Page 96 of A Stealthy Situation
“Nope.”
“Too bad.”
The sharp intake of breath doesn’t tell me anything, only that the result is a shock. Fuck, did I get a zero?
I snatch my phone back and take a second to look at the grade on the screen. Thirty-two percent.
The sinking feeling in my gut tells me it’s not good, but it’s also not a zero. I just don’t get what thirty-two means. “How … how bad is it?” I ask.
“It’s … it’s an F, Benny.”
An F. F. I’d been pretty sure it was coming, but being faced with the reality … fuck.
“I was really hoping—” he whispers, but he’s drowned out by the ringing in my ears.
The test was open fucking book. Open book, and I still failed big-time. It doesn’t matter how much I blink back the frustrated shimmering in my vision, the numbers don’t change. Just get bigger, brighter, taunt me that I don’t even understand one stupid fucking grade, yet I somehow have to pass a math course to get my degree.
I unstick my throat. “Think they have first-grade math on the curriculum?”
“Don’t joke.”
“Why not? I am one big fucking joke.”
Like it’s timed, a message from Harrison comes through.
I saw the email go out that results have been posted. How did you do?
All I can picture is writing back that I got an F and seeing his face fall. Seeing how disappointed he’d be.
I close out of the message, knowing I can’t reply.
I don’t even know how I’ll face him after this.
29
HARRISON
The fact Benny doesn’t immediately write back to my message tells me this isn’t good. The fact he hasn’t written back by that night tells me it’s really, really not good.
It’s hard not to feel guilty. It’s hard to know the guy I’ve fallen for is struggling because of a limit I set. I’m almost tempted to message him and just tell him to have Em take the class, but I won’t.
As much as I hate knowing he’s probably failed, I can’t support cheating.
The clock thing from the other day keeps coming back to me, and at this point, it’s not even completely about the cheating either.
Benny needs this. Emmett probably too. They’ve never had to stand on their own before, and while I’d never want to split the twins up, it’s more about getting them not to rely on each other so much.
The other night when I saw them together, it was clear that when one struggled, the other would save them. As soon as I had that thought, I was tuned in to every little thing that was out of the ordinary.
Struggling with a word? The other one would jump in.
Bored? The other was their entertainment.
When dinner came, I asked how we were splitting it; Em jumped in before Benny could and worked out their part.
When we were talking about an article, I went to hand my phone off to Em to read, but Benny grabbed it and read out loud instead.
If Benny’s struggling with math stuff, it makes me curious whether Em has his struggles too. He wasn’t confident with his typing in class, for one thing. Jesus. Just how much have they made everything harder on themselves, all because they took the easy route for so long?
