AUREL

I've been holding the same cup for an hour so people stop handing me new ones.

“Hey dude, great game,” some guy that I've never met before says while shaking my hand. “You really were fire out there.”

“Thanks,” I smiled, soaking in the praises as the room erupted in my chants. Everyone except a certain purple head.

I don't think I've seen her before but the frown on her face intrigues me. It sits on her face and piercing blue eyes call out to me. She's in a red dress that shows a good portion of her thighs and boobs but she keeps trying to drag it to her feet.

"You're doing that thing again," Finn says, dropping down onto the arm of the couch beside me.

"What thing?" I turn to my best friend and housemates. One of the perks of being an only child is that you get absolutely anything you want including a mini mansion.

"The thing where you smile at everybody but your eyes go completely dead. It's honestly kind of disturbing,” he sips his drink. “But somehow people eat it up." He nods at the beer pong table across the room like it owes him money. "You know you've said 'great game' to like nine different people in the last twenty minutes?"

"You're counting now?"

"Somebody has to keep track of how weird you're being."

I don't argue, because he's probably right. I take a sip just so I have something to do with my face when the thoughts of my worst nightmare hits me.

I've got a Con Law paper due in eleven days and I haven't written a single word. I read the same forty pages three times last weekend and none of it stuck. The words just kind of slide off before they mean anything, and I can't tell a single person that, because everybody already decided a long time ago that I'm the pre-law guy.

My dad told my uncle who in turn told half the church and once they knew, my dad threatened to cut me off if I mess up. A threat that hunts me in my sleep.

I cannot survive without my trust fund, the thoughts of getting a job is something I cannot wrap my head around so I have to figure out a way for me to pass this stupid course.

"You should break up with Elise," Finn says and I nearly choke on the beer.

"Where did that come from?"

"You heard me, she's too toxic for you."

"We're at a party, man."

"That's exactly why it's a good time to bring it up. You can't turn it into a big dramatic thing when you can barely hear me." He shrugs like he's done me a favor. "Look, she's been talking about you like you two already broke up. It's all 'Aurel used to be more fun' and 'we're figuring things out.' Nobody says they're figuring things out unless they already figured it out."

I don't say anything to that, because the thing about Finn is that he reads people before anybody else does, and he's basically never wrong, and I hate it.

Elise and I have been off since September, I just never actually did anything about it. It's easier not to. As long as you don't say the words out loud, you don't have to be the one who ended it.

The last time we broke up, my parents were already filing for divorce and the thought of being alone scared the shit out of me.

"It's complicated," I tell him.

"It's really not. You just don't want to be the bad guy, so you're waiting around for her to do it for you."

That's a little too accurate as his words find their landing in my heart so I stand up. "I'm gonna go get some air."

"You've still got a full cup." He mocks.

I set it down on the speaker and turn to leave, and that's when I see her again.

This time, she's standing by the kitchen doorway. She's got one shoulder against the door frame, this look on her face like her mind is a hundred miles away, and it takes me a second to figure out what's actually strange about her.

She's bored.

Everyone in this house is trying so hard to look like they're having the time of their lives, and she's just standing there, openly bored out of her mind, not even trying to hide it.

"Who's that?" I ask, pointing in her direction.

“Oh now you need my help?”

“C’mon man, I'm serious.”

He cranes his neck. "I believe she's the newest addition to your girlfriend's team.”

"I should go talk to her, you know introduce the star of the show,” I brag. “I don't think she has had a tour of campus yet.”

“You fucking bastard,” he scoffed. “Out of all the girls that literally throw themselves at you, you decide to pick the one that looks like she has zero fucks to give. You are insane."

“What?” I grin. “I love a good challenge. Besides, no one can resist the charm of Aurel Castell.”

I turn my attention back to her just in time to see the mean look she gives to a guy that's obviously trying to hit on her.

I've never seen anybody turn down a free drink like they're shooing away a bug.

"Don't," Finn says. “You already promised your mum a drama free semester.”

"Don't what? I'm not doing anything."

He finishes the last of his drink. "You've got a girlfriend, dude. You better break things off with your crazy girlfriend before you drag another girl to this. Remember last time?”

How could I forget? Elise had turned to a feral beast the last time she heard I was seeing someone else. She even tried to harm herself and her mum called begging me not to hurt her daughter because she was mentally ill.

