Elvis’s Jailhouse Rock pounded from Suzy’s room into the hall. Wesley spun and tandem stepped with Suzy in time to the beat. They stopped mid-step to emphasize a musical pause and then completed their swing. “We need to hit Glitter again,” she said on the tail end of a laugh.

“New Year’s?” Wesley tossed out. Glitter would have all the rock ’n’ roll classics playing. Why not?

“You gonna crash at my place after?”

The music died, and MacDonald poked her head out of the room. “My parents will be losing cash in Vegas again. You can all stay at my place.”

Wesley’s ears bugged. “Did you just invite us to spend time with you?”

“This place is locked up over Christmas,” MacDonald said. “I’ll be bored with nobody to pick on.”

“Better make sure your brother tags along,” Suzy said as she disappeared into her room to study.

A cloud of grumpiness had students fleeing the hall as Lloyd trudged through the stairwell door. Lloyd was the reason Wesley had been loitering in the hall to begin with.

Lloyd’s gaze snagged on him, and Wesley met him halfway. “Gavin wants to speak to you,” Wesley said.

A grunt. “Just what I wanted to hear after an intense five-hour study session.”

“He needs to speak to you.”

“If you see him, tell him I’ll have my door open during RA hours.”

Wesley followed Lloyd into the communal kitchen. “You know how impatient Gavin is.”

Lloyd grabbed a mug and snatched the instant coffee. “What does he want now?”

Wesley glared at the instant coffee, affronted. “I start work in fifteen minutes.” He wrestled the glass jar away from Lloyd. In the struggle, Wesley ended up jammed between Lloyd and the counter. “You can wait that long.”

Their lengths meshed as Lloyd reached for the jar Wesley held up high behind him. Lloyd’s brow creased in frustration. “Maybe today I’m tired of waiting.”

“Come on, Cap. You know you can hold out.”

“Just a small drink.”

“Hmm, no. By the time we finish this argument, it’ll be time to start my shift. I’ll make your favorite roast.”

“You sure know how to tempt me.”

“I try.”

Lloyd peeled himself away from Wesley. “Better make it a large. I’ll need it to face Gavin.”

“I’m pretty sure he’s here to finalize a date for the Open Week party. Though, fair warning, he was carrying around his leather binder.”

Lloyd grumbled. “Maybe I should leave a note on my door. All resident emergencies can find me at Me Gusta Robusta.”

“Gonna hide behind me?”

“No,” Lloyd said, walking toward his room. “I will sit at the coffee bar and point to the No RA business allowed on premises sign when he comes in.”

Wesley padded down the hall next to him, smirking.

Lloyd continued, “I’m a good RA with enough grump to strike the right amount of fear into my residents. Gavin doesn’t scare me.”

“Right,” Wesley said as Lloyd opened his door.

Lloyd gave a startled bark.

Gavin was sitting on his desk chair, leather binder spread open on his knees to a glittery page. “About time.”

Wesley grinned widely when Lloyd, stiff in the doorway, turned a fiery gaze on him. “You knew he was in here.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Why didn’t you say that from the beginning?”

“I warned you how impatient he was.”

Lloyd huffed, the glint in his eye telling Wesley he’d pay later for this joke. He turned to Gavin. “How did you even get in here?”

Gavin waved a key. “In case an RA loses their room key.”

“Now I have to worry about you popping up in my room at any hour.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem. Unless you’re hiding something?” Gavin’s gaze flickered to Wesley’s.

Wesley snorted. “Do you think we’re fucking or something? We’re not. How many times do I have to say it? He’s a Cap. The sex would be bad.”

“How do you explain how close you two are then?” Gavin asked.

“We’re best friends. Duh.”

Gavin lifted a brow. Lloyd kept quiet. Calm.

“O’Conner got fired for slipping into his resident’s pants,” Gavin said. “You wouldn’t want our coordinator to hear any rumors, would you?”

“As Wesley unnecessarily exaggerated, we are not sleeping together, and we won’t be anytime soon.”

