CHAPTER 6

Two Weeks Later

Nick's POV

We had hardly spoken since the kiss. Not that we had spoken much before, but now we could hardly even look at each other. I think we both wanted to say something about it, but Hell would freeze over before either of us brought it up. What could I even say to him? "Sorry, but I'm actually a girl and I didn't want to start a relationship on a lie?" No.

I sat on my bed doing research for a current events project for my English class. Sighing once, I closed my laptop and stretched my arms. I looked around the room in an effort to calm my racing brain when my eyes landed on a box on a shelf above Corporal Levi's desk.

"Is that Cards Against Humanity?" I asked a bit louder than I had meant to. The Corporal let out an agitated sigh.

"Yes it is, Cadet," he said. "From the tone of your voice I assume you want to play it."

"Not necessarily," I said. "Could I just look through the cards?"

He grunted something intelligible that I took for a yes, so I got up and went over to the desk at which he sat. I reached over his head and grabbed the box before bringing it back to my bed. I opened the top and grabbed a handful of white cards.

"Chunks of dead prostitute," I whispered, reading the cards to myself. "Grandpa's ashes…"

Corporal Levi suddenly got out of his chair and came to sit on the edge of my bed.

"Now you've got me interested, brat," he said. "We each get five white cards."

"Don't you have some shit-ton of paperwork to do?" I asked, already dealing out the cards. This should be fun.

"It can wait."

When he had five white cards in his hand he grabbed a stack of black cards and placed them between us. He flipped one over and I read it aloud.

"For my next trick I will pull blank out of blank," I said. He immediately pulled two cards from his hand and put them facedown on the mattress. "That confident?"

"That confident," he said, a small smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth. I stared straight at him as I slapped two more cards down on the mattress. He flipped both sets of cards over.

Mine read: For my next trick I will pull child abuse out of the South.

His read: For my next trick I will pull Mom out of rehab.

"You win," I laughed.

We played several more rounds, him winning all of them except for "We never did find Grandpa's ashes, but along the way we sure learned a lot about Auschwitz." I even heard him laugh at it, a melodic sound that sent a shiver down my spine. But what surprised me the most about the whole experience was learning that Corporal Levi actually had a sense of humor, and a damn good one at that.

"What's the most emo?" he read. I played "kids with ass cancer." He played "emos."

"How did you get so lucky?" I asked with a laugh. "It's a ridiculous."

"Experience and a sense of humor," he said.

"I don't know, 'In M. Night Shimalayan's new film, Bruce Willis discovers that men have really not been contributing to society in any meaningful way all along' is pretty damn funny," I said, recalling one of my better card pairings. "I have a sense of humor."

"Experience, then," he corrected, grabbing the discarded white cards and putting them back into the box.

I studied the way his fingers moved. Looking at them it was obvious he played the piano. Before I could stop myself I asked him about it.

"How long have you been playing the piano?" I asked.

He looked at me strangely before looking back to the box and grabbing another handful of cards.

"Since I was ten, so about twenty years."

"Wow," I said.

"How long have you been playing guitar?" he asked. "You sounded pretty good. I'd say at least three years with formal lessons."

A "tch" came through my teeth before I could stop it.

"My parents would never pay for formal lessons," I said, taking five new white cards. "I found an old guitar in the attic about a year ago and I taught myself."

He looked up.

"You're shitting me," he said. "Not just anyone can do that, Nick."

"Thank you, sir," I said quietly, looking down at my hand of cards. I had "chunks of dead prostitute." Lovely.

"Why do you say your parents would never pay for lessons?" he asked.

I sighed.

"It was more important for me to do well in school," I said. I flipped a black card over and read it. "And the Academy Award for blank goes to blank. If I did well enough in school I would get scholarships and my parents wouldn't have to pay as much for college. Not that they really cared if I went."

He put two white cards down on the mattress.

"Well, they cared enough to send you here," he said. I almost laughed at the irony.