But because the Castell men act before they think, my legs are already moving before I've decided anything.

She watches me come the whole way over, and she doesn't smile or fix her hair or even try to push off the door frame like most girls would.

She just watches, like she's already bored of whatever I'm about to say.

"Hey, Red."I say flashing my perfect set of teeth.

She blinks at me, slowly. "What did you just call me?"

"Your dress." I gesture at it, which doesn't help, because now I'm a guy gesturing at a girl's dress. "It's red. I like it."

"That's the worst thing anyone has said to me all week, and I had a conversation with Elise Beaumont this morning."

I laugh before I can stop myself, which surprises both of us. Even though she doesn't laugh back, something in her face moves.

"You're on the swim team," I say. "With Elise right?"

"Yes. Your girlfriend has made it her mission to remind me about that every day.”

"I'm Aurel." I extend a hand that she doesn't take.

"I'm aware of that too." She looks at me for a second longer, and I get the strange feeling she's deciding whether I'm worth one more sentence. "Everyone in this house is aware of that. They've been chanting it for an hour."

And that's when her eyes leave me.

They go over my shoulder, somewhere toward the far end of the room, and her whole face changes.

I watch as the bored thing drops off completely. She looks, for one second, like a person who just saw something she wants.

I've been talking to her for two minutes but she hasn't looked at me like that once.

I turn around to see what she's looking at but don't catch who it is because the room is crowded tonight.

“Hey Red, who has your attention when I'm here trying to talk to you?” I asked, still trying to find who she has her eyes on.

When I turn back, she's already pushing off the door frame.

"It was nice meeting you, Aurel," she says, in a voice that means it was not particularly nice and then she's walking past me, toward whatever it was.

For the first time in my life I walked towards the room for a girl and she walked toward someone else.

WRENLEY

His name is Jerry.

That's all I got at the party before Tess dragged me to the snack table and started narrating the social standing of everyone in the room like I'd asked.

I remember leaving there feeling things I never thought was possible. Meanwhile, Aurel has been trying to talk to me all week but I avoid him.

The thought of Jerry fills my head until I can't think of anything else which is a problem, because I have several actual problems that deserve the attention more.

“How do you get a guy to like you?” I blurt out to Tess one afternoon. The second the words leave my mouth, I consider throwing myself through the nearest window.

“Oh my, look at you having your first crush,” she teased, bringing her chair closer to mine.

"I regret asking already.” I muttered with a hand over my face. We had just finished class for today. “Who is he? Is it Aurel?” She gave me a light shove. “I saw the way he looked at you at that party.”

“Ewww, no. I rather be married to a dog than him. I'm talking about that marine biologist graduate. The one who helped us in practicals.”

“Oh,” her happy expression changes. “Well I guess the best people to ask are the guys.”

“What are you talking about?”

“They are guys. If anyone knows about winning guys, it's the guys on the hockey team.”

Yeah right. As if I can just walk up to one of them to ask for dating advice.

“Why can't you advise me?” I asked.

“Me? What does my single ass know? I've been single ever since I was born so I know nothing.”

“Fair point,” I replied.

As luck would have it, I overheard Aurel and his coach discussing his poor grade in law and the possibility of him not playing if he doesn't get it back on track.

An hour later, I find Aurel in the basement of the athletic complex, at a long table with a textbook open in front of him that he is very clearly not reading.

He has the look of someone who's been on the same page for twenty minutes and has started to take it personally.

I sit down across from him without being asked.

He glances up. "Red? What are you doing here?"

"Don't you dare!" I glared at him.

"What? It's a really catchy name."

"I hear you're failing." I say it flat, and his eyes go wide.

"Where did you hear that from?" he asked, and his right hand twitched on the table before he stopped it.

People don't shake like that over a bad grade. They shake over what happens after the bad grade.

“Elise complains about it like it's something you're doing to her personally." I lied, hiding the fact that I totally eavesdropped the conversation he had with his coach. It's not like she's going to find out anyway.

"And here I thought you came down here for my company," he said with a sad face.

"I came down here to make you a deal." I put my hands flat on the table. "I'll tutor you for free. As much as you need, until the grade's fixed and you keep your spot."