“I heard that you’re pretending to be his fiancé? You can see how I might have misunderstood your level of commitment to him.”

“I don’t like the way you said that,” Wesley said. “Lloyd might hate streamers and dancing, but he’s not completely void of creativity. He plays the fiancé part to perfection, with warmth and humor, and the right touch of playfulness.”

“I’m sure his acting is flawless,” Gavin said sarcastically. Wesley fought against flipping him the bird.

Lloyd’s jaw tightened as he continued to glare at Gavin.

“I go out of my way to abide house rules,” Lloyd said, “and I wish you would go out of yours to respect my space.”

Gavin snapped his binder shut and gave a curt nod. “Fine. Would we like to discuss plans for the Open Week party in the lounge?”

Lloyd grunted, then steeled his gaze on Wesley. “How about over an extra-large coffee at Me Gusta Robusta?”

* * *

Wesley served both RAs extra-large coffees, and let them go at it.

Caleb moped in, ripping his school tie away from his throat. He jerked his thumb at Lloyd and Gavin. “Thought no RA business was allowed on the premises.”

Lloyd leaned back on the stool, interrupting his heated conversation with Gavin. “And I thought younger brothers lived at home.”

“Keep up the awesome work, guys,” Caleb said and hurried to Wesley.

Wesley finished his brother’s hazelnut latte and handed it to him stealthily. “Fifties bash. Dress-up optional but recommended. January fifteenth.”

“The week of dress rehearsals,” Caleb said, humming. “I’ll make it work. Where’s MacD?”

Caleb scuttled off to his favorite girl in the world, and Wesley busied himself in a rush of orders. When he was through, Lloyd was also. They waved off Gavin.

Lloyd gave Wesley a twinkle of satisfaction, and a similar twinkle mirrored in Wesley’s belly.

Lloyd reached into his back pocket for his wallet. “It’s close to Christmas.”

“Oh yeah? I thought everyone was just crushing on an old dude with a stellar beard.”

Lloyd didn’t even dignify that with an eye roll. “I’d like to buy fifty gift certificates for a coffee of choice.”

“It was you who did that last year?”

“Keep it down. I don’t want anyone to know.”

“Who served you last year? MacDonald, huh?” Wesley shook his head, watching her banter with Caleb. “She never said.”

“At least someone can keep a secret.” Lloyd handed over a wad of cash. “Can you give the gift certificates to me later? I have a meeting with Jamie.”

Wesley’s stomach churned. He hadn’t yet told Lloyd about Jamie not having time to guide his masters.

“You’ve gone quiet,” Lloyd said, brow creasing. “Are you okay?”

“Me? I’m fine. I just . . . your meeting . . .”

“Yes?”

His breath deflated. “I’m thinking of you.”

Lloyd delivered him a smile Wesley didn’t deserve and strode out of the café.

* * *

After his shift ended, Wesley took the fifty signed gift certificates to Lloyd’s room. Lloyd slouched on his bed and stared blankly at the ceiling. Moisture filmed Lloyd’s eyes.

“Are you sad?” Wesley asked, because he was an idiot.

Lloyd’s voice pinched as he tried to control it. “Why would I be?”

“No reason.”

Lloyd forced himself to sit, making as if to spring into RA action.

Wesley touched his shoulder, stilling him. “If you were—”

“I’m not.”

“Just checking.” Wesley dropped his hand.

“I’m feeling thoroughly checked.” A sigh escaped Lloyd’s control, and he fell back against the mattress.

Wesley wanted to ease Lloyd’s disappointment. He spotted a basket of unfolded laundry, so he knelt beside it and, determining it clean, started the arduous task of matching socks.

Lloyd peered at him over the edge of the bed. “What are you doing?”

“Something nice for you.”

Lloyd dwelled in his thoughts, half-watching Wesley. When Wesley was done, he stood before his wallowing friend with his hands on his hips. “Do you have a paper you want me to look over?”

