The Only Faith [boyxboy]

The Only Faith {17}

                By the time I walked back to the dorm building, it was getting dark outside. I went in and didn't bother stopping by my room, walking past and checking the name tags on the doors instead.

                I found the one with Tessa's name and knocked on it. Tessa opened the door and looked surprised to see me.

                "I need to talk to you," I said.

                She stepped aside and let me in. "My roommate isn't in right now. I don't know when she'll be back, though."

                "That's fine. This'll be quick," I said, sitting down at a chair. Tessa sat in the other chair and faced me, her eyes sliding down to my bandaged hand before snapping back to meet my gaze.

                "What did you need to talk about?" she asked.

                "Fagan said something about my hand, huh?" I said.

                "He said you take the bandages off to shower. He said it's probably an old wound," she said. "Did it need stitches?"

                "Yea, it did," I said.

                "So it's an old wound," she said. "If it needed stitches, you'd probably have to keep it from getting wet."

                "It's not important," I said.

                She had the grace to let the topic drop. "What did you really want to talk about?"

                "Fagan is too angry to think clearly and Beckett is too reluctant," I said. "We need to do something about Leon, but I've been thinking and thinking and I can't come up with anything that keeps him from getting hurt in the end."

                "Beckett and Leon have a...strange relationship," Tessa said. "They're not friends. They probably could've been, if Beckett had never become a Maroon. But from the moment Constance sent Leon in to deal with Beckett, they've had silent rules they followed to soften the blow on each other. They respect each other. Leon has tried hard to keep his father out of the situation and Beckett has tried hard to keep Leon from getting hurt by our schemes."

                "Is there anything you can remember that we can use to get Leon out of our way without making the poor dude need years of therapy?" I asked.

                I didn't miss the way she tensed up at that, or the way she dropped her gaze. She shrugged at me.

                "I don't do the scheming," she said.

                "That memory of yours got you here, didn't it?" I said.

                She looked up at me. "Why are you doing this? It sounds like rebelling at your old school got you into this situation in the first place."

                I just shrugged, not saying anything. With her memory, any small bit of my past that slipped out would help her piece together what had happened. I wanted to move on from my past and I couldn't do that if people here knew about it.

                "They're coming for you next," I reminded, standing up. "The sooner we deal a blow to Leon, the better."

                "You think that'll be the end of it? Getting Leon will land a blow to Constance, but do you really think he'll just let us get away with hurting his son?" Tessa said. "He'll really be after us if we do that."