Silent Hearts, Golden Lies

eded on a Tuesday morning was

cafeteria at lunch. Kobe was the kind of person who stated observations like they were fac

een thi

bo

d up his for

t smiled easily but missed nothing. He'd been Julian's best friend since year nine and he had

new girl,"

it's n

ent in chemistry and then stared

dn't

ther. Friend

p a full conductivity kit. Glass. On a til

se did," Kob

four other people see her reach for it. And not one of them moved. They just watched, some of them

fore he'd tho

e he was fourteen. You don't calculate, Reed. You read the situation a

t he'd seen in those three sec

arned to stand in the middle of a storm without flinching. Like someone who had been thr

d him more t

he asked, keeping

eyebrows. "Oh, no

get

been trying to get your attention for two years and the one you're as

dn't say

aused.

she'd looked at the teacher during class without raising her hand, not because she didn't know the answer, he'd watched her write the correct equation a

t. Then, "Chloe's going to

ecause Kobe was right

half-hearted, because he also knew Julian well en

getting i

ly just aske

. Asking questions

said sure, buddy without

ide and glanced toward th

ands and was scanning the room with the careful, practiced expression of someone mapping exits. Her blazer

er seat, back to the room. She sat alone,

of chairs. A group of boys three tables over started a drumbeat on the tabl

book like she w

ng somewhere else while he

looke

Kobe said

doing a

e your f

t have

. The face you made before you carried Dami's bag to the hospital when he sprained his ankle. That face."

up, picking

to training

lia

ou at pract

counter. And he did not look at t

made it to

mo

high-pitched sound of a chair scraping back too fast, an

s voice, dripping with fake conce

an t

ting very still, and Mila was standing over her with an empty water b

hing openly. Some were filming. Sophie was covering

n't look up. Her hands

one breath. Then another

'd been invited. She leaned forward on her elbows and spoke quietly enough th

dly. "St. Jude's has a balance. Everyone knows their place here. Even the

. Her eyes were fixed

right. You can't." She stood, smoo

y. Mila and So

lowly turned back t

er, book on the floor, completel

d at the ca

training. He should listen to l

icked up her book from the floor, and placed i

sharply, like

t relief. More complicated than that. Like she couldn't deci

held he

thing that surpr

his pocket, a clean one, and

rned and w

ehind him before he eve

you. Tha