Page 109 of Spearcrest Knight

“Oh, um, good luck to you too.”

He nods and then leaves, his presence lingering after he’s gone like the last caress of heat after the sun goes down.

“Heisworried.”

Zachary’s voice surprises me. I turn to look at him. “Pardon?”

“Heisworried. About exams. Especially Lit, like he said. He’s been coming with me to the library every evening to revise.”

“I don’t understand how anybody at this point of the school year can look like him,” I say, completely truthfully. “He looks the exact opposite of how I feel.”

“That’s just how he is,” Zachary says with a sigh. “Must be some strong genetics at play there. But just because he looks like this doesn’t mean he’s not stressed and worried and sad like the rest of us mere mortals.”

I stare at Zachary. He’s not looking at me; he’s unpacking his books and folders, laying them neatly in front of me.

His words remind me of Evan in his big house during the Christmas holiday, ambling around in his undecorated house, bored and aimless and alone. It sends an uncomfortable twinge of something guilt-like through me.

I drop my gaze to the cover of my notebook and mumble, “I didn’t think he cared about Lit.”

Zachary laughs, cold and mirthless. “Well, he wants to do well in the exams, but it’s not exactly Lit he cares about, is it?”

“What do you mean?”

Zachary looks up at me, raises an eyebrow, and then sits back in his chair, crossing his arms.

“It’s you, okay? It’s you he cares about, it’s you he’s stressed and worried and sad about. It’s always been you. He’s liked you for the longest time, pretty much never stopped. Even when he was dating other girls, it was always you he was thinking and talking about. It was quite irksome, actually.”

I’m almost numb with shock and disturbed by hearing this come out of Zachary’s mouth, of all people. My words coagulate on my tongue, thick like tar. In the end, I can’t say anything other than, “What?”

Zachary shrugs. “I don’t even know if he knows it, but he’s liked you since you guys were friends.”

“He never said anything,” I say, my voice so low it’s almost a whisper.

“Well, no. You’re rather intimidating, as far as girls go, and I’m pretty sure he was too thick back then to realise he liked you. He’s worked hard ever since to get over you, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. But I suppose it was always a matter of time until his obsession won out.”

I’m too shocked to say anything, and Zachary gives me a level look and adds, “Still, none of this makes up for the way he treated you, so you're right to reject him. It’s just been annoying me that you didn't know. But now you know, and we can move on.”

I nod, absent-mindedly taking the essay he hands me.

And even though we spend the next two hours working, when I leave the session it’s not Austen and literary analysis my mind is full of.

34

Interception

Sophie

NeartheendofMarch, Zachary and I agree to cancel our sessions for a couple of weeks since we both have mock exams, so I’m a little surprised when he walks up to me outside the exam hall after our Lit exam.

“Is this your last exam?” he asks.

We’ve never really had a proper conversation outside the context of our tutoring sessions. I answer with a slight frown. “No, I have Maths tomorrow.”

He nods. “No exams Friday, then?”

“No.”

“There’s a post-exam party on Thursday night in the old building behind the Arboretum. Everyone’s going before we break up for half-term. You should come.”

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