When Alex and Matthew got closer to Ellie and Jack's table, Alex realized the two of them looked like they were in the middle of a serious conversation. Ellie was looking down at the table, fiddling with a crumpled tissue as Jack had an arm around her shoulders. Matthew narrowed his eyes when he noticed it too.
"What did he do?" he muttered, sounding ready to start another fight right there.
"If he was the one who did something," Alex said quickly, "don't you think Ellie would have told him off herself?"
"... Fair enough." Matthew managed to reel back his fighting instinct and walked up to the table. "What's going on?"
Ellie looked up from the table, but Jack kept his eyes on her. Alex noticed his expression was a lot like the one he had worn on Sunday. Serious. Contemplative. Different from what Alex was used to seeing him. Ellie let out a light sniffle and gave them what looked like a genuine smile.
"Nothing," she said, sounding more tired than sad. "Just me overreacting. Being a stupid, emotional, girl. Sorry."
"You're not stupid," Jack said. "I should know, I'm quite familiar with the concept."
Ellie let out a chuckle and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "Guess I should defer to your expertise then, huh?" she said with a smile.
"Do you two need a room?" Matthew said. Jack narrowed his eyes as Ellie flushed slightly.
"How was chess club, Montoya?" Jack asked, taking his arm off Ellie's shoulder. Alex wasn't sure if he imagined her looking disappointed about that.
"Great," Matthew said, pulling up a chair so he could sit in it backwards. "We might go to regionals this year."
"Are you really alright, Ellie?" Alex said, taking the chair next to Matthew.
"I'm fine. Really. I don't want to make it a big thing."
"You should," Jack muttered. "You should fill that whole fucking courtyard with flowers. Planted in the shape of a middle finger pointing straight to Tommy's office."
"Alright now you gotta tell us what the hell you're talking about," Matthew said.
Ellie let out an exasperated sigh and slumped in her chair. "Fine," she said, throwing her hands up in defeat. "I was supposed to meet with Headmaster Conrad today, after my last class. I wanted to talk to him about... planting a memorial in the courtyard. Nothing fancy or even obvious. Just a bed of flowers. But when I got to his office, Mrs. Faraday told me he had some emergency come up. The way she said it though, I could tell he just didn't feel like speaking with me. She gave me this packet thing he left behind for me. Hang on." Ellie sat up straight so she could open the bookbag at her feet. She reached in and pulled out a thick manila envelope that landed with a thump when she placed it on the table.
"Campus Beautification Application?" Matthew said, reading off the cursive that was written on the front in black marker. "The hell is that?"
"The hoops I have to jump through," Ellie seethed, opening the folder. She pulled out some of the papers inside and rifled through them. "There's pages and pages of ridiculous questions in here. Listen. What kind of project are you proposing? How will it benefit the students and faculty? What are the projected installation costs? Maintenance costs? What are some potential drawbacks to the proposed project and how will you address them?" Ellie flicked the papers and folder away from her in agitation. "I'm just trying to plant some stupid flowers."
"They're not stupid either," Jack said as Matthew took out the other things in the folder.
"A petition?" Matthew muttered, pulling out a packet with rows of empty lines. "Christ, how many signatures are they asking for?"
"Two hundred," Ellie said, rubbing her temples. "And that's just the beginning. That's just to get them to look at the damn thing. After that, it's got to go through approval boards like some kind of tournament bracket. First the Student Parliament. Then the faculty council, with all the department heads. If it gets that far it's the Board of Directors next. It's like trying to get a case heard in the fucking Supreme Court. And if by some miracle they say yes, it can still get blocked if Headmaster Conrad says so. No way to appeal. Man didn't even want to spare me the trouble and say no from the get-go."
"Saying no would make him look bad," Matthew said, putting the signature packet down. "Much easier to let everyone else do that for him."
"I should have known better. It was enough of a chore getting him to say yes to the vigil. A part of me wants to go through with this out of spite, but I've barely got enough time to stay on top of my studies. Can barely afford to eat and sleep, let alone chase some futile pipedream stuffed with paperwork."
Alex picked up the dishevelled packet and flipped through pages of esoteric questions. He wondered if Eloise's proposal would even get through the Student Parliament. If two hundred signatures would be possible when they all knew what the flowers would be for. Who they would be for. Some old family students had been a bit more sympathetic lately, but how many of them would be willing to put their names to paper? To help make a point even in such a small way?
Would you? AJ asked, a bit of hope mixed in with his usual attitude.
