Kota woke up to his phone vibrating so aggressively it nearly danced off the nightstand. He groaned, rolling over and squinting at the screen through sleep-crusted eyes. Eight missed calls. All from Theo. His heart lurched into his throat. Theo never called this many times unless something was seriously wrong. The last time he had blown up Kota's phone like this was the day of the kidnapping.
He hit the callback button before he was even fully awake. Theo picked up on the first ring, his voice tight and panicked, the words tumbling out in a rushed, breathless stream. "Kota! Darling! Thank god you're awake. I'm outside your apartment right now. Don't panic, okay? Promise me you won't panic."
"Too late," Kota said, already throwing off his covers and swinging his legs over the side of the bed. "What happened? Are you okay? Is someone hurt?"
"No one's hurt. Not physically. But earlier this morning the school board sent an email to me, Sebastian, and my father. Three anonymous tips were filed overnight. Someone reported that teachers and school staff are dating students. Which is technically illegal according to the district's code of conduct. They want us to come in for questioning. Right now. Before school starts."
Kota's stomach dropped like a stone. The room felt suddenly colder. "Did they get a name? For who snitched?"
"No. The tips were anonymous. That's the whole problem. We don't know who filed them or what evidence they have or if they have evidence at all. It could be someone who saw us together. It could be Mr. Delago from the parking lot. It could be a student who noticed something. It could be anyone. But they're treating it seriously. My father is already at the board office. He's furious. Not at me, thank god, but at the situation. He doesn't like public scandals."
Kota rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand, trying to force his brain into something resembling functionality. "Alright. Alright. You're outside right now?"
"Yes. With Sebastian. He got the email too. He's in the backseat having a complete mental breakdown. I think he's been reciting the periodic table for the last ten minutes. He's on boron now."
Through the phone, Kota could faintly hear Sebastian's voice in the background, high and frantic: "—carbon nitrogen oxygen fluorine neon sodium magnesium aluminum silicon phosphorus sulfur chlorine argon potassium calcium—"
"Tell him to breathe," Kota said. "I'll be down in five minutes. We'll get this sorted out. Just—don't say anything until I get there. Let me do the talking."
"Darling, you're not even involved. You're a student. They're not questioning you."
"They're questioning you because of me. That makes me involved. Five minutes."
He hung up and moved fast. No shower. No breakfast. He yanked on a pair of jeans and a plain black hoodie, shoved his feet into his sneakers, and was out the door before his brain could catch up with his body. As he passed through the living room, Khalil looked up from his coffee, his brow furrowing.
"Kota? Where are you going at six fifty in the morning? School doesn't start until eight."
Kota didn't break stride. "Track meeting. Coach called an emergency session. Something about regionals." The lie came out smooth and automatic, the way all his lies came out these days. He was getting too good at this.
Khalil's expression flickered with something between confusion and suspicion. "You haven't been to track practice in months. Not since your knee gave out."
"It's just a meeting, Dad. I'll be back later." Kota was already out the door, pulling it shut behind him before Khalil could ask any more questions. His dad didn't know the full story. Didn't know that Kota had dropped out of track two years ago after a bad knee injury and the relentless bullying that came after. Didn't know that the "track meetings" were just another fiction in a long line of fictions Kota had constructed to keep his double life intact.
He took the stairs two at a time, his sneakers pounding against the concrete. When he hit the ground floor and pushed through the front doors, Theo's white McLaren was parked a block away, as discreet as a luxury sports car could be in a working class neighborhood. Kota jogged over, yanked open the passenger door, and slid inside.
Theo was a wreck. His blond hair was disheveled, his lavender button up was misbuttoned, and his eyes were red rimmed like he had been either crying or on the verge of crying for the past hour. He leaned over and kissed Kota desperately, his lips cold and trembling. "Thank you for coming. Thank you thank you thank you."
"Of course I came. What's the situation now?"
From the backseat, Sebastian's voice cut through the silence. He had stopped reciting the periodic table and was now clutching his phone with both hands, his knuckles white. "I also got the email," he said, his voice pitched higher than usual.
"Three separate anonymous tips. They said they have 'sufficient cause to investigate.' That's board language for 'we think you're guilty but we need to prove it.' I've read the district handbook cover to cover. Six times.This is bad. This is very very very bad."
Kota rubbed his eyes again, the exhaustion from the previous day still clinging to him. "Alright. Here's the plan. We walk in there together, but let me do the talking. Both of you. You're too panicked to lie convincingly and Sebastian literally cannot stop talking once he starts. I'm amazing at bullshitting. I've been doing it to my dad for months. Just follow my lead."
Theo nodded frantically. Sebastian nodded so hard his glasses nearly flew off. "Yes. Yes. You talk. I'll be silent. Completely silent. A statue. A mute statue. A mute statue who is definitely not dating anyone."
"You're literally in the car with us," Kota pointed out.
"Mute statues don't speak. Mute statues don't incriminate themselves. Mute statues don't accidentally confess to things because they're nervous and can't stop their mouth from—" Sebastian clamped his own hand over his lips, muffling the rest of his sentence.
The drive to the school board office was short but felt endless. Theo's hands were shaking on the steering wheel, his knuckles white. Sebastian was making small, distressed sounds in the backseat that were somewhere between whimpers and prayers. Kota stared out the window, mentally rehearsing every possible question they might ask and every plausible lie he could spin. It wasn't a great plan. It wasn't even a good plan. But it was the only plan they had.
When they pulled into the parking lot of the district office, a nondescript brick building with tinted windows and a flagpole out front, Kota's heart sank even further. He had hoped this would be a small, informal meeting. But the parking lot already had several cars in it, including a sleek black sedan that probably belonged to the board representative.
They walked in together, Kota slightly ahead, Theo and Sebastian flanking him like nervous ducklings. The main office was cold and sterile, with gray carpet and fluorescent lights that buzzed faintly overhead. A receptionist directed them toward a conference room at the end of the hall.
When they pushed through the door, Kota's internal monologue screamed at him. Sitting at the long conference table were two familiar faces. Mr. Delago, the science teacher from the parking lot. His short, choppy red hair was perfectly styled, his blue suit crisp and professional. His slim waist and wide hips made the suit jacket pull slightly at the buttons, and his massive ass was barely contained by the tailored slacks. He was sitting with his arms crossed, his expression unreadable.
Beside him was Mr. Norin Saheer, the school librarian. He was tall, easily six foot three, with darkish skin and long black hair pulled back into a braided ponytail that hung over one shoulder. His slim frame was draped in a simple gray cardigan, and his narrow waist flared into hips that, while not as dramatic as some, still carried the unmistakable curves of the post-Vanishing body. He was holding a book, because of course he was, and he looked up when they entered with a calm, measured expression.
At the head of the table sat a representative from the school board. He was a femboy with a severe, no-nonsense expression, his hair pulled back into a bun so tight it looked like it was stretching his skin. His suit was dark gray and impeccably tailored, his posture rigid. A stack of papers sat in front of him. The anonymous tips, presumably.
"Please," the representative said, gesturing toward the empty chairs across from Delago and Norin. "Sit down."
Kota's stomach twisted. Walking in together had been a mistake.
A huge, glaring, obvious mistake. They had entered as a group, the three of them, in perfect synchronization. To anyone watching, it looked exactly like what it was: a couple and their third. He wanted to slap himself across the face.
Stupid.
So fucking stupid.
He should have come separately. He should have made Theo enter first, then Sebastian, then himself. He should have thought this through.
But there was no fixing it now.
They were here.
Together.
And the board representative was looking at them with the cold, analytical gaze of someone who had already drawn his own conclusions.