Conner bit his lip as he zipped up Erik’s leather Jacket over his thin frame. It was too big for him. Somehow Conner had expected he would suddenly look cool and handsome, but observing the bathroom mirror he saw he was still just Conner. His brown hair was still sticking up in places, his hands timidly clasped together; even his gentle freckled face looked just as unsure as he felt.

Erik knocked. “Hey, we should get going. Are you ready?”

Conner opened the bathroom door. He felt Erik’s eyes paw over him, making his knees go weak.

“My jacket’s a bit big for you,” he said, laughing slightly. He was wearing a thick black hoodie and black jeans. Thin gloves covered his hands and he wore a face-mask, only his eyes visible. “Here,” he said, placing a black baseball cap firmly on Conner’s brown mop of hair. He smiled at him. “You look good,” he said, satisfied.

Conner thought he might melt. “So…we’re really going to do this?”

Erik blinked at him with a prominent worried brow. “Are you having second thoughts?”

‘How about first, second, and third thoughts? Was that not obvious?’ Conner thought to himself.

The truth was, the plan to sneak out in the middle of the night—to ‘investigate’ the supply shed—did not have any qualities that Conner found appealing. As for why he was doing it…? Did he want to seem cool and brave in front of Erik? Did he want to spend more time with him? Maybe he simply wasn’t strong enough to refuse.

“It’ll be fine, right?” Conner asked him, pulling on his sneakers.

Erik glanced at them. “Those are white.”

Conner frowned. “Well, I’m not going to get my school shoes dirty. It will look suspicious if they’re covered in mud! These are my gardening shoes.”

Conner could see the smile that narrowed Erik’s eyes. “Gardening, huh?”

“Shut up,” Conner said, bending down on one knee to do up his laces.

“Hey.” He felt Erik’s warm, dry hand slide under his chin, guiding his face to look up at him as he pulled down the face mask. Erik was much closer than Conner had expected, his mouth opening as he craned his neck to glimpse Erik’s handsome face. “Everything will be fine, I promise,” Erik said, his deep voice rocking Conner’s mind.

His hand slid away from Conner’s jawline, leaving Conner’s gaze to fall on Erik’s neck, his chest, his hips…

Conner tied his laces with a kind of focused determination, his hands shaking. He stood, taking out his phone to distract himself. His fingers brushed over where Erik had touched him.

Erik clapped him on the shoulder, snapping him out of a different fantasy that involved Conner on his knees. “Did you text Anthony?” Erik said, looking at the screen of Conner’s phone.

“Uhh…not yet,” Conner said, gulping.

“Here I’ll do it.” Erik snatched up Conner’s phone, typing intently.

