maybe if you cut his line quicker, he wouldn’t be able to get that position on you. Rocco, let’s hear times.”
“Dirk, point-seven-seven-eight seconds.”
Coach Bryant slapped his clipboard and guys clapped Dirk’s back as he fell to the ground. Running the exercise in .778 was less than a tenth of a second off the record pace—his record pace.
“Aiden.” Rocco looked at the computer, then looked at Coach Bryant, then back to the computer. “Point-nine-two-one.” The team was quiet.
“Two more, let’s go!”
The rest of the practice was more of the same. His agility drills fell from a .921 to a 1.012. In the scrimmage, he was the last to make his ten consecutive free throws. He swapped teams with Taion to match up on Dirk, then watched as Dirk put up forty points, beating Aiden nearly every time he went to the hoop with his ridiculous delayed step. “Do better tomorrow,” Coach Bryant said to him as Aiden dragged himself to the locker room.
Back in his dorm, he dropped his bag to the floor and snorted the last three piles of Apex, immediately spreading his detective work on the desk in front of him. If she was still missing tomorrow, this was only going to get worse. He needed to focus.
Emma was being hunted by the hoods. All the other theories were out, he slashed them with his pen and held the Polaroid up to his nose. No faces were visible in the photo, but he did know who one of them was. He glared at one of the short hoods in the front, his blood pressure rising, and stormed out of his dorm.
He had to ask a few students in the B-School, but he found Peter’s dorm and slammed on it. A student Aiden didn’t recognize answered the door; there were six of them around the dorm, surrounding Peter in the center.
“Aiden—” he said. Peter was surprised.
“Follow me,” he growled directly to Peter, ignoring the rest.
“Yeah, I don’t know if that’s a good idea, you look pretty cooked—”
“Get the fuck out of your chair, get a jacket, and follow me.”
It worked. Peter stood up slowly, watching Aiden the entire time. Once his door was shut behind him, Aiden marched them to the Human Lounge and out onto the back lawn, settling on a lonely bench.
“What’s this about?” Peter asked.
“It’s time.”
“Time for what?”
Aiden swallowed. “Evan Andrews.”
Peter took a deep breath. “Whoa, this is not the time to show our hand—”
“Then when is the time?” he almost screamed. “I’m losing my fucking mind! You promised you were gonna help me find her, and I haven’t seen you in three days! I’m done with waiting—someone said that kid goes out to the cross every night. We’re gonna find him, and we’re gonna get some answers.”
Peter looked frightened, for once unsure of himself. “Look,” he said calmly. “Your body doesn’t have the amount of amphetamine it’s used to, and you’re going through withdrawal—”
He tried to put a hand on Aiden’s shoulder, but Aiden snapped it away. “Don’t fucking lecture me, bro. Just help me, please.” Aiden felt himself gasping for air between his sentences. “My game is tomorrow, and if I don’t find her, I’m gonna fuck my whole life up. I have to know what’s going on. I have to know who sent her that newspaper article.”
Peter was silent. His hands retreated to his pockets, and he wouldn’t meet Aiden’s eye contact. “Okay,” he said finally. “Okay. I’ll tell you. I did.”
“You did what?”
Peter looked back to the school, then to Aiden. They were alone. “I sent her that article. Well, I didn’t actually get to send it to her, but I made it.”
Aiden set a hand on the bench to balance himself. “Made it?”
“I’ve been buying Apex for the debate team. We have three teams going to Stanford in two weeks, and we’re cramming, but the school’s research tools suck. Without Apex, we’re not gonna be ready, but we ran outta money. So I was gonna show her that, let her know I was fully within my authority to rat on her, and see if I could get some for free. One of the debaters heard her tell you to meet at the court, so I went. Then when you showed up, I . . . changed my focus.”
Aiden’s mouth felt dry. “To me?”
Peter nodded. “Yeah.”
“So . . . the hoods, last night—”
“The debate team.”
“And Evan Andrews?”
“That part’s real, actually.” He couldn’t tell if Peter was proud or ashamed. “He was following her, but I’m not sure it has anything to do with Apex.”
Aiden could feel the world spinning around him. “And you stole the bag?”
Peter nodded.
“You’ve been lying to me this entire time? For Apex?”
“Yeah,” Peter said, stretching the word out. “But it’s not like—”
“Yes it is!” Aiden felt his chest puffing like a motor engine. “Whatever you were about to say, whatever you think it isn’t, I guarantee you, it is. You just don’t understand it because you have no sense of right or wrong, or—fucking anything!”
“Oh?”
“You were gonna threaten to ruin my girlfriend’s life, just so you could get free drugs. Think about how insane that is? Then you lied about it to me—actually, no, you did more than that! You pretended somebody else was doing it, forced me to miss basketball practice—”
“I didn’t—”
Aiden motored on, raising his voice to talk over Peter. “—and made me run in fucking circles, for what? You ruined my life, just so you could get a little bit of Apex?”
