Ketterdam University

{ten}

Chapter Text
            "So, you're really getting settled then?" Nikolai asked, flipping through his textbook.

             Wylan flopped back onto his bed and nodded slowly, taking a
satisfying deep breath. "Yeah. Yeah, I am."

            "And how are you faring?"

            "I'm fine, Dad, everything is a-okay."

            Nikolai looked up from the words Wylan couldn't quite comprehend. His head cocked to the side. "That sounded like a lie."

            "No, it didn't."

            "Wylan, I can practically see the green fibs seeping through your beautiful white teeth. What's up?"

            Wylan shook his head. "Really, nothing's wrong. I'm quite content at the moment."

            Nikolai examined his friend's face, eyes flitting over his features, his lie-detector in motion. "My god," he muttered.

            "What?"

            "I think you're actually telling the genuine truth."

            He laughed. "Well, I would hope so."

            "This is new! This is exciting!" Nikolai closed his book, his eyebrows darting up and down. "You're happy! How does it feel?"

            Wylan scrunched up his nose. "Um...happy, I guess?"

            "Brilliantly put."

            "Just trying to fend off those pesky moods that are threatening to cave in any day now."

            Nikolai rolled his eyes. "The more you anticipate, the worse the moods get if they actually do show up. No nonsense from your father?"

            "I don't know. I've been blocking his messages."

            The blond boy scrambled up from his lying position. "Can you do that? You can't do that, right? Do you forget completely what happened that last time that happened?"

            Hell on Earth. That's when he forced himself to crash on Kaz Brekker's couch, dehydrated, homeless, and practically starving. "I don't care anymore. He doesn't get to pull me around like that."

            "Wylan, as much as I understand the whole my-father-is-a-scumbag experience, I think you're ignoring that fact that he controls everything in your life. You're putting yourself in grave danger mentally."

            Wylan fiddled with the buttons of his shirt. "I just don't know what I should do. I can't read any more of his emails."

            "Who says you have to read them?" Nikolai said.

            "He has his demands in each one. He'll know if I don't read them or not."

            "I could read them for you," his friend offers.

            "You..." Wylan looked at him, swallowing hard. "You would do that?"

            Nikolai's eyes glowed with earnest. "Of course. I'll just tell you what he wants; you don't have to read the rest."

            A wave of gratitude rushed over Wylan and he realized in horror that he was blinking back tears. "Thank you...honestly."

            "I hate to see you in that sort of pain. Your dad is, quite simply, the worst."