It’s then I recognize a fellow student from one of my classes. I keep my eyes lowered so he doesn’t stop me, not that he would. Since I started HEC, I’ve made it clear with my conduct that no one should attempt to. Aside from my new slob of a roommate, Claude, a roommate I was forced to take on due to finances, I haven’t socialized at my new school. I make sure Claude is wary of me by silent communication and body language. He keeps the hours of a student, often away on the weekends, giving me privacy while I continually burn the candle at both ends.
With graduation years ahead, I have no plans of changing any part of my stance. No one can know me to a personal extent. But a small part of me wishes that—like most students—the only pressures I had were passing grades and simple decisions of which party to attend and which pussy to devour. Since prep, I’ve made it my mission to remain incognito, and so far, there have only been a few coeds brave enough to challenge me in that department. Their reward was a rude wake-up call, which is necessary to ensure I remain just another faceless student no one can remember details about. But after years abroad, even in a city as large as Paris, it’s becoming a smaller world.
Fumbling with the new cell phone Dominic overnighted me, the line trills as I step around another crowd lining the sidewalk. He answers on the second ring.
“You’re supposed to be on a plane.”
“I have exams,” I lie.
“You’re lying,” Dominic argues. “How do you expect me to help you when you don’t tell me what’s happening?”
The almost six-year age difference between us used to seem like eons in maturity not long ago. Although, after my last visit to Triple Falls, it’s clear I severely underestimated them—Dom especially—and because of that, it’s almost impossible to get anything past him. Surrounded by firelight six weeks ago, I found out just how ready he was.
“What’s going on in France?” Sean asks from his camping chair.
“School,” I reply curtly.
“That’s not exactly true, is it, brother?” Dom speaks up, looking between Tyler and Sean. “He left to find help. Everyone at the meetings got scared when my parents were killed, and all they do now is bitch.” He kicks back in his seat. “My parents were revolutionaries at one point, extremists at another, and my brother here wants to enlist people who know what the fuck they’re doing.” He looks over to me. “Isn’t that right, brother?”
He knows far more than I’m comfortable with. The idea that he’s been playing oblivious for this long rattles me to my core. He’s good at deception, too good. “Why have you played fucking ignorant this whole time?”
His firelit face remains impassive. “I find it helps to be in the know, without anyone else knowing.”
A genius sort of deception. A manipulation that he even fooled me with, playing uninterested for the most part, and clueless at other times.
“I’m lost,” Tyler says, glancing between us.
Sean speaks up, his eyes darting between Dom and me. “I believe the short version is, Dominic is done playing dumb.”
I scrutinize my brother and then Sean. “This won’t work if we’re keeping secrets.”
“Says the blackest pot,” Dom adds bitterly.
While I’ve been away, Dom’s been piecing it together. My secrecy has spiked his curiosity, and he’s just made it clear he isn’t about to let me get away with it any longer without letting me know he’s onto me.
“Right now, there’s nothing to tell. And this isn’t going to happen overnight.”
“But this isn’t just a conversation anymore,” Dominic says definitively, “And you know it. We can’t help you if you don’t tell us what’s going on over there.”