Lloyd blinked. “A paper?”

A slow smirk ticked at the corner of his lips. Lloyd rolled off the bed and rifled through folders on his desk. He handed Wesley what looked like twenty pages of numbers analysis.

“Know what?” Wesley said. “You don’t look sad anymore.”

Lloyd dropped the pages onto his laptop. He hauled Wesley into a hug, almost toppling Wesley in surprise.

A long exhale washed through Wesley’s hair. “Thank you for talking me up to Jamie.”

“I’m sorry he’s too busy.” Wesley lowered his voice. “I should have told you. I didn’t know how.”

Lloyd’s grip tightened against Wesley’s shoulder blades and the small of his back, bringing him snug against Lloyd’s front. “It would have been hard for me to accept coming from you, and frustrating if I couldn’t speak with Jamie immediately.”

“He likes you. He wants to be friends.” Wesley pulled back and looked at him. “Which is good, right?”

Lloyd nodded a little too insistently. “Of course.”

“But you wanted more.”

He didn’t reply for a long moment, then dropped his arms. “Professor Katzenberger is dedicated. She’s a great choice. I’m not sad.”

“But maybe just a little?”

“I’ll get over it.”

“You’re mature like that. But . . .” Wesley reached into his pocket.

“But?”

Wesley waved his phone. “Perhaps it would be a waste if you got over it too fast.”

Lloyd tucked his thumbs into his belt. “Why’s that?”

Wesley swiped and clicked the screen. Heartbreak Hotel blasted from the phone’s speakers. “Have you never dwelled in melodrama? Purged your hurt through dance? Cried until you were exhausted?”

“Can’t say I have.”

“Then we have catching up to do.” Wesley set the phone on the bookshelf, jumped onto Lloyd’s bed, and jumped to the beat. “Dance with me.”

Lloyd hesitated, then inched forward. He took Wesley’s outstretched hand with a joltingly soft slide of their palms. Wesley had just pulled him onto the bed when urgent knocks pounded the door.

They burst apart. Outside Lloyd’s door, Randy was bleeding buckets from his nose.

Lloyd shifted into RA mode, control dwarfing his sadness. “What happened?”

Randy groaned. “I didn’t see the door.”

“Wesley, get me the first aid—thanks.”

* * *

Wesley scanned the shelves of a quirky knick-knack store. He held up a stainless-steel coffee mug over the neck-high shelf to Caleb, browsing the other side. “And?”

“And what?” Caleb said.

“Will Lloyd like it?”

“I thought you bought him a Christmas present already?”

“That was for his birthday.”

“Which you still don’t know.”

“I’ll make one up for him. Do you think he’ll like this?”

“It’s a coffee cup.”

Wesley liked the brushed feel of the steel. Muted gray, understated, solid. “I’ll engrave it.”

Caleb leaned his elbows on the top shelf. “Why don’t you go right to the engagement rings?”

Wesley clasped the coffee mug and searched for other options. “When will you guys give up? Lloyd and I are gonna date.”

Caleb leered. “I know you are.”

“Aren’t. That was meant to be aren’t gonna date.”

“I don’t think you could find a better one.”

“Coffee cup?”

“Date.”

Wesley found a shinier version of the coffee mug and compared the two. “If I were born a Cancer or he a Sagittarius, maybe.”

Caleb picked up a silver pendant from a plush box. “Why the hell do you have such an aversion to Capricorns?”

“My horoscopes are almost always spot on and—” Wesley cut himself off.

Caleb didn’t let him off the hook. “And?”

“Nothing.”

“Come on. I’m your brother. You can tell me anything, and I’m always on your side. Unless you’re wrong.”

Wesley pegged him with a look, and Caleb grinned.

“Is that necklace you’re fondling intended for MacDonald?” Wesley asked innocently.

“She’d cut off my balls if I tried to give her this.”

“Then why are you checking it out so hard?”

“Because it would be nice. To give her it.” Caleb set it down. “Your turn.”

