The Academy Page 3

  “Once my disbursement gets in, I’ll see if I can swing it. Until then, I’m stuck with what I’ve got. But honestly, even with a full ride, it’s not like I’ll be eating filet mignon. Like any other college kid, I microwave my noodles one cup at a time.”

  “I hear that. The scholarship I got was good, but I still have to pay out of pocket for a lot of shit. My parents are helping me so I won’t have to apply for loans. Are yours helping you?”

  Nick pretended to dig in his now-empty bag so Deen wouldn’t see the way his face contorted. “Nah, the Academy hooked me up. They offered me the freest of free rides. Tuition. Room. Board. I won’t have to get a part-time job like I assumed I would. I can focus totally on my degree. Some of the big state schools offered me money too, but I couldn’t pass this up.”

  Deen oohed. “That’s awesome. You must be a genius to get a full ride.”

  “Uh, no. I mean, I did pretty well at my last school, but nothing newsworthy. It helps that I’ve always liked science and math.”

  “Same. My parents wanted me to be a doctor, but considering my older brother went to art school, they’re not going to push the issue. Are yours excited to have a future physicist in the family?”

  Fuck. Was there no way to get to know someone without talking about the past? Nick supposed he should give up the avoidance routine, especially since Deen and he were going to be living together. Plus, Deen seemed cool. They might genuinely become friends.

  Taking a breath, Nick turned around and shrugged. “My parents don’t think anything of it, actually. I don’t have any family.”

  Deen’s beautiful eyes widened. “Oh shit, man, I’m sorry.”

  Nick waved him off. “Don’t be. You didn’t know. My dad actually died last year, and I took time off to deal. But life marches on, so here I am.”

  “I’m legit sorry though. I didn’t mean to dredge up bad memories.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I mean it. Anyone would have asked me the same questions. It’s not your fault my answers are so depressing.” He offered Deen a smile. “Although, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone.”

  “Of course!” Deen seemed to cling to that as if it were a life preserver. “Thanks for being cool. I’ve always wanted a chill roommate. And hey, if you need a bright side to look on, you’re going to be super popular.”

  Nick raised a brow. “What makes you say that?”

  “You took a year off, right? That means you’re twenty-one. You can buy beer.”

  They both laughed, and the tension in the room dispersed.

  Deen stood up and stretched. “When’s your first class?”

  Nick checked the time on his phone. “At 10:40, so about an hour from now.”

  “Perfect. How about I give you a quick tour that ends in the dining hall? We can grab some breakfast, and then I’ll show you where your class is.”

  Nick could figure it out on his own, thanks to his map, but he wasn’t about to pass up on a chance to bond with his roommate. Besides, he didn’t want to be that guy navigating campus with his nose buried in a map. He’d been mistaken for a freshman enough already.

  “Sounds great. Give me five minutes, and we’ll go?”

  “Deal.”

  Deen grabbed his own laptop off his desk—a sleek MacBook that was thinner than Nick’s pinky finger—and started typing at lightning speed. Nick booted up his dinosaur, and the fans made sounds like an old man wheezing for breath. If any of his classes involved quiet note taking, he was going to be embarrassed.

  Once his desktop had loaded, Nick connected to the university’s internet and pulled up his bank’s website. He’d been checking it fanatically for the past week, waiting for his financial aid to come in.

  He was no stranger to disbursements, but this was the first year he’d had no backup money to rely on in the meantime. There had been some life insurance money, but that had gotten eaten up by medical bills, cremation, the funeral, et cetera. Plus bills and his bus ticket here. Everything cost money, and he was well and truly on his own. He’d thought he’d been independent when he’d first left for college. Now, he realized how much help his dad had been.

  Time was running out too. There were certain things he could only put off buying for so long. Like textbooks for the classes he was starting today. As far as school supplies went, he had a broken pen and a crumpled napkin to his name.

