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He looks at me for a long moment. His eyes are that color again. The one I can’t read.

“Is it?”

And he walks out.

I stand there in the kitchen with my face burning and my heart going so hard I can feel it in my ears. The guy on the stool snores, and the two girls in the corner laugh at something on the phone.

I take my phone out and don’t open the voicemails. I study the two dots. One on top of the other. So close on the map that they’re a single blurry circle with two names under it, sitting on top of a house on Greer Street.

I go back downstairs with my water, and I’m halfway across the basement to Kylie when I hear a drunk douchebag talking.

“Look who it is,” he says. Loud. Loud enough that the people around the stairs turn. “Daddy let you out for the night, Waleska?”

His friends laugh.

Rafe doesn’t turn around right away. He just goes still. I know that stillness. I’ve watched it come over him in hallways and stairwells and cafeterias for four years, and it never once ended well for anybody.

“Nice suit,” Greeley says. “You gonna sit out next weekend, too? Or does he need to check his calendar?”

Rafe turns around.

I’m twenty feet away and I can see his eyes from here. The lights go blue and then red, and in the red, they’re almost brown. That color. The one I learned before I learned anything else about him. The one that always came right before the worst things.

My whole body goes cold.

He takes one step toward Greeley. Just one. And Nash is already there, his hand flat in the middle of Rafe’s chest, not pushing, just holding, and Koda gets in front of Greeley with his arms out, saying something I can’t hear. One of Greeley’s friends shoves Koda, and Koda shoves back, and for one second, the whole basement leans in toward them.

“Not here,” Nash says. I can hear that part. He says it low and flat, right into Rafe’s face. “Berwyn will have all of us. Not here.”

And I watch Rafe want to.

I watch it go through his whole body. His jaw. His shoulders. His right hand closing at his side. I know exactly what that hand wants to do. I’ve seen it want things before.

And then he doesn’t.

He looks at Greeley for one more second, long enough that Greeley stops smiling. Then he drops his cup in the trash can by the washing machine, turns around, and walks up the stairs without a word.

I stand there with my water.

I’ve never once seen him want to hit something and not do it.

“Okay,” Kylie says, appearing at my elbow and grabbing my arm. “We’re leaving. This is so stupid. I’m not watching them get suspended over a Theta party. Come on.”

Nash is already coming, with Koda behind him, grinning like the shove was fun. Nobody argues. We go up the stairs and get our coats off the pile on the bed in the room at the top.

Rafe’s on the porch when we come out.

He’s standing at the top of the steps with his hands in his coat pockets, looking at the street, and his breath is going up white into the porch light. He turns when the door opens.

I’m pulling my coat on. I’ve got one arm in, and I’m fighting with the other sleeve, and I look up and see where he’s looking.

He’s looking at my shoes.

Just for a second. A second too long. Then his eyes come up to my face.

“You’re walking?”

“Yes.”