“About you and Elliot’s little brother?” Perez leaned his lower back against the car door, fishing a fresh stick of gum from his pocket. “I’ve got eyes, man. You’ve been staring at that kid like he’s the last bus out of Detroit.”
“Screw you.”
“I’m serious. It’s tragic. My abuela watches telenovelas with more subtlety.” He folded the gum into his mouth. “You’re lucky the rest of the team’s too busy kissing Trenton’s ass to notice.”
“What exactly did Trenton say?”
“He was holding court in the showers yesterday, laughing with a couple of the other legacy guys.” Perez’s jaw tightened around the gum. “Said Karter was slumming it, getting on his knees for the Russian charity case. And he said the school needed to sanitize the locker room before the infection spread.”
My hands fisted inside my pockets. The knuckles cracked on their own.
Perez pointed at me with his chin. “That right there. That face. That’s the face that’s gonna get you expelled.” He pushed off the car. “Trenton’s just looking for a reason to prove guys like us don’t belong on the team.”
I fought back the urge to punch something, anything.
Trenton wasn’t some faceless administrator following a rulebook. He was a prick who hated me, and he would happily burn a legacy freshman to the ground along with me, if it meant clearing out the guys who didn’t grow up with trust funds.
Karter had no idea what was coming for him.
“I have to warn him,” I said.
Perez stopped mid-chew. “Warn who? Karter?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you insane?” He grabbed my arm before I could turn. “If Hastings is investigating, you need to stay far away from him. Let the rich kid fend for himself.”
“I can’t do that.”
Perez stared at me. Then he dropped my arm and shook his head, exhaling hard through his nose. “Is Karter really worth all this?”
Yes.
“Probably.”
He muttered something in Spanish I didn’t catch and yanked open his car door. “Don’t do anything stupid.”
I shrugged. “No promises.”
The car door slammed. Through the window, Perez shook his head, but the corner of his mouth twitched before he pulled out of the lot.
The cold bit through my jacket as I turned toward the street and headed straight back to The Ice House.
I needed to get Karter alone, but I couldn’t risk his roommate overhearing the conversation. So, I spent the rest of the afternoon pacing my room.
The wall between our rooms was paper-thin, so right around eight o’clock, I heard Matt complaining about a massive history paper, telling Karter he was going to pull an all-nighter at the campus library. So, I waited until the thud of Matt’s footsteps faded down the stairs, counted out a full sixty seconds, then left my room.
Out in the attic hallway of The Ice House, I stood in front of Karter’s door, knocked once, and turned the knob. I walked outon him in the equipment room two nights ago and have spent every hour since then forcing myself to keep my distance.
Now I was seeking him out like I couldn’t stay away.
I told myself I was only here to deliver the warning, but I knew the reality. No matter how hard I tried to cut him loose, I could never stop myself from getting pulled right back to him.
I ducked under the low, slanted ceiling and stepped inside, finding Karter at his desk with his color-coded notes spread out under a bright lamp. He turned around when he heard me come in, and the second he realized it was me, the corners of his mouth pulled up into a look that was way too welcoming.
“You came to me this time. I knew keeping my door unlocked just in case was a good idea,” Karter said with a grin. He stood up, but then his eyes darted toward the hallway behind me. “Wait. Did anyone see you come in here?”
“No,” I said, shutting the door and locking it. “We are the only ones living up in this attic, remember?”