  With aching slowness, his laptop loaded his account statement what seemed like one pixel at a time. Finally, a number appeared in the column representing his checking account. The breath left his lungs in a whoosh. His disbursement had come in. After his tuition and board had been paid, he had a few thousand dollars leftover to get him through the semester. Thank Christ.

  “Good news?”

  Nick looked up and found Deen watching him. “Yeah, my financial aid came in. Just in the nick too.”

  “Nice. If you want, we can drop by the bookstore for anything you need.”

  “I might pick up some notebooks there, but I prefer to buy used textbooks. New ones are so expensive.” Speaking of which, Nick quickly loaded some pages he’d had bookmarked for weeks now and ordered a few much-needed texts. He’d have to shell out for expedited shipping, but he’d finally be prepared for class. One more thing he could tick off his to-do list.

  “You don’t have to tell me,” Deen said. “My organic chemistry class made me buy a supplemental note package that was legitimately just printouts of our slides, and it cost two hundred dollars. I’m not ashamed to admit I wept in the checkout line.”

  Nick grabbed at his throat, pretended to gasp for breath, and collapsed onto his bed, tongue lolling out of his mouth.

  Deen smothered his laughter with a hand before climbing to his feet. He rooted under his bed for a pair of shoes and pulled them on. “I don’t want to jinx anything, new kid, but I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship.”

  “It could be, provided you never call me ‘new kid’ again.”

  “Spoilsport. If you’re all finished, let’s get going. We have a lot of ground to cover on our tour, and I’m starving, so we’d better get started.”

  Deen led the way out of their dorm and downstairs, nodding to several other students they passed on the way. They all ignored him, but that did nothing to flatten the spring in Deen’s step.

  Once outside, Deen swept his arms out as if to encompass the whole of campus. “This, my dear Nickolas, is the Academy of Holy Names. It has a rich history, surpassed only by its party-school reputation.”

  “Really? With this being a Catholic school, I kinda assumed everyone here was pretty tame.”

  “Dude, no. It’s because it’s a Catholic school that everyone’s a hedonist. You can practically smell the repression. Plus, college is already a perfect petri dish for growing debauchery, and everyone here has money. Money means outlandish partying.” He shrugged. “Not that I would know. I never get invited to the parties. Which is a good thing, of course, because I’d become the most popular boy in school, and then I’d never get anything done. I’d drop out, join the circus, and the world would be short one brilliant engineer.”

  Nick laughed before he could stop himself.

  Deen punched him on the arm. “Hey, it could happen.”

  “Are most of the students here Catholic?”

  “In name, yeah, if not in practice. But you have your atheists and your new-age types. And your Muslims.” He pulled the collar of his shirt aside, revealing a tattoo of star and crescent moon just under his collarbone. “Like me.”

  Nick nodded. “Cool. I didn’t think Islam allows tattoos.”

  “It doesn’t, and that’s why it’s so deliciously ironic that I chose to affirm my faith this way. I crack me up.”

  “Do you feel like you have to keep your faith a secret?”

  “Nah. I wouldn’t have come here if they weren’t tolerant. So long as I don’t go around preaching my faith to others, they leave me alone.” He patted his shirt back into
place. “Let’s begin our tour. Our first stop is the bookstore. We can buy school supplies and get high off an artificial sense of productivity.”

  The bookstore was yet another old-looking redbrick building. Inside, floor-to-ceiling windows let in plenty of sunlight, and the smell of fresh coffee emanated from a little café tucked behind the dozens of shelves.

  Nick picked up a couple of notebooks and a pack of his favorite pens—the fancy gel kind—along with a messenger bag to stow everything in. His total was nearly fifty dollars, which made him want to sob, but he’d picked the cheapest items he could find. He would have had to go into town to find a better deal, and without a car, there was no way he’d make it there and back in time for class. This was one expense he’d just have to eat.

  Nick stuffed his new supplies into his bag and then slung it across his chest.

  Deen seemed to scrutinize him, his index finger and thumb placed beneath his chin in a sideways L shape. “Very broke-college-kid chic.”

  “Thanks. That’s what I was going for.”