Peter didn’t look remorseful at all. “I didn’t force you to do anything.”
“In what fucking world is that even human? You don’t give a shit about Emma—and you definitely don’t give a shit about me, you shitty, druggie, degenerate asshole!”
The words echoed across the empty back lawn, hanging in the air for a long minute. Aiden felt like he was coming up from underwater, gasping for air, clenching every part of his body that could be clenched.
Peter just shuffled his feet, waiting.
“Okay,” Aiden finally said. “I didn’t mean all of that—”
“Yeah you did,” Peter said. “But it’s good. You’ve been thinking it for a while, yeah?”
Aiden kept clutching at his chest. His heart felt like it was going to stop.
“Thing is,” Peter continued, “I’m alright with my choices. You didn’t say any shit I didn’t already know. At least I can say that, right?”
Aiden tried to balance again and failed, hyperactivity in his mouth and fingers and knees. “I wish I could be like you. And just not give a shit about other people.”
Peter glared at him. “You know, I actually kinda like this moment, seeing you all pissed, ’cause for once it didn’t work like you were thinking it was gonna.”
“That’s bullshit—”
“Naw, man, think about it. Real
ly think about it. You’re so used to getting everything you want, just ’cause of who you are—basketball, money, fuck, even Emma—you don’t have a fucking clue what to do when you lose it. You don’t even know what it feels like to want something. And that makes you think that’s how life’s supposed to be? Naw, man, you’re born lucky. You’re a fucking haircut. You’re candy shit.”
“Are you serious? I worked for everything—”
“Naw, man. You took the path of least resistance. You got trainers, coaches, opportunities—you think you worked for it, but you just did what was right there in front of you. And the saddest part is, you’re completely oblivious. You don’t even know enough to know how fucking stupid you sound when you say, ‘I work for my shit.’ Kids here, man, they grew up in slums, trying to learn math by candles so they can fight a million other people to be the one that gets to come be a scientist? That’s successful. You’re not even close.”
Aiden felt like his throat had swollen closed.
“I took your drugs ’cause it was easy. I’m trying to find Emma so I don’t have to go back to my old life.” He swallowed. “We don’t find her, worst thing that happens to you is you gotta look sad on the news. You think me lying is some problem to you, you want to be pissed about it, it doesn’t change one fucking thing. You’re candy shit, man. And you don’t even know.”
They were still alone on the back lawn. Aiden hung his head, staring at nothing. His arms, his chest, the rest of his body swayed below him with the wind.
He couldn’t believe what an idiot he’d been. He’d betrayed every certainty in his life—basketball, his dad, his teammates—for a fucking hustle. He’d spent hours thinking about her, panicking about the danger she was in, when all of it was complete fiction. He’d blown up his entire life, for a hustle.
In the silence, the door to their right opened, and a short figure slipped out of the door to the Human Lounge. They both watched as he walked quickly past them, directly toward the chapel and the cross.
It was Evan.
“Okay, buddy,” Peter said to him softly, watching Evan disappear into the fog. “We gotta come back from that now—”
Aiden spat on the ground at his feet. “Gimme it. Now.”
Peter pulled the bag of Apex from his pocket and dropped it into Aiden’s palm. It was half as full as it had been three days ago. Aiden threw it in his coat and marched away from the school.
“What’re you doing?”
Aiden ignored him, allowing the buzzing in his head to take control as he stalked after the hood in front of him.
Neesha.
ZAZA DIDN’T GET to finish his sentence. Footsteps started to creep up from the fog in front of them. “Are you meeting someone?” he asked.
“Yes,” she blurted. “You should go.”
“Shit.” He looked around. “I’ll hide.” He ran up the stairs and moved behind a pillar just as Evan entered the clearing.
“Okay, let’s go,” Neesha said to Evan, starting toward the forest before Zaza could notice Evan.
“Wait,” Evan said, trying to stop her.
“What?”
“We need a signal to warn one another. Do you know SOS in Morse code?” he asked.
“Why would we need to communicate in Morse code?”
“In case we find trouble. It’s three short beeps, three long beeps, and three short beeps.”
“Why can’t I just say ‘help’? Come on, we have to go—”
Evan stared doing the noises with his mouth, sharp repetitive beeps, and she turned just in time to see Zaza stepping out from behind his pillar.
Evan froze.
For a second, it looked like Zaza might hit Evan, but then Zaza turned his attention to her.
“I’m sorry, what the fuck is this?”
She swayed nervously. “We’re working on something.”
“You’re meeting him? Is that why you’re out here? Neesha, this is the kid I told you about! The one who—” He swallowed the rest of the sentence. “Look, whatever this kid has convinced you—”
“Has nothing to do with you,” she finished for him.
“It’s not safe! He was stalking her!”
