Tutoring my Rival Boy novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: Rain

The rain started again at midnight.

It came down on the boathouse roof in a long hard sheet, and the bucket under the leak began to ring.

Chris lay awake in the cold and listened to it fill.

His phone had stopped buzzing at ten.

He could not tell whether he was relieved or disappointed.

He was a little of both.

At twelve-forty, he heard the shed door below.

He sat up.

The hinge squealed once, the ladder creaked, and a flashlight beam swept the loft.

Leander climbed the last rung, soaked through.

His school coat clung to his shoulders, rainwater ran from his hair into his eyes, and he did not seem to care.

He stood there in the beam of his own light, breathing hard.

"You didn't answer," he said.

"Get out."

"I'm not going."

"It's one in the morning. You're drenched."

"So are you, in about an hour." Leander looked up at the roof. "That leak is bigger."

"Get out, Ashgrove."

"No."

Chris stood.

His legs shook, and he blamed it on the cold.

"I heard you," he said.

"Behind the shed. 'Charity case.' 'Nobody to me.' I heard every word."

Leander's face changed.

The color went out of it, all at once.

"You were there," he said.

"I was returning a clipboard."

"Oh, God."

"Say what you want. I won't be your project."

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