  Laughing, they exited the bookstore and headed back to the quad. Once there, they circled the perimeter. Deen named every building as they went, giving Nick a chance to learn where the rest of his classes were. With the campus being so small, he doubted he’d have trouble finding any of them, but better safe than sorry.

  As they walked, Nick allowed himself to feel his first real glimmer of excitement. There was nothing quite like the energy of a college campus, or the first day of a new school year. It was like there were little sparks dispersed in the air, and every now and then, one would zap him. In a new town, at a new college, he almost felt like a freshman again.

  As they strolled, Nick checked out the student body—somewhat literally. He was here to get an education, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy the view. His earlier theory about everyone being attractive was disproven, but several of his now-peers caught his eye. Though none so powerfully as the three boys he’d spotted earlier.

  In general, the students were outfitted with the typical college fare—backpacks, casual dress, and coffee cups in every other hand—but something niggled at him. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

  Deen unwittingly supplied the answer. “You can tell this is a private school from all the name brands.” He gestured to a nearby cluster of coeds. “It’s like walking past a Coach display at the mall.”

  Understanding lanced through Nick. From the backpacks to the polo shirts, designer labels abounded. One guy who passed them on the sidewalk was sporting a briefcase that bore a Medusa head Nick recognized from billboards he’d seen back home.

  “Damn.” Nick surveyed the people around them in a whole new way. “You weren’t kidding about everyone having money, huh?”

  “Well, not everyone. There are scholarship students, like us, and people who took out loans. And the ones who are wealthy aren’t necessarily millionaires. They’re here on their parents’ dimes, and some are middle class. But exceptions aside, college is already expensive, and if you make it private on top of that?” He mimed an explosion with his hands and imitated the sound. “You tend to attract a certain tax bracket.”

  “Yikes. Are the students stuck-up about it? You mentioned bullies earlier. Am I going to get shit if I wear off the rack?”

  “For the most part, no. We’re all adults here. But on occasion, you do get your elitist assholes, same as you would anywhere else.”

  “Is that why those guys in the dorm ignored you?”

  “No, they ignored me because I’m a geek.” Deen winked. “Don’t fret. An athletic-looking guy like you is bound to fit in. And I promise no one’s going to stone you for the crime of being poor. Besides, you’re new. Everyone’s going to be interested in you.”

  God, I hope not. Attention was the last thing Nick wanted. Unless it was from that guy he’d seen earlier. Gray Eyes had been drifting into his thoughts at regular intervals, though Nick still wasn’t sure why.

  He toyed with the idea of asking Deen about him—since everyone allegedly knew everyone—but he discarded it. What would he say? Hey, I know we’re relative strangers still, but I saw a guy earlier who looked like a French aristocrat and had rain eyes. Know anyone like that?

  Yeah, no.

  They finished their tour of the quad and ended up outside the dining hall. The smell of pizza emanated from it, and right on cue, Nick’s stomach growled. He hadn’t eaten since dawn, and his vending-machine breakfast hardly counted. Through the glass façade, Nick could see his new peers sitting at tables, chatting and smiling and stuffing their faces. Any one of them could be a friend in the making.

  Deen gestured at the swinging doors. “Ready for food?”

  “Hell yeah.”

  They walked inside and were greeted by a sight that Nick would have sworn was familiar, despite never having set foot in this building before. Some places were glitches in the Matrix. The same no matter where in the world you went. Malls. Convenience stores. Bus depots, for sure. And college dining halls.

  A man at a desk swiped their IDs, and they were in.

  Nick moved a few feet away and breathed in deeply, almost feeling at home in the familiar setting. “Oh, man. I’m so down for pizza.”

  “Let’s see if they’ve started serving lunch yet first.” Deen trotted off toward a steel serving table with a clear, plastic partition separating them from the food. Nick was taller than everyone ahead of them, and so he was able to see delicate pink fish fillets set out with lemon slices and capers.

  “All right!” Deen grabbed one of the plates. “Salmon piccata. Score! Do you like fish?”

