Page 118 of And They Were Roommates

“Thank you,” Delilah says, raising her nose high.

I take a breath. A long one. “You guys.”

Everyone stares at me. Waiting.

“I went to the equestrian center with Blaze and accidentally let out the horses.” I shrink deeper into myself. “I think the ripped trash bags were my fault too. My ring that got caught on Jasper. Everything was my fault. I’m sorry—”

“Who cares?” Xavier interrupts. He knocks both Blaze’s slingshot and Jasper’s pen into the fountain basin while they’re distracted. Blaze squeals and fetches them. Delilah rolls her eyes.

As if none of them truly care.

“You should,” I say, furrowing my brow at the pen-diving lollapalooza. “You almost got expelled. STRIP’s legacy would’ve also been done—”

“STRIP is a unit, bro,” Xavier says. “Your screw-ups are our screw-ups. We’re a powerhouse of screw-ups.”

I look to Delilah, giving up on Xavier. “Your detentions are my fault. Hit me.”

Delilah’s mouth twists. “Ew. No.”

I grab her palm to slap myself with it.

Jasper stops me in time, lowering my hand to my thigh. “If we blamed you, we’d have to blame Blaze for not checking that the gate was locked, knowing you’d never used it. I’d have to blame myself for wearing the bracelet that got stuck to your ring.”

“What you’re blaming yourself for sounds like your straight-up existence, Charlie,” Xavier adds, “and we’re not gonna hear that.”

All I can do is blink back in shock at everyone—the people who are still my friends. Slowly, it turns to a smile. Maybe STRIP really will always figure things out together.

But I still have a few last things to figure out on my own.

Chapter 43LETTERS TO A YOUNG POET

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15

In the office, Ms. Lyney plays with a gnome’s stubby arms on her desk, humming theGhostbusterstheme song.

I knock on the doorframe.

She blinks out of her daze. Today, her spirit wear sweatshirt is accompanied by a Valentine baseball cap, red sweatpants, and a pendant necklace of the arrow-stabbed heart crest. She bought out the whole gift shop. “Wasn’t the mixer wonderful, Charlie?”

“Yeah.”

“This academy is wonderful. All of you kiddos are. So wonderful.”

Mr. Stern definitely put a ring in that gnome.

When I first came to Valentine, I would’ve cringed. I never would’ve understood that Ms. Lyney can allow herself to be vulnerable with love because she has confidence in herself. Now all I feel is jealousy. “I need to call back my mom.”

With a vacant hum, she dials for Mom and passes me the phone. I head into the back room. As the phone rings, I check my watch. Twenty minutes until I meet Jasper at the lake. Unless he doesn’t show up.

Worry races through me at the high probability.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Mom.”

“Charlie, finally! Hold on, let me stop shelving these books.”A few thuds come over the line. “I saw the email with the final ranks. Have you asked if there’s extra credit? Rank Six is so close. We can fix this.”

“No, it’s okay. The academy is getting rid of the ranks. I’m staying.”

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