Chapter Text
Somehow, after their conference about Ronan and Bryde, Adam and Declan ended up walking down a street full of small shops. Adam knew the point of these shops was to cater to students and their families, but he’d never bothered to visit any of them. His friends had come down here once or twice, but Adam had made his excuses not to come. Going to college had not actually improved his finances any and it physically pained him to spend money on unnecessary things.
But now he was here with Declan Lynch of all people. When he’d started walking, Adam had thought Declan was going back to his car which was why he’d walked with him and now they were here doing…whatever it was that they were doing.
Declan picked a shop seemingly at random and headed for the door. He paused on the step, hand holding the door partway open, and looked back at Adam like he’d forgotten he was there. “You don’t have to come with me,” he said. “I just need some time to get my thoughts in order.” There was an unspoken “So I can pretend that we didn’t just have that conversation when I go back to my little brother and my girlfriend” that Adam wasn’t sure he was supposed to have heard. Regardless, Declan wasn’t the sort of person who would ever admit to being shaken, so Adam granted him the small grace of not acknowledging that he obviously was.
“If it’s all the same to you, I’ll stick around,” Adam said. “I need some time to gather my thoughts too.”
“Alright,” Declan said and held the door open for Adam to enter.
If Adam was entirely honest with himself, how visibly shaken Declan was by what Adam had told him worried him greatly. When he’d called saying that he and Declan needed to talk he honestly hadn’t thought he knew anything about the situation that Declan didn’t. The realization that everything he’d learned by hacking the Moderators were new to Declan had changed things somewhat. Ronan would never admit it, but Adam had the distinct impression that Declan probably knew more about the magical underworld with its dreamers and psychics and whatever else than Ronan did. If Declan hadn’t known about this before Adam did it was because he hadn’t been looking into it and Adam wasn’t sure what to do with that knowledge.
As they poked through the various knickknacks and overpriced gifts in one shop after another, Adam found himself watching Declan more than looking at the objects for sale. He didn’t really know what kind of person Ronan’s older brother was. He did know that the reason he didn’t know anything about Declan was because Declan didn’t want people to know him. He did know that Declan was more dangerous than he appeared. He didn’t think Declan would necessarily be pleased to realize Adam had figured that out.
The fourth or fifth shop was a resale shop, which was at least a little less pretentious than the earlier shops. There were enough vaguely interesting things there to keep Adam’s attention for long enough that he lost track of Declan. When he wandered across the shop to find Declan, he found the other boy squatting by a rack of random objects peering into a shoebox which had been on the bottom shelf with a worried frown on his face. Adam saw that the box contained a number of small round balls. Each was mottled with a variety of fanciful colors and a small lever graced their circumferences. It felt subtly odd to look at them, so Adam focused on Declan instead.
“I’m done here if you are,” Adam said. Declan didn’t respond. “Declan? Is everything alright?”
Declan shook himself visibly. “Yeah,” he said without looking at Adam. “Everything’s fine.” Then he stood up and headed towards the cash register, still holding the shoebox. Adam hadn’t thought the odd balls were worth spending money on, but he shrugged and followed.
“How much do you want for these?” Declan asked, setting the box on the counter.
The bored teenager behind the counter looked from Declan to the shoebox, then back. “I dunno,” he said. “A buck a piece?”
“I want all of them,” Declan said. “How much for the whole box?”
The boy gave Adam a look that clearly said, “This well-dressed college student is insane, isn’t he?” Adam just shrugged again. He didn’t really want to agree, but Declan was acting pretty strangely.
Declan growled in frustration, evidently loosing patience. He pulled out his wallet and slapped a twenty-dollar bill down onto the counter. “Keep the change,” he said, then snapped up the box and headed for the door. “You coming, Parrish?” he called without looking over his shoulder.
Adam followed, trying not to feel like he was a minion chasing after his boss. He told himself that the clerk probably didn’t realize Declan Lynch was the closest thing to a gangster who had ever walked into this shop.
When Adam got outside the sun had set and it was dark. He thought he’d lost Declan for a moment until he saw the other boy standing just outside of the circle of light cast by a streetlamp, checking his phone. He’d closed the shoebox and was carrying it under his arm. He looked up when Adam came over.
“Matthew convinced Jordan that they should make pancakes for dinner,” he tilted his phone a little so Adam could see the picture on the screen. Matthew appeared to have a large amount of whipped cream in his hair. “Jordan’s not sure what happened. She says she turned her back for a minute and then he looked like this.” He smiled, but the expression was sad.
“Is something else wrong with Matthew? Beyond the episodes?” Adam ventured. It was a question he wasn’t sure he’d have dared ask Ronan, and he wasn’t sure it was a good idea to ask Declan either.
“Not really,” Declan said, “He’s just growing up. I hadn’t realized that was possible for—” for whatever reason he stumbled over the word ‘dream.’ “I hadn’t realized he would ever really do that given what he is, so I’d failed to mentally prepare myself for him to become a teenager who resents my presence.”
“I’m sorry,” Adam said, which was about the only thing he could think of to say.
Declan’s lips twisted into something like a smile. “It’s fine. It’s not like he’s as bad as Ronan was or anything. It takes more than a little teenage angst to stop me.” He pushed his phone back into his pocket and glanced up at the dark sky. “It smells like rain. Let me give you a ride back to your dorm.”
“Sure,” Adam said and fell into step beside Declan.
“Are you driving home tonight?” he asked after they’d gone a couple blocks.
“Yes,” Declan said. “I might get some food first or coffee at the very least.”
Adam pulled out his phone, which he’d turned off before the meeting with Declan so they wouldn’t be bothered. “I’ve missed dinner hours in the cafeteria, but that’ll be…” he trailed off as his phone turned back on. There were numerous increasingly panicked texts from the Crying Club. He’d told them where he was going to be, hadn’t he? He couldn’t remember.
Either way, turning off his phone had obviously been a mistake. He knew he’d been acting oddly since the ley line had awakened and since he hadn’t had the “magic and psychics exist actually” conversation with his new friends, they perceived him to be behaving erratically with no obvious cause.
He opened the Crying Club group chat and typed a quick text:
Adam Parrish: Sorry for all the panic. I ran into a friend from home and we went out for dinner.
His thumb hovered over the send key, but something stopped him. The Crying Club was just worried about him. He wasn’t going to tell them what he’d actually been doing, but this lie still bothered him. It wasn’t like he didn’t have enough secrets from them, but those were all about the person he’d been before he’d come to Harvard. He hadn’t lied to them about where he was here at Harvard before.
“Is everything alright?” Declan asked.
“Yeah,” Adam said, though it occurred to him that he and Declan had met today because everything was not alright at all, but he knew Declan hadn’t been asking about that. “Actually, would you be opposed to company for dinner? As I said, I’ve missed dinner time in the cafeteria.”
“Sure,” Declan said with a shrug. “Though I’m probably just going to go to Burger King and eat in my car.”
“That’s fine,” Adam said and hit send on the text message. There, now it wasn’t a complete lie.