“I’m not going to bother,” Brandon said. “It’s too much work, and I won’t get it anyway.”

“You could.” Mateo kissed him on the shoulder. It tickled. Brandon couldn’t help smiling. “You’re pretty awesome, you know.”

Brandon changed the subject again. “Want to come running in the morning?”

“Out by the lake?”

“Yeah.”

“No, thanks,” Mateo said. “The lake creeps me out. The way it’s always fogging up out there.”

“Yeah, I know, but I’m trying to go every morning this week. I want to lose fifteen pounds before homecoming.”

Mateo’s lip quirked. “How far away is homecoming, again? A week?”

Brandon sighed. “I’m doomed already.”

“You don’t need to lose weight,” Mateo assured him.

“Thanks.”

Mateo leaned over and kissed him.

Brandon closed his eyes, trying to sink into the kiss. He was still jittery from the dream. And from Mateo’s theory.

He’d ask Maria tomorrow. She’d tell him what happened, explain why she didn’t know anything, and he’d believe her.

It would all be over soon.

Lily’s computer froze up again.

She cursed at the screen. Not that it helped. The arrow was frozen over the Search button. Lily had tried four times now to look up the same thing, and every time the computer froze at the exact same moment, as if someone were playing a mean, boring joke on her.

She powered the computer off and closed the screen. Might as well let it rest for a few minutes. It wasn’t as if she’d be going to bed anytime soon. She’d barely slept more than a couple of hours a night since Delilah had fallen. Neither of them had.

Well. That wasn’t completely true. She wasn’t sure how much Maria had been sleeping. She only knew Maria hadn’t been spending more than a few hours a night in their dorm room. Lily had no clue what she was doing the rest of the time.

Earlier tonight, she’d tried to find out. She’d caught Maria’s hand before she could leave, and she’d held on when Maria tried to break away.

“Stay here tonight.” Lily tried to make it sound like a command instead of the desperate plea it was. “We can talk, or whatever.”

“I can’t,” Maria said. “I have to go clear my head.”

“Clear your head how? Where do you go every night?”

“Nowhere. For a walk.”

“Where? Outside?”

“Yeah.”

“What about the security guards? How do you walk around at night without getting caught?”

Maria shrugged. “They don’t see me.”

That didn’t make any sense to Lily, but she had other things to worry about. “Stay here tonight. Talk to me. We hardly ever spend time together anymore.”

“We’re together constantly.”