Page 87 of Good Losers (Lochkelvin Academy)

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“So who did I hear it from?”

He shrugs. “I dunno. Maybe drunk me. That me’s a different beast, aye? Anyway,” he says, brushing himself down, “the thing that ties everything together wi’ Danny is that he used tae be a chief.”

I’ve known this since last night and it’s still crazy to think about. Danny. My Danny. Achief. I just can’t picture it. Danny and Rory have been at each other’s throats, are so wrapped in venom and loathing for the other, that the idea of Danny ever being a loyal warrior at Rory’s side seems downright impossible.

“And?”

“And…” Finlay sighs, pursing his lips. He’s doing it again, holding back, glancing away, looking like he’d rather be doing anything but explaining this to me. “Ye remember I was talkin’ about cheerleaders?” When I nod, Finlay runs a hand through his hair and explains, “Well, Danny’s an ex-cheerleader.”

I frown. Maybe it could work, at a push — a very, very firm push. Danny’s all about stories of superheroes and knights. Perhaps once upon a time, he considered Rory a person worthy of protection.

Because I see it in him: I see from the way Danny collects back issues of comics, the same way Rory collects one single book like it’s his hobby, his compulsion. I see how the two of them may have bonded, might once have been friends.

I see how they still could be.

But even then, I can’t imagine Danny ever being Rory’s knight in shining armor. I can’t imagine something so noble and heroic, or the two of them working together onanything.

“He wasnae just a chief, really,” Finlay mutters. “He was Rory’s best pal, his closest pal, even tighter than me and Rory. This was back in Glenbroath, by the way. Primary school. Like, we’re talkin’ years ago, sassenach. Back then, Danny wasnae just a chief. He was lead gremlin.”

“What?”

“He used tae control the kids who followed Rory around. He’d bully anyone who spoke oot o’ turn against Rory, which is the kinda thing Rory likes. Maybe Rory came tae his senses or somethin’… but everything changed the moment we went tae Lochkelvin. Luke had enrolled and Luke wascool. He was royal — well, back then he still kinda was. He didnae need Rory. He didnae need the chiefs. So obviously Rory went after him.”

This… Yeah, this I can see. I can see Rory heel-turning on Danny because the shiny new royal had arrived. It has a hint of Oscar Munro about it, and I can’t help but shake the idea that Rory had been tasked to make friends with Luke by his dad.

“Shit started gettin’ real between Danny and Rory. Rory ditched him — it wasnae a gradual process, either. One day he was hanging oot wi’ us, the next he was replaced by Luke.”

“But why?”

Finlay toys with the laces of his Docs. “Dinnae tell anyone I said this. I dinnae even know if it’s true. But I heard later —yearslater — that there’d been some kind of… y’know…” He pauses, looking awkward.

I raise a brow, waiting.

“Apparently, Danny had made… some kind o’ move.” When I frown at Finlay, he gesticulates wildly. “Kissed him — on the cheek or something, I dinnae know. But whatever it was was enough tae freak Rory the fuck oot and get Danny chucked for good.”

I stare at Finlay but there’s no hint of a lie on his face. I’m stunned. It feels like my brain is overloading. Threads and connections going back years, a myriad of tangles and knots to unravel, and all of them entwined around Rory. The years of bullying and taunts and ostracization Danny faced from the chiefs before I came along, all because of one kiss on the cheek.

“I didn’t realize,” I eventually mumble, “how gay you had to be to become a chief.”

At this, Finlay bursts out laughing, full-bodied and rich. “We’re no’ really,” he denies, before I can say anything, “I’m no’ gay. Rory definitely isnae. And Danny — well, I’ve seen the way he looks at ye, sassenach. It’s no’ about bein’gay. It’s about…” He pauses, still fiddling with the black laces of his boots. “It’s about loyalty tae Rory. And Rory is, as I’m sure ye’re well aware, kind o’ magic like that.”

Iamwell aware. It’s a rare moment when my head’s not filled with Rory Munro. He has a dickish way about it, but he inspires abnormal levels of support. And it makes sense, in a way. Musketeers and chiefs. Protecting Rory, loving Rory, someone whose supply of love had been cut so short after the death of his mother. Ever since he was a child, he’s been crying out for someone to love him back.

So naturally he made a group of many someones.

“Anyway, whit I mean tae say is: ye’re mair Rory’s type than a straight-laced Christian lad fae the North Coast.”

I nod though my heart breaks for them. For tiny Rory and tiny Danny. Danny giving him his kiss, showing him heart. Love — the one thing Rory craves more than anything, and it’s rebuffed, rejected, because of course it is. Of course Rory can’t see what he actually needs when Danny does. And Danny, the son of the school minister, is shunned, brushed aside for the hot new prince.

“And you?” I ask, because it’s another piece of the chief’s puzzle I need to know. “Because I have eyes. And Rory… You fought with me over abedroom.”

“I was drunk,” Finlay mutters, rubbing his eyes like he doesn’t want to relive it. “I telt ye, drunk me is a different me. And never in a million years would I want ye tae leave, sassenach. Never. I just… Ye have tae understand. You like Rory and I like Rory and Danny liked Rory, and all o’ that is by design. No matter whit he says, Rory selects his cheerleaders carefully. We pledge oor allegiance tae Rory. We pledge oor…love.” There’s a wry twist to his words. In a tone so ironic it’s clearly the truth, he adds, “And no matter who I’m gettin’ aff wi’, the only labels that matter are the ones on my homemade jams.”

My brows furrow. I don’t really understand but I feel consoled in a way. I can’t help it. These boys — there’s so much history between them, bitter pride-filled bickering shared among them, but at the heart of it all they stick up for each other. And I’m so new, an intruder to their world…

“Besides,” Finlay adds in a breezy tone, “it isnae any wonder half o’ us ended up getting aff wi’ each other when we’ve had literally nae girls in oor lives till recently. When you came in, I swear the world stopped turnin’. Ye flipped the script, sassenach.”

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