Chapter Thirty
“I’M NOT sure if I’m remembering it right as you’d only just told me about the investigation, but I’m not sure if it was Nolan’s name on the essays in his backpack. I could be wrong and I don’t know if it was this Al Greela bloke you found letters from,” Lila said on the Monday lunchtime after the half-term holiday and the family visit from hell. They were in the canteen so she spoke quietly and they all leaned towards each other in a huddle. It probably wasn’t actually necessary to be quite so careful not to be overheard, but the idea that they were discussing something dangerously secret was fun. “Did anyone else notice anything?”
“I just looked at the grades,” Elliot said. Their investigation into Eva’s problems with Nolan seemed a lifetime ago and seemed a lot less important to him than the whole Izient issue, but they had made a promise to help Eva, so it was only fair to see this through. He remembered that he had been afraid they would be caught with Nolan’s bag so he’d only glanced at the marks which had stood out as they were written in red. He glanced at Farlden, trying to detect any sign that he was secretly crazy about Lila, but just saw the usual frown.
At least his friendship with Farlden and Barve was back to normal again. Like Farlden, Barve had apologised about not telling Elliot the truth about the Izients but added that he had known as soon as he’d met Elliot that they would one day tell him everything. Elliot finally felt able to get over what had happened, although he was still hopelessly confused about the Izients.
Elliot had phoned Callie, as he had promised, before returning and she didn’t seem as if she held any grudge against him for vanishing for a week without a word.
“I just remember Elliot mentioning the grades – I didn’t really look at them,” Barve was saying, returning Elliot’s attention to the conversation, “but why would he write someone else’s essays?”
“Perhaps someone is paying him or blackmailing him to do their work,” Elliot suggested, although Nolan didn’t give the impression of being a secret genius. Wouldn’t there be better students to approach for that?
“It wouldn’t explain the letters sent to his house,” Callie reminded him.
“I doubt the records of who attends each course are private,” Barve said. “We could look at the lists and see if this Al person is registered.”
Elliot got out his laptop and switched it on. His mobile sounded as he pressed the internet icon. He glanced at it said, “Eva,” and passed the laptop to Farlden, who began typing in the search engine.
He answered the call and Eva said, “The boys in Nolan’s house said he’s getting mail from a boy who dropped out of university, whose parents don’t yet know about it, but he never said a word to me about it and I’ve never heard of Al Greela before. The whole thing sounds bizarre to me.”
“We’re checking into it now,” Elliot told her.
“If he’s doing something illegal, will you promise to tell me before reporting him?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Thanks.” Her calm tone changed to hurt as she added, “He said he had to spend the whole of half-term with his family and we didn’t see each other once, but I don’t know if that was the truth or if he was doing something else entirely.” Before Elliot could think of a way to respond to this Eva hung up, so he put his mobile away and looked over Farlden’s shoulder. “Those lists are just public?”
“We used my mum’s admin password,” Lila said. “It’s fine.”
“He’s not there.” Farlden sounded confused.
“Al Greela?”
“Nolan. He’s not registered for the course he’s meant to be doing. I’ll keep checking for Al.” The others leaned in behind him, reading through the lists with him.
“There!” Callie said, pointing at the screen. “Al Greela.”
“That’s a History lecture,” Farlden said. “I’ll check other History courses.”
He brought them up and, again and again, Al Greela’s name came up.
Farlden pushed away the laptop and they all sat back in a huddle, identical frowns on their faces. Elliot said, “So Nolan’s not registered to attend any university courses but Al Greela, the teenager who supposedly dropped out of university, is registered?”
“Perhaps Nolan failed his first year and re-applied under a different name to get a second chance,” Barve suggested, grimacing in a way that suggested he knew how far-fetched the idea sounded.
“If the degree wasn’t in his name, what good would it do him?” Farlden said.
“And, in any case, why would he swap to studying a completely different subject than he did last year?” Elliot said. “None of this makes sense. Perhaps we should just tell Eva what we’ve found and let her confront him for an explanation.”
“That sounds a bit dangerous for her if he is doing something illegal,” Elliot said. He felt sorry for Eva and was beginning to think that the more they uncovered about Nolan, the more she was going to get hurt.
“I agree,” Lila said, “and I want us to find out the truth for ourselves.”
“We could try reading his mind once more,” Farlden suggested and Elliot straightened as he looked at him. “If we focused on his first lecture of this year, we might get answers about Al.”
“Okay,” Elliot said at once. He glanced at his watch and saw that it was only five minutes until his afternoon lecture. “It’s too late to do anything today. Let’s try to get him alone tomorrow.”
Farlden watched him pack away his laptop, saying, “Yeah, sure.”
He grabbed his coat, bag and a course book.
“I’ll walk you to your lecture,” Barve said to him, picking up his own belongings.
Wondering what Barve wanted to say without the others hearing, Elliot nodded. “Before we go, I just wanted to tell you and Farlden that my mum actually apologised for the scene when you met. She said she reacted out of shock and was embarrassed to have been so unkind to someone I liked.”
“That’s weird,” Farlden said, clearly not believing the change of heart.
“Well, I don’t think she’s changed her opinion of Neans overnight but if she’s willing to say sorry then at least it’s a start. Even if she’s just being more open minded for my sake, she might realise she’s wrong about your people in time.”
Farlden shrugged, expression unreadable. “I guess.”
* * *
This was it. They were in a corridor full of students but, if Barve lost the nerve to speak now, he would never know if he and Elliot had a chance. He opened his mouth to speak, hesitated and closed it again. As long as he didn’t say anything, he could imagine that they could date and be in love and have an amazing future together.
He thought through every occasion that he had spent time with Elliot and tried to remember any hint that Elliot might be attracted to him. He couldn’t come up with anything. Maybe he was better off not speaking: the loss of all hope would be horrible.
“This is my room,” Elliot said, at a door. A couple of students passed them, going inside. “What was it you wanted to say?”
Perhaps he should just walk away. What would Farlden do in this situation? “I like you,” he blurted out and then winced a bit. “I mean, as more than a friend. W-would you go on a date with me?”
As soon as he saw Elliot’s expression, he knew the answer and all the dreams he’d had about them back to fall apart. “I’m really sorry, Barve. I just don’t think of you in a romantic way.”
He backed away a couple of steps and tried to smile. “I thought not. I just... hoped.”
“I’m so sorry. I think the world of you and you’re one of my best friends.” Elliot put a hand on his arm, a gesture of comfort, when he was the one breaking Barve’s heart. It wasn’t his fault, though. Barve knew that even though, in this minute, he hated Elliot a bit for not caring enough.
“You’d better go – your lecture’s starting.”
“I’ll see you later.” There was a slight question in the words.
“Maybe.” Barve turned and walked away from him, hardly noticing where he was going and certainly not bothered about it. He had always known deep down that Elliot was out of his league but they still could have been happy if only... But Elliot didn’t love him.
Barve left the campus, heading back to the halls of residence where he could be alone. No one could take away this sick feeling of failure and loss and he couldn’t imagine ever feeling good again.