Page 88 of The Amber Sunburst

“Which one? Alexander? What happened? Did he say something weird?” his dad interrupts.

“I thought we weren’t playing the question game!”

“My mouth is shut,” he says, sarcasm dripping from his smooth voice that sounds so much like Zeno’s own.

“My friend Eudoxia. The one I told you about.”

Bios nods. “The one you had me put in a single, right?”

That was not Zeno’s finest moment. He still hasn’t told Eudoxia about it; he knows she’d be pissed. But she was so miserable with Kleitos and so scared for Arete and he couldn’t just sit by when his dad was on the Council.

“Yes, that one,” Zeno answers, not elaborating.

Bios rolls his eyes. “So, what happened?”

“You know how we spar together at night?”

“You’ve mentioned.”

“Well, we were doing that…” Zeno says before launching into a long-winded explanation of two nights ago when he was… and she was… and…

When he was an dumbass, basically.

“And now things aren’t awkward but they’re not like they were before. I think she knows how I feel and she doesn’t feel the same and she’s, like, trying not to think about it because she has enough to stress out about without me perving around, you know?”

“Okay, okay, slow down. Are you sure she doesn’t like you?”

“I mean… pretty sure.”

“Well, that seems like something you should know for definitely sure. And for the record, I wouldn’t call how you’re acting ‘perving around.’ It sounds like you might feel stronger than that. Like maybe you…”

Zeno knows where this is going. “Love her? Yeah, I thought we all knew that already.”

Bios laughs. “No, we did not all know that already. That’s a pretty big deal, Zeno—and there’s a very big difference.”

“I know.” He wishes he were just interested in her physically, honestly. Thoughts like those are easy to filter out. But love? He’s helpless to it.

“So, what should I do?”

Bios hums. “You’re sure you don’t want to just tell her?”

“I don’t know. I’m scared it’ll make things worse.”

“But isn’t that fear less important than how much better it could get? She means a lot to you. That’s why she has a right to know where your head is at.”

That kind of makes sense. He’s always thought of telling her as the selfish thing to do because it would screw everything up. But is it fair to keep her from knowing how he feels?

But what is he even supposed to say?

‘Oh, you know these past five years? Well, I’ve been in love with you for all of them and I just never told you. You feel me?’

But, then again, if he gets a formal rejection, he might be able to stop pining.

Yeah, likely story.

“I should tell her.”

“Oh, I wonder who gave you that fantastic idea? Unless it goes badly. Then it was your idea.”