The Felix Chronicles: Freshmen (67 page)

“She can keep him,” Harper said acidly.

“What’s up with you?” Lucas put his phone away, casting a curious glance at Harper.

“Nothing,” Harper answered stiffly. “Just guys doin’ what guys do best. Why should I be surprised?”

“Huh?” Lucas said.

Caitlin got his attention with a frantic head shake, bulging her eyes warningly at him, drawing her hand back and forth across her neck—the universal sign for ‘kill whatever it is you’re about to say’.

Lucas stared at her, bewildered.

Harper seemed oblivious to their pathetic attempts at silent communication. “I’m so over all this,” she said softly. “I need some serious
me
time. I’m just so sick of this happening every goddamn time I… shit. Whatever. Maybe I just won’t come back next semester.”

“Someone’s being dramatic,” Lucas replied with a grin. “And I’m the actor.”

“You’re not an actor,” Caitlin told him as she looked over her itinerary. “Daniel Day-Lewis is an actor. Denzel Washington is an actor. You’re just an idiot pretending to be even more idiotic than you really are.”

Lucas laughed at her. “That’s seriously hurtful. And you know I was shooting for an Emmy this year.” He turned to Harper. “I don’t think Felix is just any guy, by the way.”

“What are you talking about?” Harper said testily. “There’s nothing going on between me and—”

“That’s not what I mean,” Lucas broke in. “I think there’s something going on with
him
. Something really strange.”

“Like what?” Caitlin folded the itinerary in half and stuffed it into a checkerboard-patterned Louis Vuitton wallet.

There was a burst of shouting out in the hallway. Most of the dorm’s residents were clearing out today. The mass exodus was creating chaos on every floor, move-in day flipped on its head, like a series of digital photos scrolled through in reverse order. Lucas looked over at the door, stroking the whiskers in the goatee he’d been growing, mainly because Caitlin despised it. With a thoughtful expression on his face, he stood up and started pacing around the room. Harper and Caitlin watched him from their seats, appearing both puzzled and bored.

“You guys remember when Felix woke up thinking Allison was dead or kidnapped, or whatever it was?” Lucas began. “He ran around the dorm naked and crashed your room. Remember that?”

“At what point do you think we suffered brain damage?” Caitlin said. “Of course we remember. But he wasn’t naked. He had his underwear on. You’re such an exaggerator.”

“Pizza and beers,” Harper added. “That was the thing with the skis at that woman’s house in no-man’s-land, right? But he just went out with Allison and drank too much and had a bad dream.”

“Sure he did,” Lucas said, his voice clotting with skepticism. “Then there was the fire in your old room”—he nodded at Caitlin—“the night you were out. Felix wasn’t in my room that night. I was hooking up with some supermodel. I forgot which one. There’s been so many.”

“You mean
Piper
?” Caitlin said with an eye roll and a theatrical frown. “I didn’t know they were signing up little albinos to be supermodels.”

Lucas grinned at Caitlin as if she was the most amusing person in the world before continuing. “Felix said he slept on a couch in the common room. But who knows? Maybe he was in Allison’s room. It’s possible, right?”

Harper frowned, staring down vacantly at her fingernails.

Lucas reached over Caitlin’s shoulder and snatched up a pen from her desk. “And if he was in Allison’s room, maybe he had something to do with the fire.”

“You think Felix is a pyro?” Caitlin asked incredulously, reaching back for the pen, but Lucas was on the move again. “You’re such an idiot.”

Lucas rolled the pen over one finger and under the next, twirling it from thumb to pinkie and back again. “Maybe I am. But wait until I’m done before you write me off as an idiot.”

“Whatever makes you feel better about yourself,” Caitlin said curtly.

“Then there’s the nightmares,” Lucas pressed on, ignoring Caitlin’s barbs. “The only good thing about Felix’s disappearing act is that I actually got some sleep this week.”

“Yeah, but the dreams have gotta have something to do with his parents,” Harper said, scooting her suitcase back and forth across the floor in front of her. When no one responded, she looked over at Caitlin, waiting for her confirmation.

“Makes sense,” Caitlin said with a little shrug.

 “I don’t think so.” Lucas gave them an adamant shake of his head as he stepped toward the door. “He won’t talk about his parents with me. But that’s not what’s goin’ on.”

“I don’t know,” Harper said. “I talked to him about his parents once and it made him really uncomfortable. He’s got some serious issues with the whole thing.”