"I'll do it," Alex answered out loud without thinking.
"What?" Ellie said, looking at him like he'd begun a completely different conversation. "Do what?"
"The proposal. These questions. I'll answer them. And I'll ask around for the signatures too."
"Wait?"
"I've got the time. And... Well, maybe it will be harder to ignore if it's coming from me."
"It's not gonna work, Al," Jack said slowly. "You do realize this was just your uncle's way of telling Eloise to fuck off, right?"
"I know. I'm not that naïve. But Ellie is right. The least we should do is tell him to fuck off right back."
Matthew's eyebrows scrunched together in concern. "Should you be pushing your uncle right now?" he asked.
Alex ignored the question and reached into one of his bookbag's pockets. He rifled around until he found a pen, then grabbed the bundle of lined sheets meant for the signatures. "Honestly, I could stand to piss him off more often," he said as he signed his name on the top line.
Matthew stared at Alex's finished signature for a second and sighed. "I'll take this around to Lower Wyvern kids," he said, taking Alex's pen so he could sign his name. "You still kind of freak a lot of them out."
"Thank you."
Once Matthew was done, he held the pen out to Jack. The two stared each other down silently for a couple of seconds. Jack crossed his arms over his chest, making no move to grab the pen.
"It's not going to work," he muttered again, not looking Matthew in the eye.
"It's not about getting flowers, Jack," Alex said, making his friend look at him. "It's about not giving my uncle the satisfaction of shutting us up so quickly."
"Keep this up and he won't be so subtle about how he does it next time, Alex."
Alex saw a flash of concern flick across Ellie's eyes. "Maybe he's right," she said. "Maybe you shouldn't get involved."
"I'm tired of doing as I'm told," Alex said, managing to keep his simmering skin in check. "I'm tired of them expecting me to all the time."
Jack tapped a finger on the table a couple of times before reaching for the pen still in Matthew's hand. "I hope you know what you're doing," he said as he took the signature form and signed his name bigger than he needed to, right to Alex's.
"Leave room for the rest of us, John Hancock," Ellie said, taking the pen once he was done and adding her name. "There. That's what, two per cent of the way there?"
"Give me half of these," Jack said, tugging the back half of the packet out of its staple. "I'll get them from old family kids."
"Thank you, Jack," Alex said.
"Don't. I still think this is a bad idea."
"But you're still helping. So, thanks."
"... Whatever. Have any of you done the questions for Alvaro? I need shit to copy."
Eloise managed to convince Jack to let her help him instead of cheat. Alex wondered if she realized how big of a feat that was. He even seemed like he was giving thoughtful answers to the analysis questions. Alex had tried for years to get Jack to work in the library with him, to no avail. All he needed was to befriend a girl Jack wanted to impress.
At dinner, Matthew and Jack started going around collecting signatures for their petition. Alex was surprised at how many of the scholarship students seemed wary of the proposal. Some of them made the same point Jack did. Not wanting to join a lost cause. Not wanting to rock the already unsteady boat.
Others seemed to think a bed of flowers was simply inconsequential. Alex watched and strained to listen as Matthew approached Emilio's table. Emilio himself was there, still glaring with such vitriol that Alex was impressed Matthew didn't back away. Instead, he just ignored his old friend and pitched the petition to the whole table.
"What good will that do us," one girl said, "the next time one of these bastards decides to off one of us?"
"A no would have sufficed Cara," Matthew responded calmly. "Anyone else wanna act like a bag of dicks before I leave?"
Cara cussed Matthew out, but a couple of the other kids volunteered to sign it. Once they were done, Matthew came back to their table and plopped down in the chair next to Alex with a heavy sigh.
"Well, I asked every Lower Wyvern kid here," he said, handing the sparse signature page to Alex. "Think there's fifty-seven now."
"That's it?" Ellie muttered. "Barely half of them said yes?"
"What are the odds Farrow is having more luck?"
The three of them glanced over to where Jack was, talking to a table filled with mostly year sevens. "Looks like he's picking off the young first," Ellie said as they watched the younger students passing around and signing the pages. "But that pool is only so big."
Ellie's concern was realized as Jack moved on from the younger kids and went to a table filled with mostly kids their year and above. Despite his charismatic reputation, not many of them seemed very keen on listening to him. Alex tensed when he saw Hannah unfortunately. She was sitting a table away from where Jack was campaigning, paying attention to him rather than her third boyfriend of the year. She suddenly got up, but instead of walking over to Jack, she approached Alex's table.