“No, he wasn’t!” she screamed. “He’s been helping me, and he’s gonna help me find her!”
“Neesha,” Zaza said, lowering his voice to pretend like he was rational. “This is not a good idea. Now is not the time to be out looking for her—”
“Do you fucking hear yourself? You’re doing it again! I’m not going to apologize to you for wanting to do something about my situation. You know what you are? You’re inert.”
“What?”
“You wedge yourself into compounds, and then you just sit there, inactive. You’d rather quietly exist than try to do anything to change the world around you. You’re a scared, inert little boy, and I’m not like that.”
“You’re—” Zaza started to boil up, his hand rubbing across his head faster and faster, but he couldn’t even sputter out a comeback. “I’m not—”
“See?” she said. “Nothing.”
He spun and began to walk away but turned back after three steps. “They use the inert gases to prevent toxic chemicals from creating harmful reactions, you know that, right?”
“Give it a rest, dude. The metaphor is dead.”
Zaza’s mouth hung open. He looked ready to apologize, ready to shove his tail between his legs, but he was interrupted by the sound of footsteps galloping up one of the center paths, quietly at first. Neesha thought it might just be some students passing in the distance, but the footsteps quickly got louder, and by the time the three of them fully appreciated their size, speed, and direction, Aiden Mallet was ripping out of the fog, grabbing Evan by the back of his hoodie, and throwing him to the ground.
“No!” Neesha shouted, but it was too late. Aiden collapsed on top of Evan like a wrestler, pinning his whole body from the midsection, ruthlessly controlling his arms and staring into his face. “What did you do to her?” Aiden shouted, spit dangling. “Where is she?”
“I—I—I don’t know!”
“Aiden!” Zaza tried to intervene, but Aiden was in his own world.
“Wrong answer!” Aiden swung his head forward, straight for Evan’s cranium, connecting with his skull and rocking both of them backward. Neesha screamed. She’d always assumed people could only head-butt like that in movies and judging by Aiden’s cross-eyed reaction, she might have been right. A small pool of blood formed on Evan’s forehead. He was shrieking as Aiden geared up to hit him again. Before he could, however, another large body came screaming out of the fog, pile-driving Aiden off Evan and into the clearing in front of the church.
The figure stood up, over Aiden, and in the yellow light, she recognized Peter Novak. “Chill, man! Jesus!”
Both of them rolled to a standing position, glaring at each other, Evan crumpled on the ground between them.
Aiden.
“I DON’T CARE if you’re not gonna help me, but for God’s sake, get the fuck out of my way!”
“You’re out of control, buddy,” Peter said, inching over in front of Evan, placing himself between Evan and Aiden. “We don’t know this kid had anything to do with it—”
“He was following her, you said that,” Aiden growled, flexing his fingers. “So I just want to know”—he turned his attention to Evan—“what he knows?”
“I—I don’t know anything,” Evan stammered.
“Yes, we do!” Aiden had barely noticed Neesha, Emma’s roommate, standing on the steps of the chapel. “We know she ran away!”
There were confused looks around the circle.
“Zaza?” Aiden noticed the team’s statistician behind her on the steps.
“How do you know she ran away?” Peter asked Neesha.
“Evan?” Neesha looked to him, still cowering on the ground.
He cleared his throat. “The school was looking for her before she went missing. They sent maintenance guys to her dorm dur
ing mass.”
Aiden’s head spun as the five of them stumbled outward into a circle, each defending their own position.
“So”—he turned to Neesha—“what are you doing out here?”
She shifted uncomfortably, and he realized he’d never said more than three words to her. “We’re gonna test our theory. That she ran away.”
“You mean, you’re gonna run away?” Peter asked.
“Just to see if it’s possible.”
An image of Emma clicked in Aiden’s head. “The long way around, past that bench, by Human Sciences?”
“Exactly.”
He swallowed, the inside of his mouth suddenly thick with saliva. “We had our first kiss on that bench.”
“This is a horrible idea,” Zaza said, poking his head into the circle.
“What are you doing here?” Aiden asked him.
“Uh, I was here to talk to Neesha.”
“And this guy,” Aiden said, completing his turn, all the way around to where Evan was cowering out of the light. “Who’s here because . . .”
“I have to find her,” Evan whispered.
Aiden nodded, his eyes flashing to every face around him. “I guess we’ve all got that in common.”
They held in another moment of stalemate.
“Well,” Neesha said finally. “This was nice, but if you’ll excuse me and Evan, we’re gonna find Emma.” She started down the path away from the church. Evan caught up to walk lockstep with her.
“No fucking way!” Zaza shouted at her from behind. “Do you have any idea what’s out there? That shit goes for miles, and if you don’t know how to get back to a path, you’re lost in there. So unless you’ve got a really serious plan—unless she had a plan—that’s not where she went.”
Redemption Prep Page 14
