“You don’t have to decide now,” I say quickly, before David can speak. “Maybe you should stay for a little while longer and see how you feel? You can always come home another day if you decide that’s what you want.”
“That’s a good idea,” Ethan says with relief. “It’s Saturday, and they always have french fries and milk shakes on Saturday nights.”
“We can get you fries and milk shakes,” David says. “If that’s all that’s keeping you here.”
I say, “Hey, Ethan, I need to talk to David out in the hallway for a second. Do you mind? We’ll be right back.”
“Why?” Ethan asks.
“Because he’s my boyfriend.”
“Oh. You probably want to kiss.”
“You’ll never know,” I say gaily. But I’m anything but cheerful once I’ve pulled David out of the room and far enough down the hallway so Ethan can’t hear us. “Stop it,” I say. “Just stop it.”
“Stop what?”
“You know what. You’re trying to make Ethan hate being here.”
“Why the hell would I do that?”
“I have no idea. I’ve been wondering the same thing.”
“You don’t know Ethan the way I do. He lets people push him around and take advantage of him. No one’s looking out for him here—”
“Are you kidding me? Sammy’s amazing—?he’s totally on top of everything. And people here seem really happy—?including Ethan. Or at least he was, until you started messing with his mind.”
“I wasn’t messing with his mind!” David shouts. It’s a good thing the dorm is empty right now. “I was just asking him questions and getting at the truth—?which is that a lot of things here suck!”
“A lot of things? Like what? That he’s on the top bunk? He didn’t even care about that until you made a big deal out of it. And, by the way, someone has to take the top bunk, David. That’s how bunk beds work.”
“It shouldn’t have to be Ethan!”
I throw my arms up in the air, frustrated. “It has to be somebody! So why not Ethan? Especially since he only just got here and the other boys already had beds?”
He turns away from me. “You’re wasting my time, and this is my only chance to see my brother. I wouldn’t have brought you if I’d known you were going to drag me away from him and second-guess me. If you don’t stop being such a pain—”
“Then what?” I step around so I can get in his face. “Then what? You going to break up with me? Tell me you wish I hadn’t come with you today? What are you going to do if I don’t agree with every single thing you say and do? Be nasty until you win and I lose?”
There’s a tense moment while we stand eye to eye, glaring at each other.
He breaks first. He closes his eyes briefly, takes a step back and puts his hands up. “I’m sorry.”
I’m not ready to relent. “You should be.”
“I know. Just . . . this is all hard for me. I’m worried. Imagine how you’d feel if it were Ivy.”
“If I hadn’t been doing that all along, I’d have ditched you an hour ago.”
That wins me a begrudging smile.
“Come on,” he says, flicking his chin toward Ethan’s room. “Let’s go back.”
“Promise you’ll stop trying to make everything seem bad?”
“If you’ll promise to forgive me for being a jerk.”
“Deal.”
We go back to the room and push the door open.
There’s been an explosion—?clothes are scattered all over the floor, and Ethan’s at the dresser dragging out more.
“What’s going on?” David halts in the doorway. I’m stuck behind him, looking over his shoulder.
“I’m changing drawers,” Ethan says. “It’s not fair that Ethan W gets the top ones, so I’m moving his clothes to my drawers and mine to his. I had to take everything out first. That’s the only way to do it.”
“You can’t just move his clothes,” I say. “You have to ask him first.”
“But it’s not fair! David said so.”
“Chloe’s right, though,” David says. “We have to discuss it with him and Sammy first.”
“You didn’t tell me that!” Ethan’s voice starts to rise. “I didn’t know. Am I going to get in trouble?”
“No,” I say. “We’re going to help you put the clothes back the way they were. Which are yours, and which are the other Ethan’s?”
He stares at the piles. “I’m not sure anymore,” he says unhappily.
“We can figure it out,” David says. He kneels down. “I recognize these tops.”
I flip through some pants. “These have name tags that say Ethan Wilson.”
“They probably belong to the other Ethan, then,” Ethan says, calming down a little.
“Odds are good,” I agree gravely.
We manage to get the clothing back in the drawers—?maybe not with a hundred percent accuracy, but close enough.
“If he wants to keep the top drawers, it’s okay,” Ethan says when we’re done. He was pretty stressed during the process, but now that the clothing’s all back and the drawers are closed, he’s doing better. “I don’t really care.”
David avoids my glance, but to his credit, he looks a little ashamed of himself. And he doesn’t argue.
Thirty-Eight
WE LEAVE THE DORM, and Ethan shows us the gym, where he proudly informs us that in one month he’s already doubled the weight he can curl, then the community room, which has an enormous flat-screen TV and a bunch of pinball and video games, then the computer room, and then his little corner patch of their big community garden, where he’s growing lettuce and beets.
“But you don’t eat vegetables,” David says.
“Sammy says food tastes better when you grow it yourself.”
“It’s true,” I say. David rolls his eyes and makes a snorting sound. “It is,” I insist. “I once had a tomato plant, and I hate tomatoes, but I ate the one little tomato I succeeded in growing, and it was delicious. Then the plant died.”
“I didn’t want to grow tomatoes,” Ethan says.
“I don’t blame you. It only leads to heartbreak.” There’s a loud clanging sound. I look around. “What is that?”