"Great," Ellie muttered when she saw her too. "What does she want?"
"I've got this," Alex said, hoping he sounded more confident than he felt. He put on a brave face as Hannah reached them. Her expression was innocent enough, but Alex couldn't help but feel like cruel intentions were lying just under the surface. "Can we help you, Hannah?"
"I assume one of you is behind this flower bed proposal," Hannah said, looking between Alex and Ellie. "It seems uncharacteristically altruistic to be Jonathan's idea."
"He offered to help," Alex answered.
"For you? Or her?"
"Why does it matter?"
"Her, then."
"He is right here," Ellie cut in, a frown growing on her face. "Is there a reason you came over here, Palmer?"
"Is this really what you're meant to do?" Hannah said, picking up the pages with the signatures Matthew had gotten already. She smiled when Alex tried to take it back. "Relax, I'm not going to rip it up or anything."
"What do you mean?" Alex asked. "Their friend died. They want a memorial. How is that not what you're meant to do?"
"I remember reading somewhere that you're supposed to avoid memorializing things like this when someone kills themself. It glamorizes the act. Might incentivize others at risk to follow suit." Hannah glanced down at Matthew for the first time, her smile still on her lips. "We wouldn't want to lose anyone else, would we?"
Ellie flinched at her last statement, and Alex saw her hands ball into fists. She looked for a second like she was about to get out of her chair and come around to throw a punch, but Matthew stopped her.
"Don't, Ellie," he said without breaking eye contact with Hannah. He looked her up and down and shook his head as if he was unimpressed with what he saw. "She's not worth it. Not even close."
Ellie looked like she begged to differ, but instead of arguing she just unclenched her fists and used her fork to very violently stab at a piece of chicken on her plate.
"If you're not going to sign it," Matthew continued, pointing to the paperwork Hannah was still holding onto, "can you give it back and fuck off?"
Hannah's smile shifted to a hard line; the most outward expression of annoyance Alex had ever seen on her. She put the paper down on the table but didn't let go of it. Instead, she leaned closer to Matthew to grab the pen he had on the other side of him. While staying way too close to him, she picked it up and signed her name right next to Jack's. Almost as big as he did. Once she was done, she tucked the pen behind Matthew's ear and put her hand on his shoulder.
"Good luck," she whispered, followed by a Russian word Alex was sure she had heard her say before but didn't know the meaning of. Matthew flinched at her breath tickling his skin, but he managed not to react any more strongly than that. Once she was out of hearing range Matthew let out a shaky breath.
"What a prick," he muttered.
"I'd pick a stronger word myself," Ellie added as she stabbed a chunk of roasted potato. "That's the story they're all believing, isn't it? That it was... That he..."
"Do you guys?" Alex asked quietly, a part of him hoping they wouldn't hear. Ellie looked up from her plate with a fierceness in her eyes that was almost scary.
"Not," she said, her grip on her fork tightening. "Not even for a second. He wouldn't, right Matt?"
Matthew didn't answer right away. He took the pen from behind his ear and twirled in his fingers for a few seconds, not meeting Ellie's gaze.
"Matt?" She repeated.
"I don't know, Ellie," he said, his voice soft. "He... I mean, Emi's right that the police investigation was bullshit. They didn't interview any of us. I'll bet they didn't even check out the roof. But just because they didn't do their job doesn't mean foul play has to be the answer. Without evidence, I don't think it's fair to be making any accusations."
Ellie stared him down a bit longer, her eyes shining. Matthew still didn't look up from his twirling pen. Ellie finally shook her head and turned her attention back to her food, stabbing a carrot with a little less force than before. A tense silence fell over their table, only breaking when Jack came back to them five minutes later. He noticed the atmosphere immediately.
"What did I miss?" he said, taking the spot next to Ellie.
"Nothing," Matthew and Ellie said at the same time, in a way that made it very clear something had happened.
"Right," Jack said slowly. "Yeah, not gonna ask." Jack handed his signatures to Alex. "I got forty-three. How are we doing?"
"Thanks to Palmer, that means we're just past halfway," Matthew answered as Alex added the papers to their stack.
"Did you say, Palmer? As in Hannah? She signed it?"
"Yup."
"I didn't even bother with her crew. Figured they would just laugh at me."
"She must have overheard a very convincing pitch. She came over here unprompted and gifted her signature."
"As well as some bitchy one-liners," Ellie muttered, stabbing her vegetables violently again. "And a thinly veiled threat."
