The Heir

Chapter 30

A stack of books is dropped on the desk beside me, making me jump. Ryan slumps in the chair and looks both ways before leaning across the aisle.

"Will."

"What?"

"It was Will," he whispers harshly. "Hannah went to meet up with Will last night."

I lean back in my chair with a frown. I don't think I've ever seen them speak before least of all sneak around together. Is he the cause of her increasing bitterness?

"That's weird," I finally respond.

"Yeah," he nods in agreement. "I didn't know they were friends."

"Me either," I affirm.

"Why'd you want me to tail her, anyway?" Ryan asks quietly. The other students are still filtering into class and the chaos of that keeps our hushed conversation hidden.

"She's been acting weird," I shake my head. He opens his mouth to speak but I cut him off. "Weirder than usual."

"How so?" he grabs the back of my seat to lean closer.

"She keeps picking fights," I continue quietly. "Holding grudges, and now she's sneaking around with the new kid."

"They went to the arts building," Ryan informs me. "Probably the dark room."

I hum in response. I wonder what they've been doing together. Hannah's not the artsy type, not creative or talented that way in the slightest. And Will's been getting increasingly secretive about his photography. Fucking bizzare.

"Fuck this shit," Noah declares, slumping into the desk in front of Ryan. Akio takes the desk in front of me with a similar attitude.

"What happened?" I hesitantly ask.

Noah and Akio exchange a look before the former prompts, "go ahead. Tell them."

Akio sighs heavily and turns in his seat to look at me, "you know that new mural I've been working on? The one in the science building?"

I nod, "with the molecules and shit."

"Yeah," he confirms. "Someone fucked it up."

"Someone ruined it," Noah interjects.

"I'm sorry, Akio," I say earnestly, offering a sympathetic smile.

"Ruined how?" Ryan asks.

"Tell him," Noah instructs again.

"Someone painted over it," Akio's gaze drops, refusing to make eye contact with any of us. "It said 'queers aren't welcome here'."

"And," Noah adds, "there was a threat as well."

"What kind of threat?" Ryan asks. I look at him quickly, I know what that tone in his voice means. It means that he's about to become the soldier Rocco's been training him to be. He's about to go feral.

Akio sighs again, "it said 'kill yourself or I'll make you wish you were dead'. It's just some stupid homophobes."

"When did you find it?" Ryan asks. His voice is clipped and concrete; he's beginning to put together evidence in his head. Details that will help him figure out who exactly did this. I know because I'm doing the same thing.

"This morning," Akio says softly. "It wasn't like that yesterday though. They must've done it last night."

Ryan nods slowly before looking at me, "hai ancora accesso alle telecamere di sicurezza?"
(Do you still have access to the security cameras?)