“I’m not sure.” He shifts his feet, as though he does and doesn’t want to have this conversation. “Do you think Lee was telling the truth?”

I gnaw on my lip. Maggie’s supposed to be a nice girl, and I’m Archie’s biggest fan. He may be a little on the strange side, but he’s also kind, caring, funny. He’s got that smart, serious vibe, too, which lots of girls find attractive. I couldn’t ask for a better brother. Why shouldn’t Maggie have a crush on him?

At the same time, I trust Lee about as much as I trust koalas. As cute as they are, these “drop bears” have also been known to drop from trees in order to knock people unconscious—and eat them.

“I don’t know, Arch,” I say hesitantly. “Lee doesn’t strike me as the most upstanding person ever.”

My brother shrugs. “He could be telling the truth.” He wants to believe Lee. That much is obvious. Hell, I’d like nothing better than if Lee were sincere.

“It’s just that this has happened before,” Archie continues quietly. “At the Johns Hopkins program last summer. There was a girl there. She liked me, but I blew it. I was too much of a wuss to ask her out.” He looks up, a pained glint in his eyes. “I sometimes wonder what would’ve happened if I had.”

I stare, my heart sinking. Oh. So that’s why he came home from the program so moody and withdrawn. That’s why he locked himself in the basement for two days straight. That might have even been why I heard strangled sobs coming from his bedroom—although he assured me that was just the soundtrack from one of his science podcasts.

“If I ask Maggie and she says yes, could you go with me to the tux shop?”

My cheeks soften. “You know I will, Arch.”

Satisfied, he sails down the sidewalk.

I look at his retreating figure, in the white T-shirt and khaki shorts, getting farther by the moment. And wish, with every cell in my body, that Maggie Falk is my brother’s perfect match.

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

I bound up the main staircase inside the school. The sun blazes through the oversize windows, highlighting every footprint and scuff mark on the worn linoleum. Plastered on the walls are posters advertising this year’s prom theme, Love Through the Ages, and a clock displays the time in big red digits.

Bandit of the blue hair himself is standing in front of the first locker in the corridor. Lalana’s locker.