"I see," Jack muttered, seeming to understand why the mood had turned since he first left them. "Well, whatever her motivation, a name is a name, right?"
Matthew and Ellie grumbled something close to an agreement. Jack looked over at Alex as if he had some ability to lighten the air, but Alex was only half paying attention. Something Matthew had said a minute before had gotten the gears in his head turning very slowly.
"The roof," he muttered out loud, earning confused looks from all his friends.
"What?" Jack asked.
"The roof. Of Timber Hall." Alex shifted his gaze to Matthew. "Do you think the police didn't check it out?"
"I don't know," Matthew said, clearly not sure where Alex was going with this. "I mean, maybe? They did a piss poor job, but I don't know if it was that bad."
"We should check."
"Check," Jack repeated. "For what?"
"Evidence. Clues."
"You were serious about playing detective, weren't you?"
"Why wouldn't I be?"
Jack sighed and leaned forward, dropping his voice so that only the three of them could hear him. "If there was anything up there to start with," he started, "do you think your uncle wouldn't have checked? That he wouldn't have gotten rid of it by now? I have a funny feeling this ain't his first rodeo, Al." Jack leaned back in his chair and continued. "Besides, they finally fixed the busted lock in Timber. You need a key to get roof access now."
Alex couldn't help but smile at that. "Did you forget too?" he asked.
"Forget what?"
"We're dragons, mate."
Matthew and Ellie chuckled as Jack flushed a shade of light red. "I didn't forget," Jack insisted as they kept laughing. "Did you forget we're huge as fuck? Campus security is still amped up, we could never get up there without being seen."
"You two couldn't," Ellie said, then gestured to her and Matthew. "But we could."
"It pains me to say this, Ellie," Matthew said, "but Farrow is right. I'm not sure if the police looked, but Conrad did. And he would have trashed anything that looked like evidence."
"He could have missed something. And fine, maybe there's nothing. Maybe it'll be a waste of time. But what do we have to lose with trying?"
"We could get caught," Matthew said, clearly frustrated that he needed to say something so obvious. "We could very easily get caught. I'd get expelled. You might be too. At the very least you'd be putting a huge target on your back. And you." Matthew looked at Alex. "If you tried and got caught your uncle will be a hell of a lot more pissed about that than you submitting a petition. The only one of us that can get away with it is Farrow, and he's the only one with enough sense to realize how pointless it would be."
"So, you're fine with just letting the truth stay buried?"
"Of course not. But if we aren't smart about this, we'll fuck ourselves over for nothing."
Ellie clenched her jaw as she and Matthew had a staring contest. She lost when she shook her head and stood up. "Fine," she muttered, picking up her bag. "Whatever. I've still got readings to do. I'm going back to my flat."
"I can walk you," Jack said quickly. "If you'd like."
Ellie debated for a second before nodding. Before they left Matthew gently grabbed her wrist. "Please don't do anything stupid," he said. Ellie didn't answer. She just slid her wrist out of his grip and walked away.
"Sorry," Alex said once they were gone. "I didn't mean to upset you."
"It's fine," Matthew muttered. "I hate feeling useless too. I just... I'm not sure how helpful the truth will be anyway."
Alex blinked at Matthew, who had his own eyes cast down at his plate. Since he had been busy getting signatures, he hadn't had time to start eating yet. But he didn't make a move for his silverware at all.
"You think that's what it was, don't you?" Alex said slowly, not quite sure if he should. "Suicide."
Matthew didn't answer. He barely reacted. He just crossed his arms and leaned forward on the table. Alex debated with himself for a second before deciding to drop it. They settled into their own bizarrely tense silence for the rest of dinner. When they left about thirty minutes later, Matthew was the one who left a mostly full plate of food behind on the table.
The silence followed them as they walked back to their flat. AJ was in the middle of telling Alex he should break it when Matthew suddenly stopped walking. They were at the north end of the courtyard, and he was staring at the spot in front of Timber Hall where they had last seen Baptiste.
"He told me that he'd thought about it before," Matthew whispered as he kept his gaze fixed on that spot. Alex knew right away he was finally answering his question about Baptiste's death being a suicide. "When he was younger. He said it'd been a while since he was in that space but..."
"Doesn't everyone think about it?"
Matthew's eyes snapped over to meet Alex's. "I don't think so, Allie," he said slowly. "I don't."
"Oh."
"... Do you?"
Don't answer that, AJ said. It's a trap.
"Well now I don't think I should say," Alex said. Matthew barked out a laugh, then immediately looked like he regretted it.
