Chapter 5: The Fifth Rule

Felix was the only one of them who ever sat on the dock alone.

I found him there at noon, with his laptop shut beside him and his bare feet over the water.

I had called in sick to the practice. I sat down next to him and said nothing.

He did not look at me.

"Dominik told you not to talk to me," I said.

His shoulders jerked.

"How do you know that?"

"Because you left the table last night before dessert. Because you haven't looked at me all morning."

I watched his hands. The ink stains on his fingers were smudged, and he was rubbing them against his knee.

"You sounded upset last night," I said. "I heard you on the stairs. Something about me not knowing."

It was a lie, built from something true. I watched it land.

Felix turned his head slowly.

His glasses were pushed up into his curls, and his eyes were red-rimmed and tired. He had not slept.

"You heard that?"

"I was half asleep. I thought I dreamed it."

"What else did you hear?"

"Nothing," I said. "Felix, what don't I know?"

He opened his mouth. The lake slapped against the pilings.

Behind us, the boathouse door banged. Dominik's hammer started up, a hard flat rhythm across the water.

Felix stood up fast.

"Not here. Come on."

He led me down the shore path to a boat shed nobody used. It smelled of old rope and cold water, and the door stuck.

He shut it behind us and put his back against it.

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