“I’m surprised you haven’t put it together.”

“Is it because Mom’s a Capricorn?”

Wesley studied the two cups in his hands. “And Principal Bontempo. And our pastor. And my first boyfriend. All relationships in my life that soured have been Caps.” He laughed. “Man, that sounded like something only a therapist should hear.”

Caleb drummed his fingers together under his chin. “Do go on.”

“We are happy being best friends. That’s it.”

Wesley’s phone rang. He set down the two cups. “Lloyd! We were just talking about you.”

“All wonderful things, I’m sure.”

Wesley pivoted away from Caleb’s assessing eyes. “What’s up?”

“I explained to mom that I won’t be with her for dinner on Christmas Eve.”

“The whole fiancé bit?”

“Right. She finds it entertaining. She suggested since we’re doing Eve at your place that we do Christmas Day with her. I said I would ask. You can say no.”

“Do you want me to say no?”

Lloyd’s answer came fast and firm. “No.”

Grinning, Wesley decided on the brushed-steel cup. “It’s a date then.”

Over the shelf, Caleb’s brow arched pointedly as Wesley disconnected. “Oh, go away.”

* * *

Wesley woke with a stiff back. He rolled onto his side and rubbed his sore muscles with a significant glare to Caleb.

Caleb yawned and stretched like a cat. His eyes popped open and he grinned. “Good sleep.”

“When are you going home?” Wesley asked.

Caleb blew in his face. “When are you?” At the daggers Wesley was throwing, Caleb raised his brows defensively. “It gets lonely, okay?”

“Does being here make it much better?”

“Apparently I like half-naked cuddles with my brother.” He hummed. “I think we both need therapy.”

Wesley shoved him out of bed. “Last day before Christmas break. Get your ass to school.”

Caleb whipped up his uniform from its heap on the floor. “Turn around while I put fresh boxers on.”

Wesley slammed his eyes shut. “Someone shoot me.”

When they emerged from the room, they saw Danny and Charlie in the hall battling with blow-up dolls.

An unimpressed Lloyd pushed them apart. “What are you, teenagers?”

Danny hugged his doll. “Actually, yeah.”

Lloyd pulled the tabs of both dolls and they began deflating. “Time to grow up. This kind of behavior won’t win you the heart of any self-respecting person.”

Charlie complained, and Lloyd grabbed his half-collapsed doll and chased him down the hall.

“I can’t wait to live in the dorm at Treble,” Caleb said, sighing.

Wesley squeezed his neck. “We’ll get you that recommendation.”

They made their way down the hall. Lloyd gave Caleb a hard stare, then turned to Wesley. “Aren’t you even trying to pretend anymore?”

“Pretend what?”

“That your brother isn’t strolling out of your bedroom every morning.”

“He’s not. Mostly he’s strutting—”

“Wesley.”

Wesley shoved Caleb into the kitchen with a cheeky smirk. “No one’s coming out of my room. You should really see someone about that addled mind thing.”

Lloyd smacked a palm to his head. “A word in my room?”

In Lloyd’s room, Wesley sat on the armchair. Not by choice—he’d have opted for the bed—but Lloyd had steered him sternly to the corner. Lloyd sat in his desk chair leveling a full-Cap look at Wesley.

“You can’t keep being my exception. Other students slip, and I write them up.” He sighed. “I’m sorry, I have to write you up too.”

“What?” Wesley spluttered.

Lloyd lifted a hand. “The first two write-ups are warnings. No one will pay attention to them.”

Wesley sank into the chair. This sucked, but he supposed Lloyd couldn’t turn a blind eye forever. “If no one pays attention, why bother writing me up at all?”

“Either I break rules with everyone, or I tighten them on you.”

“Break rules. Always break rules.”

Lloyd’s lips quirked. “It’s hard to believe you are studying the law.”

“Harder if you think I’m the son of the great Judge Hidaka,” Wesley added with a light-hearted sigh. “What can I say? Split personality. It’s the Gemini in me.”