"Because it's free for the military trainees," I said instead. I put two white cards down and drew two more. "My stepfather has explicitly told me that he doesn't care if I do well in life as long as I'm out of his hair. He's even insinuated that he wishes I was dead."

"Stepparents can be harsh," he said. "I had two of them. I would know. But I know my real parents loved me. I'm sure yours do, too."

"You sound like a therapist," I scoffed.

"Mostly because I have no idea what to say to you."

"Fair enough," I said.

After we flipped our cards and decided that he was the winner I thought of something.

"What do you mean 'loved?'" I asked. "Are your parents…"

"Dead? Yes. Drunk driver on their way to sign the divorce papers." I winced.

"That's how my dad went, too," I said quietly. "Drunk driver, I mean. He was on his way to pick me and my brother up from school."

He looked away, obviously uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry if I'm making you uncomfortable," I said. "I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine," he said tensely. "I think we should stop playing. I have a shit-ton of paperwork to do."

"Yeah," I agreed. We put up the cards and he went back to his desk, only looking back at me once.

Levi's POV

At lunch the next day I couldn't keep my eyes off of him, and Hanji noticed.

"So…" she said suggestively, "which one is she?"

"Shut up, shitty glasses," I told her. She squealed.

"So there is someone!"

"I thought I told you to shut up."

"Which one is she? Come on, I want to know!"

Erwin was listening in on the conversation by this time.

"Does Levi have his eye on someone?" he asked Hanji.

"I think our favorite little Corporal has a crush!" she squealed quietly.

"You do realize he'll never tell, right?"

"Do you really want to know?" I asked. Hanji nodded intensely. "It's my roommate."

Their jaws dropped.

"You mean… a guy?" Hanji asked, stunned. I ran a palm over my face.

"This is surprising," said Erwin.

"Surprising to say the least," I agreed.

"So are you gay…" asked Hanji. I shook my head.

"I don't know," I said.

Looking back over at where Nick sat, alone as usual, I saw that Braun was standing by his table and talking to him. A ball of jealousy built up in my chest and I clenched my jaw. Hanji giggled at me.

"Why don't you come sit with us?" Braun asked him. Nick seemed surprised but nodded his head, picking up his plate and going to sit with a group of other Cadets. I looked away.

"Looks like Levi's jealous," Hanji whispered to Erwin.

"I can hear you, you know."

"Why have you been sitting alone over there?" Kirstein asked Nick at the next table.

"I… didn't think anyone wanted me to sit with them," he responded a bit shakily.

I want you to sit with me, I thought. I want you to sit on my dick.

A chorus of "awws" rang out through the table.

"Well you're here now!" chirped Lenz.

"Yeah," he said to his lap.

Braun laughed and clapped him forcefully on the back.

"Don't be so shy!" he exclaimed with a laugh. "We don't bite."

"Hard," Kirstein added.

"Okay," Nick said. "I just… don't know what to say."

"Just tell us about yourself," Arlert said. Nick froze for a moment before letting out a nervous laugh.

"O-Okay," he said. "I… I, um, have two siblings, a twin sister and an older brother. I don't get along with my parents. I play guitar. And I'm probably the youngest one here."

"How old are you?" Arlert asked.

"Fifteen."

Hanji looked at me with wide eyes.

"You have the hots for a fifteen-year-old boy?" she whisper-screamed. Erwin tried and failed to contain his laughter.

"It's not like I'm doing anything about it," I lied. The memory of the kiss flooded my mind and I almost shuddered.

"Wow," Jaeger said as he wolfed down a chicken leg. "You must be some kind of genius, like Armin here."

Both Nick and Arlert flushed and looked away.

"Thanks," Nick said. "I get that a lot."

It was at that point that I got up and left, striding to the restroom like my life depended on it. The moment I was in a stall I grabbed my head and rubbed my temples.

I was going insane.