Derek spent the entire day focused on operation tale as old as time. He greeted Alejandra with the biggest hug he could before hanging out with her, Rafael, and Hazel in the morning. Once he went to class, he texted Evelyn a high five emoji, and the ball was in her court to talk to Alejandra while transitioning in the halls.

  Alejandra spoke when Derek talked to her, and Derek talked to her a lot. Mostly about nothing in particular, because he was getting her used to talking. As soon as she was back to a semblance of normal comfort level, he’d go for the harder topics. That was not today, though.

  He went through the day, focused on Alejandra, but not too focused that he noticed Nick was a bit out of it. Nick was doing that thing where he needed to be a part of things, but something was eating him. Lunch Nick was going out of his way to avoid certain topics, mostly home life. Despite the insane year they were having, Derek got the impression that something was bothering him at home.

  He high-fived Alejandra in the hall, who gave him a chagrined smile, which he would take. That girl was getting there. Nothing a little love and attention couldn’t fix.

  In drama, class was out on the stage. Tryouts for Beauty and the Beast had almost gotten unmanageable, so Mr. Jensen was picking out papers at random to let students try out in front of their peers. Since everyone who signed up for drama needed to try out, Mr. Jensen sacrificed a class day to it.

  Derek hardly sat down when Mr. Jensen pulled out the stack of papers.

  “Derek Perez!”

  He snorted, standing right back up again. “Yep.” At least it gave him zero time to get nervous. It was almost better this way. He stood up, smiling, remembering that it was too dark to actually see anyone.

  “Hello, my name is Derek Perez, and I’m trying out for Gaston.” Once again, Derek gave himself zero time to get nervous, not even to transition from his introduction to his monologue. One he picked that was just the right amount of misogynistic that matched Gaston perfectly. His goal, by the end of his five-minute monologue, was to convince everyone in the room that Derek was perfect for Gaston, and not the beast.

  Three lines in, Baily and Eric burst into laughter at the joke Derek made in his monologue. He could always count on them. Seven lines in, he had all his other peers. Twelve lines in, Mr. Jensen had a hand over his mouth to stifle his laugh. That laugh. The one that carried across the entire auditorium to where everyone knew exactly where he was sitting because he was laughing so hard. The kind he only stifled for tryouts because he needed to hear what was going on.

  Derek ended the monologue, and Mr. Jensen held up a page for the cold read, hand over his mouth. He ran through it, putting on his baritone, full of himself voice he’d been practicing all week in the mirror. It was the conversation between Gaston and Belle at her house, and he layered it on thick, the facial expressions, even pulling out his phone to kiss himself in the reflection. He had his entire class eating out of his palm. He lived for moments like this.

  He then ended with his song, a rendition of C’est Moi from Camelot. He bowed to cheers and applause before walking down to his seat. Jeff, Eric, and Baily all gave him high fives before Derek settled into his seat, glad that was over, smiling at how well that went.

  “James Franklin,” Mr. Jensen said.

  “Dammit, why? Why do I have to follow that?” James the freshman said as he got out of his seat.

  Derek chuckled, settling into his seat. The rest of the time was listening to everyone else try out, and Derek was just relieved his was done.

  The bell rang, and Derek was respectful enough to wait for one of the freshmen girls to finish before gathering up his stuff.

  He said bye to his friends, as a few of his classmates patted him on the back, chuckling. Derek tried not to imagine the part was his. Things were never so certain with try outs. What he was certain about, though, was that he convinced Mr. Jensen that the beast was not for him. He glanced over at Emma, and felt himself relax. Emma would not be hanging around him.

  “Derek?”

  He glanced over to see Nick leaning against the wall. Nick was by the theater room, which was a bit weird to see his friend so close to the stage.

  “Hey, Nick. What’s up?” Derek asked.

  The slight frown on Nick’s face made Derek lower his smile a bit. “Could… I ask a huge favor of you?”

  “Yeah. Of course. What’s going on?” Derek asked.

  Nick glanced around. “Wait, sorry. Tryouts? Do you need to stay for tryouts?”

  “Nope, just did mine, actually. I’m completely free for the rest of the night. Until CCNC, of course. Speaking of, you and Evelyn are good for Thursday, right?” Derek asked.

  “We’re good for Thursday. Evelyn’ll be there Friday,” Nick said.

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  “Perfect.”

  “Um… could you… follow me to my bank? Then drop me off at home?” Nick asked.

  Derek blinked. Of all the conversations that could have happened, he wasn’t expecting this one. “Yeah. Sure. Let me stop off by my locker, then I can drive you there.”

  “Thanks,” Nick muttered.

  Derek got out his textbook, answering Nick’s question about tryouts. Derek also reported that operation tale as old as time was going great, which made a genuine smile finally flicker across Nick’s face. He knew talks of Alejandra would lighten Nick’s mood.

  Once Derek had pulled into the parking lot of the bank, Nick promised him it wouldn’t take long. Derek scrolled on his phone, answering texts as his friend walked into the bank. Izzy was making final plans, as her finals were next week. Amanada was going to fly out to the east coast to pick up Izzy and spend a few days in Boston before traveling back. Izzy would then spend the rest of the Christmas holiday with them before going back for another semester. No doubt she’d need to thaw before facing those New England winters. If Tyler wasn’t already dating someone, he would have tried setting those two up again. Perhaps it was a foolish hope, but god, he wanted Tyler in his family.

  The door opened, and Nick slid into the side, holding an envelope.