He leans back. Now he's interested, and trying not to look like it. I look at his hands that are no longer shaking while he asks. "What's the catch?"

"You help me with something." The words cost me more than they should have. “Unfortunately, it requires talking to you.”

I never thought a day would come where I would ask him for help not to talk of dating advice.

"Okay, that shouldn't be hard, what's that?"

This is the part I rehearsed and it still comes out wrong.

"There's someone I want. A guy. I don't…" I stop and start over, plainer. " I don't know how this works, the talking, the… whatever you people do before you decide you like someone. But you do. You're good at it, everyone says so, it's apparently your entire personality. So you teach me that, and I teach you Con Law, and we both get what we want."

For a long moment he doesn't say anything.

"Who's the guy," he says finally.

"Does it matter?"

"It might. If it's somebody I know I can tell you if you're wasting your time."

"Jerry?" he blurts out halfway through my description.

I stop. "You know him?"

"Sure, uhm Jerry is a great guy. I can totally help you.” He tries to sound cheerful but his furrowed brows give him away.

"You don't sound like you want to." I pitched in.

"I want to pass Con Law." He pulls his textbook closed and looks at me, with a smile on his face.

"Deal. You teach me the commerce clause, I teach you how to get the guy. When do we start?"

"Now. Or else you're going to fail before we finish negotiating."

In the last two hours of our study session, I've come to realise that he's not so stupid after all. Everyone talks about Aurel Castell like he's a nice golden retriever who happens to be good at hockey, and he lets them, but when I make him explain the cases back to me in his own words instead of reading them, he gets there fast.

He just couldn't make the course stick to his memory.

It's almost ten pm when my phone buzzes. I almost don't look.

It's an email, forwarded from the property manager, and I read the subject line twice before the words go in.

NOTICE OF UNIT ENTRY; LOCKS TO BE CHANGED 6:00 AM.

"Hey." Aurel snaps his fingers in front of me. "You went somewhere. What's wrong?"

"Nothing." I lock the phone and stand up too fast, gathering my things, my notebook, my one good pen. "Same time Thursday. Read the next chapter before you come or I'm not explaining it twice."

"Wrenley."

It's the first time he's used my actual name. It stops me for half a second, which I hate.

"I'm fine," I say. "I'll see you Thursday."

I leave before he asks me another question.

I have until six in the morning to figure out where I'm going to live, with three trash bags' worth of a life I built out of nothing, and no one on this entire continent I can call.

I have never once, in any world, been this alone with a clock running

WRENLEY

By six in the morning my whole life is in three trash bags on the curb.

I packed them by phone light so I wouldn't have to turn on a lamp I no longer pay for.

The first bag is clothes. The second is the swim gear, which is the only thing in any of the bags worth more than the bags. The third is everything else, which turns out to be almost nothing; some books, a mug, a charger, the dead plant I kept meaning to water and apparently could not bring myself to leave.

I don't know why I packed the plant. It's dead. I'm arguably not doing much better, so maybe that's why but I'm sitting on the cold concrete next to it like we're both waiting for a bus that isn't coming.

I have nowhere to go. That's the part I keep arriving at no matter which way I run the problem. There's also no one to call unless I want several hours of concern, disappointment, and life advice I didn't ask for.

But that would mean giving up my dreams to go live the life my parents planned and I am not calling Tess to say can I sleep on your floor and then answer the forty soft questions that follow.

I'm not about to do that because of how much effort I've put into staying here. I need to get a job and I need it fast.

The laundromat behind me isn't open yet. The street's empty except for a delivery truck two blocks down.

So I make the mistake of thinking about my life for thirty seconds and how spectacularly a person can ruin their own morning when they've cut themselves off from everyone who ever knew their real name.

Then a car slows down. And stops. A figure gets out of the car but because he's a bit fat from where I'm sitting, I don't recognise him until he comes closer

And it's him, of course it's him because apparently humiliation wasn't finished with me yet.

Aurel is in practice clothes, his hair is a mess, and he looks at me, then at the three trash bags, and then at the dead plant, but he doesn't say anything stupid, which is somehow the worst part. I could've handled something stupid.

"Hey," he says. “Why are you out here by this time?”

"It's because I'm a creep. I love watching people go about their day while I sit here homeless. "

He looks at the bags again. "How long have you been out here?"