"Sorry," he said, covering his mouth as he kept laughing. "That's... That's not funny."
"It's alright. My life is a joke, remember?"
Matthew let out a breath as he composed himself. "It's not, though," he said once he put himself back together. He kept walking back towards the dorms, and Alex followed close behind. "I hope you know that, Alex."
Alex squirmed slightly at the sincerity in Matthew's voice and expression. "Can I point out something," he said, as they left the courtyard behind them, "that doesn't make sense if the truth is that Baptiste killed himself?"
"What is it?"
"It's obvious that the police investigation was bullshit, right? And the reason for that is my uncle butting in because if they had properly investigated it would have made him look bad. Made the school look bad. We're both assuming that?"
"Yeah."
"Why would my uncle care about covering up a suicide? Baptiste was going to see Dr. Bayer. He was getting exemptions from missing class because of his powers. He could have spun it to argue that the school did all it could. That Baptiste's actions were his own and the school's only mistake was not fixing the lock on the roof door when it first broke a decade ago."
"It's still not a great look," Matthew argued. "A kid who belongs to a heavily marginalized minority that this school has been excluding for centuries, killing himself within the first month of school starting. On campus. In a very public spot."
"So, my uncle told the police to call it an accident instead? He had to have known how ridiculous that would sound to us. The rumours it would cause. How many people would wonder if something dodgy was going on? I don't know if he would risk that to cover up a suicide. But he would take the rumours instead of a murder happening on his watch any day. There'd be the bad press from lower wyvern families accusing him of not having done more, as well as old families who would doubt his capability of keeping their children safe."
"You believe the murder plot, huh?" Matthew said. "You should tell Emilio. Might get you on his good side."
"It just makes more sense to me. Do you also not think it's odd that there was no note?"
"Not everyone writes one. My dad had an old friend who took a bunch of pills. Didn't leave a word behind."
"And you think that's something Baptiste would have done?"
"... I don't know. Every time I try to think about it, my brain just reminds me that I only knew him for a month. Not exactly enough time to confidently predict things like that."
"You're very scientific, aren't you?" Alex noticed.
"I suppose our resident romantic is going to tell me to listen to my heart instead of my head."
"Is that organ saying something different?"
"It's been silent on the issue thus far," Matthew muttered. "Too busy trying to pump blood around the gaping holes, I think."
"Ellie seems confident suicide isn't the true story,"
"That's because she's thinking about it the way they all are," Matthew said, kicking a pebble along the path with an unnecessary amount of force. "That if he did it meant he was weak. A coward's way out. But that's not true. It's not an indicator of someone's strength or character. It's just... A decision is made in a moment for reasons that are different for everyone. Ellie doesn't understand that strong and brave people can still have moments that cause them to make that choice. It's why I haven't talked to her about this."
"I'm not sure I understand either," Alex admitted. "Sorry."
"Do you have another reason to think it was murder? Besides not trusting your uncle?"
Tell him, AJ said. Tell him., tell him, tell him. Alex could practically feel AJ shaking him as he hesitated. For Christ's sake, lives may be at stake here. Ellie's life! Jack's! Tell him!
"Have you heard about my father's type?" Alex asked. Matthew raised an eyebrow and shook his head, clearly thrown by the sudden shift in the conversation. "He's prophetic."
Matthew's eyes widened. "Wait, so when he was calling-"
"I don't know," Alex said quickly. "I'm not sure. He... was trying to warn me someone would die, I think. He didn't say how. He just sounded... panicked. And... like he was sure it would happen again. He wanted me to come home. He said it wasn't safe here."
"You said your dad is sick. Is it because of his powers? Like Baptiste?"
Alex glanced around, suddenly worried someone would be around to listen. But the campus was empty. No one was around but the birds. "Worse," he whispered, his voice shaking. "Sometimes he gets so caught up in his visions he forgets he's still in the present... Recently he's been forgetting his past too."
Matthew's expression scrunched in anger. "And your mom won't let you see him?" he said. "The fuck is wrong with her?"
"Your guess is as good as mine."
"Did you tell her what he said?"
"No, but I doubt she would care. She always waves off his visions. They can be cryptic. Even he doesn't always know what they mean. And the future isn't set in stone. My dad always said it changes as easily as the present. One of the reasons they took a toll on him, I guess."
"But he sounded sure someone else would die?"
"In the moment, yes. To be fair he also once sounded sure that my grandfather was dead and mistook his very Caucasian and very male nurse for a black woman named Diana."