“Of course he does,” Caitlin replied. “Who wouldn’t? It’s tragic. I feel so bad for him.”

“But that’s not it,” Lucas insisted. “I’m telling you, it’s got nothing to do with his parents. And get this—he’s also been out a few times late at night and he won’t say what he’s doing. We’d all get back from the library at eleven or whatever and then he’d leave the dorm. He’d come back around two or three. And one time, he smelled like smoke.”

“Maybe he smokes?” Caitlin quipped.

“No he doesn’t.” Lucas made a face at Caitlin that left no doubt he thought she was being a moron. “And it wasn’t cigarette smoke. It was like smoke from a fire—an
actual
fire. And with the fire in your old room”—he pointed the pen at Caitlin—“who knows? Right?”

Harper fiddled with the nametag on her suitcase, wrinkling her forehead. “That’s kinda weird.”

“There’s more.” Lucas checked his hair in the wall mirror next to Allison’s closet. “You have to admit it’s strange that he just left school without saying a word to anyone. He didn’t take anything with him either. It was like he was running from something.”

Caitlin nodded slowly. “That’s true.”

“And even weirder”—he tossed the pen in the air; it flipped end over end, reached its zenith, stopped, then fell, landing softly in his fingers—“is what I think happened to the Faceman.”

“The Faceman?”
Harper said, her eyes snapping wide in surprise.

“Yeah. Don’t you remember?” Lucas crossed the room again and sat on the edge of Allison’s desk, resting his feet on her chair. “On the day the Faceman was killed, Felix thought
I
was dead. He thought somebody had killed me. He was running around all crazy. And when he saw I was alive, he gave me a pretty serious bro-hug. And he bled all over me, remember?”

“The homeless guy hit him in the nose,” Caitlin said.

“Sure,” Lucas snorted. “A random homeless guy attacked him with a tennis racket and told him I was dead.
That couldn’t have happened.
That just can’t be true, right? Don’t you think that’s bullshit? It’s gotta be.”

“It doesn’t really add up when you put it like that,” Harper said thoughtfully. “Especially when he thought Allison was dead at the start of the year. Why does he keep thinking everyone’s dying?”

“Good question.” Lucas nodded at Harper. “I called him out on it too. I told him I thought he killed the Faceman, and that the Faceman broke his nose.”

“That’s absurd!” Caitlin snickered. Then she paused, her eyebrows knitting together. “So um… what’d he say?”

“He laughed at me and made a joke of it. Said I was crazy. But you know what’s really crazy? Am I the only one who thinks it’s odd that his nose healed in like four hours?”

“I don’t know.” Harper got up from Caitlin’s bed and stretched. Her clothes were form-fitting and stretchy—travel attire—and she was wearing her favorite pair of brown boots; one of them was sagging a little so she bent over and pulled up on it, tugging it back into place. “He said it was just a bloody nose.”

“Seriously?”
Lucas said. “And you believe that? You saw it. It was huge and all busted up.”

“It did look pretty bad,” Caitlin agreed.

“So what are you saying?” Harper asked with skeptical shake of her head. “Felix has a magic nose? Felix killed the Faceman? Please. How could he have killed the Faceman? The pictures I saw online were disgusting. The Faceman’s head was all… gross.” She made a squinchy face and shivered.

Lucas slid off the desk and settled into the chair. “I don’t know what’s going on with Felix. But it’s
something
. And it’s something big. And you know what we’re going to do next semester?”

Harper and Caitlin looked at him blankly.

“You guys can’t be that dense.” Lucas let out a heavy sigh and rolled his eyes. “We’re gonna find out.”

“Oh,” Harper muttered.

“Whatever you say,” Caitlin said, her voice going high with feigned enthusiasm. “When we get back, we’ll uncover the great conspiracy behind Felix the serial-killer-slaying-boy-with-the-magic-nose. Now can I write you off as an idiot?”

“I don’t know,” Harper said to Caitlin, apparently reconsidering Lucas’s suspicions. “Maybe he’s right. Maybe he’s on to something.” She turned to Lucas, pulling on her ponytail. “Do you think… um… you think Allison’s…
involved?”

“No question,” Lucas said quickly.

Caitlin glanced over at the clock beside her bed. “We should get going. The cab’s probably here.”

