Chapter 2
“Freedom!” Mitsuru shouted and stretched his arms wide as if to pull the summer in close and give it a rapturous hug.
“Can you get any louder? I don’t think the dead can hear you.”
“Ah, Shinobu! You really know how to suck the joy out of life, don’t you?”
“It’s one of my many talents,” the other boy answered modestly.
Mitsuru snorted inelegantly then looked at his friend out of the corner of his eye. He paused and a devilish smile played tag on his flushed face. He started to bounce on his heels. Shinobu watched him with growing horror.
“Oh, no. No, Mitsuru. Not again. Don’t do it.”
“Why not?” the blonde started bouncing more pronouncedly.
“Please. I beg you.”
The plea went unheeded.
“Banzai!” Mitsuru hollered at the top of his lungs before he vaulted to a run in mid-bounce and proceeded to cartwheel down the tree-canopied avenue.
Shinobu raised his eyes heavenward before shutting them resignedly. His name didn’t mean “long-suffering” for nothing. About five feet away, his insane roommate hooted and beckoned wildly like an Olympic gymnast on crack. Shinobu hurried to catch up with him, intent on shutting up his friend before the nice men with the white coats came in their nice padded truck.
“It’s fun! You should try it!” Mitsuru pulled at the other boy’s sleeve, looking like nothing so much as an eager puppy worrying at a new ball.
“No.”
“Come on!”
“No.”
“Joy sucker!”
“Yup.” Shinobu gave his friend an uncharacteristically chipper smile.
“Whoa! Stop the presses! Tezuka is smiling. And I see teeth, even!”
Shinobu bit his lip to stop the grin that refused to die, but Mitsuru’s teasing good humor was infectious and, after glancing around to make sure no one he knew was around, Shinobu allowed his mouth to curve in helpless glee.
“Oh, this has got to be good. Spit it out, my friend. What’s got you so giddy?”
“Nothing much,” the silver-haired boy walked past the other, whistling, which was difficult to do around a grin that just wouldn’t quit.
“This doesn’t have anything to do with what we just read, does it? The posted standings? The fact that a certain Shinobu Tezuka received the highest marks and the coveted number one position in the first year class?” Mitsuru clasped his hands behind his back and loped beside his smug roommate.
“Perhaps.” The ice prince was annoyingly unforthcoming. And still he grinned.
“Well, color me stunned! This makes three,” Mitsuru said aloud wonderingly.
“Three what?” The apparent non sequitur caught his friend’s attention and gave him pause. The two boys were nearing the gates of Greenwood Dormitory and its hundred-odd rooms. There were plenty of places for Mitsuru to duck into and hide and Shinobu was not about to let his roommate leave him hanging with that mysterious comment.
“Nothing,” the blonde responded in the same exact tone his companion had used not a few seconds earlier.
Before Shinobu could wrestle his thoughts out of him, Mitsuru abruptly changed the subject. “So, are you going home for the summer?”
Shinobu gave him a measuring look before moving on down the path. Mitsuru flushed. He didn’t know much about his roommate’s background beyond what the other boy had grudgingly revealed that year. All Mitsuru knew was that Shinobu held his family in scornful regard. Mitsuru never dared ask why. Sunny his disposition might be, but he had secrets of his own he was loath to give up. So Mitsuru respected Shinobu’s privacy as he expected Shinobu to respect his. Ah, juste-milieu!
“So, we’re both stuck at Greenwood! What kind of damage do you think we can cook up together?” Mitsuru’s eyes closed in mock swoon as he savored the thought of potential hijinks and thus missed the inexplicable look that flitted across Shinobu’s face at his words.
“What are you gonna do now?” Mitsuru surfaced from his mischievous musings and cocked his head at his friend. The dorm loomed tall in the horizon.
“Clean. Organize. Put away school clothes and air out civilian attire.”
“You are such a priss sometimes! It’s our first day of summer vacation, for crying out loud!”
“Well, what are your plans of outrageous derring-do?”
“Ah, I feel like running.”
“In this heat? You were complaining about it all day yesterday!” Shinobu was incredulous.
“But that was school heat,” Mitsuru began to explain patiently. “This is now vacation heat. And vacation heat demands a few good laps around the track. Gotta keep in shape, you know.” The boy patted his already-trim abs seriously.
Again, the inexplicable look. This time, Mitsuru caught it.
“What? What?! Why are you looking at me like that?” Do I have something on my face?” Mitsuru clutched at his cheeks and began to brush off imagined dirt.
“No, nothing.” Shinobu hastily averted his gaze and continued toward the gates of the dormitory. His friend rushed after him, still swiping at his face.
“Are you sure?”
“Vanity, thy name is Ikeda!” Shinobu intoned, amused and composed once more. “Yes, I’m sure. Go do your laps. I’ll come get you for dinner?”
“Hai. Hey, Shinobu?” Mitsuru called up at his friend as the ice prince mounted the front stoop. “What do you think of the new kid?”
Shinobu hesitated on his way up Greenwood’s steps. In the second it took to blink, the boy’s thoughts raced through the events of the previous day. When he had shaken Sakata’s hand. When neither boy had let go of the painful grip until Mitsuru had come to them with the rest of the class and slapped Sakata on the shoulder. When everyone had clustered around the boy and began chattering at him, asking him about America. When even Mitsuru had hung on every word that came out of the boy’s suddenly expressive lips as he waxed wistful over foreign-sounding places like Westwood and Melrose.
When the feeling of usurpation Shinobu had sensed as their eyes had locked for the first time came rising up like an angry tsunami and crashed all around him. Ryan Sakata. Shinobu’s mind let out an inarticulate growl.
Without turning around to look at his roommate, the silver-haired boy answered. “I try not to. Think about him, that is.” He was lying through his teeth.
And with this cryptic comment, Shinobu entered the cool confines of the dorm.