""Long enough to regret being born. Why?” I sigh when I see the frown on his face. “I'm actually waiting for someone." It's the fastest lie I have although it's a bad one.

"Okay." He doesn't believe me but doesn't push either. He just goes back to his car, puts it in park mode, which I didn't tell him to do, and gets out. "Then you can wait for them at my place, because it's freezing and you've got swim gear sitting in a wet gutter."

Wonderful. My options were freezing to death or accepting help.

"I'm fine,” I said and my teeth decided that right now was the best time to chatter. Seeing that it was no use lying, I said “I'm not going to your place."

"We have a guest room downstairs, with its own everything. That way, nobody'll bother you." He says it easy, like it's already decided, like he's done this a hundred times, when I happen to know he has never once done this. "Look, I need my tutor not to have hypothermia,” he runs his hands through his hair. “I know it's a selfish thing but my grade depends on you not dying."

"That's the worst manipulation attempt I've ever heard.” I said between gritted teeth.

"It's working though." He's already crouching to grab the first bag. "You're still talking to me instead of telling me to leave."

He's actually right. I mean, I should tell him to leave. The whole reason I survive up here is that I don't let people close enough to notice things that would trigger their suspicions. Like for example my hair and how it takes hours to dry or the fact that I don't get sick at all or the fact that my body's temperature is actually slightly higher than that of a normal human being.

A guest room downstairs from a hockey player is kinda like the exact opposite of keeping my head down. But because it's forty degrees at six in the morning and the alternative is the bus that isn't coming, I spend thirty seconds trying to think of a better option.

Unfortunately, reality refuses to provide one.

"The gear bag's heavy," I say. "Don't drop it."

He grins like I've handed him something, and pops the trunk.

The moment I saw the house, my face gave me away by how unimpressed I looked. I've seen way better and more beautiful buildings.

Walking from one end of the house to the other took several minutes, and there were so many rooms I couldn't keep count. Nothing rattled as every door swung silently.

The carpets were so thick my feets vanished into them. Sounds floated upward and seemed to disappear before returning as faint echoes.

The kitchen is bigger than my entire old apartment, which is a crime because no one should have this much hallway. As he showed me around the house, I caught sight of a couch that two people could lie down on and not touch.

“Welcome to my humble abode,” he says once the tour is over. “So, what do you think?”

“How can you even afford a place like this anyway?” I asked fidgeting with my sweatpants.

“Well, that's the perks of being an only child. If my parents had more children, we would be classified as middle class but since it's just me, there's literally no one else to spend it on but me.”

He grins like someone who's never had to check a bank account before buying groceries.

“If you need anything, my room's upstairs by the left. Get some sleep, you look like you need it.”

And with that, he left me.

I stare at the number again, waiting for it to become a worse idea than my current situation.

“No,” I delete the number before taking a deep breath. “I can do this,” I took another one. “I just need to get my shit together.”

Then I hear screaming upstairs, which is oddly reassuring. Finally, people are having a worse morning than me.

“This isn't so bad,” I whispered when I realised just how big of a mess I'm in before laying down. I meant to rest for an hour. Apparently I blacked out like an elderly Victorian woman waking up when the sky had gone orange with no idea where I was, and for one half-second I forgot all of it.

When I get up, my stomach growls as a reminder that I haven't had anything to eat in twenty four hours. I follow the smell of food which leads me to the shared kitchen. The designers of this house made just one parlour and kitchen so its occupants have to share.

The moment I walk into the kitchen, I stop dead in my tracks.

"Hey," the guy I've been crushing on says. "Swim team, right? From the party." He tilts his head. "You're the new roommate?"

I can't speak. I genuinely cannot make a word out, because my brain is doing the math and the math is insane: the guy I made a deal to win lives across the hall from the boy I made the deal with.

And from the doorway behind me, where he's just come down the stairs and stopped, I feel more than seeing Aurel go still.

He's standing there with a towel over his shoulder, looking at my face; at whatever my face is doing right now, which I can't control and would give anything to take back.

I watched him put it together and understood exactly who I meant. Exactly who he agreed to help me win. Exactly who lives twelve feet from the room he just carried my bags into.

He doesn't say anything, that's how I know it's bad.