As he looked at Erik, feeling his breath catch in his throat, Conner wondered how long he’d be able to keep hiding the fact that everything Erik did set him on fire.

~~~

Conner had never seen the hallway so dark and empty, registering for the first time just how many doors they’d have to pass to make it to the stairs. Anthony had warned them that though there were no cameras in the dorm halls, as soon as they reached the main floor, they’d all have to be careful. Unsure if he wanted to creep incredibly slowly or run, Conner felt exposed and vulnerable beside Erik. 

Erik, on the other hand, walked normally down the carpeted hall, completely unphased.

They made it through the hall and down the stairs to the next level of dorms. They stopped only so that Conner could take out his phone and text Anthony to join them.

A door opened quietly nearby, echoing up the staircase. Conner instinctively stepped behind Erik, just in case it had been a supervisor and not Anthony. Conner was relieved when he saw that it was him after all, stopping in front of them with a grin.

"Ready to ‘Mission Impossible’ this?" he laughed under his breath, slumping all his weight onto Conner's back briefly and lifting a hand to greet Erik. 

"No," Conner whispered back, smiling as he pushed Anthony off, who gave him a shove.

Erik's serious eyes infected Conner, leading his smile to disappear as he remembered exactly what they were doing. Conner looked at his feet, taking a deep breath as Anthony stepped ahead and began leading them into the school.  

It took them nearly an hour to get outside, waiting for cameras to cycle through, walking in specific patterns that Anthony directed. He had earbuds in, looking at some kind of timed prompting software to help guide them through the school unnoticed.

As they reached the outside doors, Anthony directed Erik and Conner to stand where they would be blocked by an alcove wall. He dropped a bag he’d been carrying, taking out a device that had several cables connected to it. After a moment of fiddling, there was a buzz and click, the door snapping unlocked.

Anthony picked up his bag but left the device plugged into the security code panel, likely to keep it from locking on them. He pushed the door open and quickly ushered the others into the cold night.

Conner’s breath puffed out into smoke, the crisp wind biting his exposed skin. It smelled like a campfire, the clear sky giving away to thousands of stars, though Conner knew that they weren’t real. Though it was cloudless, Conner couldn’t find the moon as they walked around the side of the school, their shoes scuffing against the cement. 

Erik—who was a few feet ahead—glanced back at Conner.

Conner didn’t smile, his entire body on edge as they neared the supply shed.

The three of them stopped a few feet away. Conner wondered if perhaps even Erik was getting cold feet. There was no security panel on the shed, just a handle and a single padlock. “They change the access code every semester,” Conner informed, admitting the unfortunate circumstance of no longer knowing what it was. 

Erik stepped forward, checking the handle and tugging on the lock with no luck. Conner could see him debating if he could make the jump to a very high, thin window on the side of the shed.

“Ugh, here,” Anthony said, shoving past both of them and grabbing the padlock. He took a small apparatus from his bag that looked like a more complex multi-tool. It was seconds before the lock snapped open, and he was pushing the door inward. He smirked at a surprised Erik. “What? You never learned to pick a lock? What kind of miserable childhood did you have?”

The three of them stood there, staring at the open door. Conner wondered what they’d find. An interrogation room? A secret lab? A body? He looked up at Erik, desperately hoping he would step up and volunteer to be the first so that Conner wouldn't have to.

Erik looked at Conner, who was silent pleading. He grunted, rolling his eyes as he hissed, “Fine.”

Anthony smiled, saying sarcastically, “This was your idea.”

Erik took out his phone, turning on his flashlight which momentarily blinded them. Everyone flinched, Anthony swearing as Conner let out a small grunt. Erik’s footsteps echoed in the silence as he disappeared into the shed.

Conner and Anthony waited outside for Erik to give the all clear.

Anthony side-eyed Conner, whispering, “Hacking into surveillance, devising a plan to sneak out after hours… You’ve found yourself a stand-up guy!”

“Shut up!” Conner warned him, his eyes widening as they flicked towards the shed.

Erik appeared, Conner stiffening. “It’s all clear,” Erik huffed.

Conner walked past Erik, refusing to make eye contact as he entered the familiar room. It was large with metal shelves of soil, pots, and other gardening equipment. There were a few wheel barrows along the wall and open lockers at the back. It looked roughly the same as Conner remembered from first year, except that they had begun storing larger sports equipment in one corner, such as the soccer and volleyball nets. Dried leaves had blown in along the concrete ground. 

Conner took out his own phone, seeing he had a text from his mom and three from Jannet. He felt a pang of guilt as he swiped them off his lock screen, turning on his own flashlight.

As he neared a shelf, something caught his eye on the wall behind it. Conner squinted, bending down so he could look at what appeared to be chalk markings. He couldn’t entirely make them out with everything that was on the shelves. “Hey,” he whisper-shouted at the others, “come help me move this stuff.”

The three of them quietly cleared the shelves, lifting the metal frame easily aside so that it wouldn't scrape against the ground. 

They stared.

Before Conner could utter a word, Anthony snapped a series of pictures of the wall. In white paint was a dizzying formula of numbers in perfectly geometric shapes. It looked almost like an optical illusion with how everything lined up so perfectly.

“What the hell?” Erik breathed, his eyes locked onto the strange design.

None of them knew what they were looking at, not even Anthony who was now getting closeup shots with his flash on.

“Do you think there’s more here?” Conner asked, his eyes scanning the rest of the shed. He looked at Erik, as if asking permission to tear apart the remaining shelves.

Erik didn’t have time to answer, the three of them freezing. 

Voices carried through the open door from the field.

There was a quick moment of panic, scared looks exchanged between the three of them as proper beams from flashlights glinted through the shed window.

For the first time, Erik looked panicked as all he said was one word...

“Hide.”