  “Hey, how’d it go?” Derek asked, slipping his phone away.

  “Good. It went good.” Nick held the envelope, then glanced up at Derek. “There’s… one more huge favor I need to ask of you.”

  “Yeah, what is it?” Derek asked.

  There was a pause. The kind of pause that Derek was coming to dread. The kind that forced his mind to reach horrible conclusions. Nick contracting a brain eating parasite was one of them.

  Nick held up the envelope. “My dad checks my room occasionally, and… I can’t let him find this. It’s… all that’s left of my money. Can you hold it for me? Until April? I’m going to talk to my boss and see if he can write me a physical check that I can cash, to give to you every two weeks. For… safe keeping.”

  Derek stared at the envelope before taking it. “But… but you have over ten thousand dollars. Are you sure you trust me with…”

  The envelope did not feel like it contained over ten thousand dollars. It was extremely personal, and he feared offending Nick by doing this, but Derek flipped open the envelope to see about seven hundred dollars in there. He shot another look at Nick, who did not return his gaze.

  “What happened?”

  “My dad,” Nick said. “He took the rest of it. To pay for medical expenses. To pay for the car.”

  Derek’s mouth dropped open. There was a moment as Nick stared out the window that Derek thought of everything he could do to fix this.

  He took a breath to say Nick could stay with him, with his family as soon as he turned eighteen, but his family was moving to Phoenix in the summer. He sucked in another breath to assure Nick that he could be his and Tyler’s roommate at University of Arizona, but Nick never mentioned wanting college. He needed to stay here. Work full time at the bookstore. Get more money to recover.

  Except Walt took it all.

  Derek sucked in another breath to assure Nick he would willingly dig the hole to stuff Walt into once Nick killed him when Nick spoke a quiet plea. “Don’t tell anyone. Please. At least… not right now. Not Evelyn. I’ll… figure out something. Don’t worry about me. Just keep that safe. I… don’t want to worry Rafael or Alejandra. And… take what you need to pay for the tickets to the winter ball.”

  “God, Nick, no!” It surprised Derek how loud he screamed that. “I’m… no. I’m not taking any of your money. It’s on me. Both your tickets. God.”

  Derek glanced at the envelope. The envelope which should have been bulging. It was all the money Nick had left. It was Nick’s entire future, and he placed it in Derek’s hands.

  His hands shook at this sudden responsibility he did not feel like he could handle. Sure, Derek had never been irresponsible, but he had been an idiot. Nick placed an obscene amount of trust in him, and he couldn’t mess this up.

  “It’s fine. I trust you,” Nick said as though reading Derek’s thoughts.

  “Yeah. Yeah,” Derek finally managed to say. “I’ll… yeah.” He kept his gaze on his friend, who was busy picking at something on his knee. “So… no one? You want me to keep this silent from everyone?”

  “I mean, if your parents ask, you can tell them. I don’t want them thinking that you’ve started selling drugs or anything. But… you know,” Nick said.

  “Will do,” Derek said, placing the envelope on his lap, already thinking of a plan. “Will do.”

  Holy shit, Nick had an awful life. He knew this. He had seen glimpses of it, but Nick always held himself like he wasn’t a screaming mess. It’s what Derek would have been like if his parents were even remotely like Walt and Lydia.

  The drive was mostly silent, filled with Derek trying to think of something to say and Nick not looking at him. Derek, in a strange turn of events, found himself speechless.

  He was pulling into Nick’s driveway when his thoughts finally organized themselves.

  “You can’t do this alone,” Derek said.

  “I know.”

  “Don’t ask me to keep things a secret,” Derek said. “I suck at keeping things secret.”

  “I… know that too. Please not Evelyn. Let me break it to her. She needs to find out from me where the money came from for her car,” Nick said.

  “Then let me tell Tyler,” Derek said.

  “Tyler?”

  “He should know. He’s our game master, and responsible for us, in a way,” Derek said.

  Nick sighed. “Fine. No one else.”

  Derek nodded. “You get to tell Evelyn. And… whoever else you want to.” Nick unbuckled his seatbelt before getting out of the car. He still looked dejected, but a little relieved.

  “Hey, Nick? I don’t know what Walt is thinking, but he can’t get away with a shitty move like this,” Derek said.

  “Yeah. Alright,” Nick said.

  That alone shattered Derek’s heart to a thousand pieces. Nick was saying it to make Derek feel better, but he didn’t believe it. Walt had skirted around the law one too many times for Nick to believe him. Derek wasn’t sure himself, but he already had a few ideas in his head.

  Once he got home, he kissed his mom’s forehead, then entered his room and pulled out his phone and called Tyler. He was in his room, pacing the length of it when Tyler answered.

  “Hey, Derek.”

  “Hey. First of all, I’m swearing you to secrecy about what I’m about to say, because Nick told me in confidence and he doesn’t want anyone else to know. Second of all, Walt drained Nick’s bank account to pay for the car accident and medical expenses, and our friend now has seven hundred dollars left to his name from what I know was well over ten thousand, possibly even fifteen thousand, and he’s turning eighteen in April, and now he might not even have enough for rent, and god, I want to punch Walt in the face just like Evelyn did. Holy shit I hate that man.”

  There was silence on the other end of the phone. A silence Derek knew all too well. The kind of silence that made a person wonder if they really heard what they thought they just heard.

  “I’m sorry, Walt did WHAT?” Tyler shouted.

  Derek knew Tyler was the one to talk to. Honestly, if he couldn’t tell someone, he was going to explode.