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“Ah shit. I have to bounce. I have a thing.”
“Oh, really?” She didn’t even pretend to believe me.
“Yes, really.”
“Okay, well don’t let me keep you.” I didn’t miss the sting in her tone, nor did I care. I had to go, and I didn’t give a fuck what she thought of my hasty departure.
“I won’t. It’s been real. See ya.”
“Bye.”
I made a big show of sauntering out of there as though I didn’t have a care in the world. As soon as I was around the block, away from the window of the cafe, I pulled my phone out.
“This better be good, I’m with Rocky.” I was pretty sure that for Xavier, being who he was, that was shorthand for saying that he’d answered a call while he still had his dick inside his girlfriend. Jesus Christ, he was a douche.
“Oh, it’s good, trust me. I’m on my way over. This warrants a face-to-face conversation.”
“Are you out of your fucking mind? Did you not just hear me say I’m here with Rocky?”
“Yeah, I did, and you know me. I wouldn’t be interrupting at all, if it wasn’t important. Very. Fucking. Important. Like Code-Black-level important, if you know what I mean?”
“Really?”
“Yeah, and then some. I’ll be there in five, and heads up, I really don’t want to see your dick.”
“Oh and here was me desperate to show it to you. Just hurry up and get here.” He hung up, which was totally his style. I guessed goodbye was a pretty pointless word, but I didn’t reject social norms and just drop it from my vocabulary the way Xavier had. That guy was a special case. He did what he wanted, how and when he saw fit, and the rest of us could either like it (or at least pretend to), or take a fucking hike.
By the time I arrived at Xavier’s room, the other guys were all there, including Drew. I guessed there had been an ugly scene between them after he was a no-show for the last emergency gathering, though neither of them had said a word about it since, so I couldn’t be sure.
“Okay, so we’re all here, and again you’ve brought the drama. What is it?” I glanced surreptitiously toward the door of the bedroom.
“What the fuck are you looking that way for? Yes Rocky is there. No she’s not listening to our conversation, but even if she were, she’s not a threat.” Great. I was sure that if the shoe were on the other foot, he’d have skinned us alive and fed our bodies to the pigs, but the first rule of the Xavier Club was that there was one rule for him, and another for the rest of us. He was nothing if not consistently hypocritical.
I looked around at the assembled expectant faces, and sucked in a large deep breath before taking the plunge.
“I know who the mole is.” You could have cut the silence in the room with a sledgehammer. Nobody said anything. Or moved. Or breathed.
“Well, are you go to tell us, or are we going to fucking die wondering?” Xavier, of course, was the one to break the silence.
“It’s Honey St George.”
“What? The chick who runs the newspaper? Lois Lane Mark II,” Drew jumped in.
“One and the same.”
“Bullshit. We were in the same History class for two years. I don’t think she ever spoke a word. Never asked a question, never even said excuse me to get past someone or borrowed a pen. Nada. Zip. She wouldn’t say boo to a dead fucking goose. You’re barking up the wrong tree.” This was Fox.
“I wish I was, dude. I’m one hundred percent sure, but before I tell you why, I will say that your assessment of her is totally wrong. She’s the clichéd hack. She acts like she’s all shy and retiring and wouldn’t harm a fly, and then she opens her mouth and shoots a silver tongue right into your fucking heart, so fast, and sharp, you don’t realize you’ve been stabbed until it’s too late, and you’re already bleeding out.”
“Jesus Christ. What the fuck is this, English Lit 101? What’s with the romantic prose? Just tell us how you can be so sure it’s her, already.”
“The pattern on the wall? It’s the shadow of her earrings. Remember I said I’d seen it somewhere, but I couldn’t think where? That was where. I was with her when I got the call from Xavier. I guess I’d noticed them, but not noticed, if you know what I mean? The image of them was there in the recesses of my mind, just like I’d said, but I couldn’t connect the dots.”
“So how did you put the pieces together?” Xavier was eerily quiet and calm. This couldn’t be a good thing.
“Yesterday, I had to cut my interview with her short—it’s for the stupid article the Dean and Coach want her to write. Fucking bullshit, but they won’t take no for an answer, and I’m not putting my cock on the block over some stupid fluff piece for the school rag.”
“Dude, get to the fucking point.”