“Wait a sec!” Harper shouted suddenly. “Shit! I totally forgot to sign up for English next semester.”

“You what?”
Caitlin said.

“Dammit!” Harper checked her watch. “Professor Weems makes you meet with her in person if you’re going to take her class. I really like her and she’s the easiest grader in the department. She said she’d keep office hours until noon today. I gotta go talk to her.”

“We have a flight in two hours,” Caitlin reminded her, sounding tense.

“I’ll be there.” Harper picked up the leather coat draped across the top of her suitcase. “I’ve got the number for the taxi company. You guys go ahead and I’ll meet you there. It’ll just take me a few minutes.”

“We’ll wait for you,” Caitlin offered.

“The taxi’s already here,” Harper said. “And Lucas has an earlier flight.”

Caitlin frowned. “Okay, but you better not be late. You know I don’t like to fly by myself.”

“I’ll be there.” Harper slipped into her jacket and started toward the door, pulling her suitcases behind her. Then she stopped and turned around. “I almost forgot. I guess this is it, Lucas. I can’t believe the semester’s over. It went by so fast.”

“We’ll be back before you know it,” Lucas replied lightly. “But if you feel like you’re missing me during the break, all you have to do is check out my website. There’s a picture of me with my shirt off looking awesome and ripped and drinking some ice cold Super-Six-Pack-Power-Protein-Plus.”

“You’re drinking that cat piss on your website?” Harper said, smiling.

“It’s actually just water, but don’t tell anyone.”

“Why do I have to share a taxi with this animal?” Caitlin said, sighing at him. “Do you have any idea how much I’m looking forward to not seeing you for a whole month?”

“How can you still be hungry?” Allison said to Felix as they entered the 7-Eleven on Cove Rock’s main commercial strip. “You just ate a six-egg omelet and a pig plate.”

“It wasn’t a
pig plate
. It was the pound-o-pork-platter. And I think I may have gone without food for almost a week. So cut me some slack.”

“Can you grab me a water?” Allison asked as she sidled over to the magazine racks next to the registers.

Felix made his way to the snacks aisle and perused the shelves, trying to decide if he was in the mood for sweet or salty. He wasn’t in any hurry. They’d gotten up just after sunrise and had breakfast at his favorite Cove Rock diner. It was still early. Bill would get his swanky SUV back before noon.

Felix had actually managed to get some sleep last night (dreamless sleep) and other than his bottomless appetite there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with him—physically at least. But as soon as he woke up, the promise he’d made to Allison started weighing on him and a new emotion—regret—crawled into his gut, nesting like a territorial animal. Allison would never understand the darkness eating away at his insides. For the rest of his life, every single day would be an endless battle to lock away the memory of killing his parents to the depths of his consciousness, to some place deep below the surface. And like a poisonous snake hiding in the cool shade of a rock, it would lay there in silence, lurking, waiting for the opportunity to slither out from under to torment his mind and threaten his sanity.

Even if he somehow found the strength to cope with the insatiable guilt, he could never forget the terrible images or erase them from his mind. Allison wanted him to save the world from Lofton. But Felix didn’t know if he could save himself. At least in that regard, for the first time, he now felt a connection with his real mom. He understood what it was like for her to live with the knowledge of killing her friend. He understood how she must have longed to escape those feelings. He didn’t blame her for deciding that death was the only real escape; he could relate. Yes—he’d made a promise to Allison. He would keep that promise. But only for today. He couldn’t promise her next month, next week or even tomorrow. Today was the best he could do.

As Felix checked out the dizzying selection of artery cloggers, a woman with short blonde hair passed by his aisle, shooting him a discreet sideways glance. She breezed by so swiftly he nearly missed her. Going with salty, Felix reached for a jar of honey roasted peanuts. Then he froze, stopping in mid-motion.

The blonde woman had a sawtooth scar on her cheek.

He blinked, and a memory—a picture—formed in his mind, an image of a woman with blood flowing from her nose. It ran down her face in sheets, yet she appeared unconcerned, her eyes focused and calculating. And on her cheek—her right cheek—was a scar shaped like a high voltage warning.

No way,
Felix thought, shaking the memory from his head. That couldn’t have been, could it? He plucked the jar from the shelf and ambled down the aisle, trying to appear relaxed, pretending to look for chips. He took a moment to steady his breathing, then stole a glance at the security mirror in the corner, high up on the wall near the ceiling.