"Renee, you made it! Welcome back. I'm borrowing you. You don't mind, do you? I knew you wouldn't."

Renee nodded. "Do I need anything?"
"I've already got it." Andrew hopped to his feet and set off across the parking lot.

Renee did an about-face and followed. She caught up in a couple long strides and fell in alongside him. Neil looked at Dan. Her mouth was a thin, hard line but she didn't look surprised and she didn't call after them. Matt opened his mouth, then took his cue from Dan's silence and decided not to say anything. No one else moved until Andrew and Renee reached the far edge of the parking lot, and then Aaron turned abruptly away. Instead of heading inside, he started down the sidewalk that looped around front of Fox Tower and led back to campus.

"Right," Matt said at last. "Are we going to talk about this?"

Nicky rubbed his arms as if warding off a chill, never mind that it was almost a hundred degrees outside, and jerked his chin at the door. "Not without a drink, we aren't."

The school's Exy team had three suites on the third floor. Andrew's lot had the room closest to the stairs, the girls were in the middle, and Matt and Neil were on the end in the room they'd once shared with Seth. Dan slipped her hand into Matt's as they approached the suite door and squeezed so hard her knuckles went white. Matt didn't seem to take any strength from it. He stared at the key ring in his free hand like he'd forgotten which one would let him in.

"He was such an asshole," Matt said quietly.

"I know," Dan said.

Matt sucked in a slow breath and finally unlocked the door. He pushed the door open, then flinched back from the doorway and clutched harder at Dan's hand. The grim look on Dan's face had Neil edging forward, but it was difficult to see past Matt. Neil didn't have long to wait; Dan steeled up the courage to move first and tugged Matt into the room with her. Neil paused in the doorway to take stock of the changes.

Neil hadn't been in his room since Sunday morning, and then he'd stopped by only long enough to pack a bag for Wymack's place. On Sunday the room looked as it always had. In the few days since then someone had come by and cleared out Seth's things. The third desk was gone, as was the nightstand Seth converted into shelves for his schoolwork. It left a too-obvious gap between Neil's and Matt's things.

Neil left Matt and Dan staring at the new emptiness and went to the bedroom. His and Matt's beds were still lofted one above the other, but Seth's bed had been taken back by resident services. The remaining two dressers that'd once been hidden under Seth's bed were now exposed to the room, their neglected tops covered in a fine layer of dust. It was like Seth had never been here, like he'd never existed at all.