"You still believe him, though, don't you?"
"I don't know if believing is the right way to put it. I just... Now that it seems like one thing he said came true, I'd never forgive myself if the other ones do too."
"I don't suppose he was specific, was he?"
"...She."
"She?"
"He'll die," Alex said, his father's warning well memorized by now. "And then she'll die too."
"She," Matthew repeated slowly, putting pieces together very quickly. "You told Farrow this too, didn't you? That's why he's been walking Ellie everywhere like a chauffeur."
"Yes. Other than his doctors, Jack is the only one outside of my family that knows my father's illness is connected to his powers. Well, now you do too."
"I won't tell anyone."
"I know," Alex said without hesitating. "I just... I feel ashamed. Of him. Of myself for feeling that way in the first place. Of not doing more to help him."
"You're fifteen, Allie," Matthew said, putting a hand on Alex's shoulder. "What can you expect yourself to do?"
"I haven't been there for him. I've ignored him almost as much as my mother has in the last few years. It's just been... hard to be around him." Alex paused when his throat tightened, and he put all his focus into holding back the sudden well of tears that was rising. "Sorry, you don't need my baggage."
"Maybe," Matthew said. "But I can hold it for a second if you need me to."
Alex surprised himself with a chuckle. "God that's corny," he said, wiping away the few tears that managed to break free.
"I love corn. Where would my people be without el maíz ?" Matthew lightly jabbed Alex's arm with his elbow. "Thank you, for trusting me. I may not know what to say to make you feel better, but... Well, if you ever want to talk about it, I'll listen."
"Thank you... Can I tell you something else my dad said? It's something I haven't even told Jack yet."
"Really? Why not?"
"I don't know what it means, and I didn't want to scare him. My dad said his name. He was the only person he named. He said, 'Where is Jonathan? He needs to go home. It's not safe. He said I needed to go home too, that it wasn't safe for me either, but when he said Jack's name... I-it was like..."
Matthew waited for Alex to finish, but he couldn't bring himself to say it out loud. "Like he was watching him die?" Matthew finished quietly. Alex flinched at hearing his fear put into words but nodded. "Who would kill Farrow? Almost everyone here would be too scared to even touch him."
"I don't know. I'm not sure that's what my dad meant. And it's not like I can't ask him. Even if I managed to get to him and he was in good shape, I doubt he would remember what he said. What he saw. But if Jack getting hurt is even a possibility..." Alex stopped walking and turned to look at the courtyard buildings behind them. He could just barely see the top of Timber Hall's roofline. "I understand why you don't want you and Ellie getting involved. But I don't care about pissing off my uncle. Not if doing nothing is going to get someone else killed."
"So, you're going up there," Matthew said, following Alex's gaze.
"Jack is right about security. I'll have to wait until it calms down a little. But yes."
"Then let me help you."
"But-"
"I still don't think we'll find anything useful," Matthew clarified. "But if your dad was saying what it sounds like he was, there's more at stake now. It's not just a shot at finding out what happened to Baptiste. It's a shot at keeping it from happening to someone else. I'd say my enrollment here is a very distant second priority."
Alex's chest warmed at the offer of help. Maybe it was because he was feeling emotional from talking about his dad, or because he finally felt like there was a burden off his back from telling someone everything that Utkarsh had said, but without thinking he surged forward and wrapped Matthew in a tight hug. Matthew tensed at first, but after a few seconds, he relaxed and patted Alex's back between his shoulder blades.
"You're a little too tall for this to be comfortable, Allie," Matthew muttered when Alex didn't let go right away. Alex suppressed his reflexive rise in body heat and let go.
"Sorry," he mumbled as he took a step back. "I just... You... Sorry."
"It's fine," Matthew said with a smirk. "I'll bring a ladder next time. As for your Scooby Gang aspirations, I recommend we bring Ellie into it. She will kill me if she finds out I went up there after telling her not to."
"You guys still haven't told me what a Scooby is."
Matthew sighed and got behind Alex, pushing on his back to get him moving along the route to their dorm. "Fine, I'll push back the music lesson to teach you about Scooby fucking Doo," he said as Alex tried his best not to trip over himself. "But we are covering Kermit tonight, goddammit."
"Will you be using your doll as a visual aid?"
"Call it a doll one more time and I'm making you give me a piggyback ride."
Don't, AJ begged as Alex was tempted to say it again to see if Matthew would follow through with the threat. I'm already working overtime to keep you from combusting every time he touches you, you hopeless twat.