  Nick blinked. “Is this place for real?”

  “I think so, barring the usual theories of alternate-yet-parallel universes. Why?”

  “No reason. I’ll stick with the pizza.”

  “Suit yourself, but FYI, they only serve the fancy food at the beginning of the semester, when parents are still dropping off their kids. It’s to con the grown-ups into buying an overpriced meal plan. Next week, it’ll be all burgers and mac.”

  Thank God. I only have to make it to next week.

  Nick headed over to the pizza station, piled a plate as high as gravity would allow, and then followed Deen to an empty table near the front. From there, they could look out the windows at the students strolling by. It was funny to people-watch and think that in the course of the next two years, one of them could become a friend, an enemy, or a lover. A fresh start meant a whole world of possibilities. The idea was equal parts exciting and terrifying.

  They enjoyed some peaceful small talk over their food, and eventually Deen convinced Nick to try the salmon. Though Nick still felt it went against the spirit of a campus mess hall, he had to admit, it was restaurant-quality.

  He polished off his last slice of pizza and was considering taking a gander at the salad bar—because looking at vegetables was the same as eating them, right?—when a group of guys sailed past the window. Nick spared a quick glance at them only to do a double take. He recognized them in a big way.

  Those are the guys from before. The redhead, the handsome guy, and Gray Eyes.

  As Nick watched, the three men strolled into the dining hall. They headed straight for the fancy food as if they’d known it would be there. That suggested they were neither freshmen nor new like Nick.

  He craned his neck to watch them as they made their selections. Gray Eyes took two plates of salmon with one large hand, grabbed an apple from a bowl, and strode off toward a table in the center of the room without waiting for his friends.

  The redhead went Nick’s route and headed for the pizza, while the handsome one took a plate of salmon only to dump it onto a bed of greens he’d gotten from the salad bar. Nick’s eyes lingered on him. He was so symmetrical, Nick wanted to take an overlay of the Marquardt Beauty Mask and hold it up to his face.

  “Nick?”

  Deen’s voice broke him from his creepiness. He turned back to Deen, heat working its
way into his cheeks. “I’m sorry, did you say something?”

  “I asked how much time you have left before your first class.”

  “Oh shit. Class. I almost forgot.” He pulled his phone out. “I’ve got twenty minutes. It’s next door in Nassar Hall, so I have plenty of time.”

  “What’s the room number?”

  “Uh.” Nick checked his schedule. “Five-oh-one.”

  Deen snickered. “Good luck, buddy! That’s on the fifth floor, and there’s no elevator.”

  “Fuck my life. I have that class three times a week!”

  “Better invest in some hiking boots.”

  Grumbling under his breath, Nick snuck a peek over his shoulder again. The two boys had joined their gray-eyed friend, and all three of them were eating together, absorbed in their conversation as well as their food. Which was why it came as such a shock when Gray Eyes suddenly caught Nick’s eye.

  Nick froze in his seat. Jesus, not this again.

  Before Nick could defrost, Gray Eyes turned to his red-haired friend and said something. The redhead shot the quickest of glances at Nick and then nodded. Gray Eyes stood up and made a beeline for the exit. He held Nick’s gaze until he reached the door. Then, he waltzed outside and headed down a weed-riddled dirt path to the right.

  When he was gone, Nick gave himself a shake. Christ, what a weird reaction. It was like his brain clogged up whenever he saw Gray Eyes. What was that? If he were a more romantic person, he might read into it, but he didn’t have the time or the energy. It was probably a combination of nerves and exhaustion.

  Gray Eyes might’ve left to get away from you. He could be calling you Creepy Staring Guy in his head. That’s twice now he’s caught you looking at him. Way to make a first impression.

  Sigh. He stood up and grabbed his plate. “Well, I’d better get going. Can’t be late on my first day.”

  Deen nodded. “Good plan. You’ll want to give yourself extra time in case you need to take breaks on your way up all those stairs. Bring a tent so you can set up camp at the midway point.”