KINGSMAN

XXIII

SYLVIA COLLAPSED INTO BED THAT NIGHT, HER HEAD POUNDING AND FINGERS BUZZING.

She wasn't sure if it was excitement or nerves, the two were so often conflated in her mind. On one hand, a part of her was glad to be back in a familiar environment. She'd missed her bed on the right side of the room and even the blank, empty walls. April had taken the afternoon preparing her side. There was a new poster up on the wall— The Creation of Adam— cropped until it was just a snapshot of the hands reaching desperately for each other. Sylvi pushed her face into her pillow and sighed so deep her ribs smarted. It smelled like detergent and lint. She'd missed it.

On the other hand, her conversation with Samuel jostled for attention amongst her other thoughts. Don't screw it up. She couldn't stop thinking about it. Or the sincerity in his eyes, or the split second where she'd considered shoving him off the edge of the Tower. Shame pooled in her gut. What was that? The fact that she'd had the thought at all terrified her. She wasn't a killer. The mere thought sent trembles into her fingers.

She wasn't like Samuel. She didn't kill people just because they were an inconvenience.

April's distinct laugh rang from the hall. Through the walls, Sylvi heard her chatting with at least three other girls and giggling at a joke she'd only heard half of. April opened the door and waved goodbye to the girls, one of whom was indeed Whitney Jenkins, a girl Sylvi thought she couldn't stand until recently.

April grinned at her from the door. She spun around in the center of the room, out of breath, and gestured to the tiny space. "Oh, how I've missed this!" she exclaimed as she fell back onto her bed and sighed. "I wish we could stay like this. The campus is so beautiful at night. This place would serve beautifully for an aesthetic get-away. It's a shame we have classes."

Sylvi snorted into her pillow, her cheek pushed up against the linen. "April, that's kind of the whole point of a school."

April rolled her eyes. "Shame that it's true."

It got quiet suddenly. Sylvi could tell April was thinking about something intensely as she watched loop her fingers together and knock her knees.

"So..." she began again. "How did things go? With Sienna?"

Sylvia sighed and sat up on her bed. "Not good, but not bad either. She told me to leave it alone. Then we went to the Tower and after everyone left Samuel..." she found herself pausing, as if she wanted to keep the secret of Samuel's strange sincerity and her morbid thoughts a secret. She could imagine herself climbing down her ribcage and locking the moment in her heart only to throw the key away. The moment had been private, intimate, uncomfortable... but it'd also been the most human she'd ever seen Samuel. For some reason, it felt like a disservice to him, no matter how much she despised him, to let anyone else know that Samuel Webb did indeed possess a beating heart.

April blinked at her, expectant. "What? Are you okay? What did he do?"

Sylvi shook the thoughts free from her head. "Nothing. It's just that he's planning for us to give our condolences to the Hill family this weekend, since the school year's staring again and he's not here for it. We're off to Archer's house after that."

April eyes sparkled. "Archer's house?" she was practically buzzing with excitement. "You're going to see the ranch? And the dogs?" she squealed. "I bet they're adorable."

Sylvia's brows rose. "You know where he lives?"

"Well, not specifically," April said, rolling her eyes despite the flush in her cheeks. "But he talks about the ranch all the time to me and the other girls. Did you know he's got five dogs? He claims he hasn't got a favorite but he's always gushing about the large one with a star on her forehead. I think her name's Winnifred."