The Cost of All Things Read Online Free Page A

butt.”
    “‘Waking this spire for you’?”
    “It’s ‘quaking desire for you,’ actually.”
    “Well, of course when you say it, it’s poetry.”
    She smiled at me, a welcome kick in the ribs. Before I could chicken out I leaned in and gave her a kiss. She was still smiling when I pulled back, and maybe her cheeks were redder than before.
    “You’re kind of the best, Win Tillman,” she said.
    That was it—I was going to say something that would make it obvious how much I liked her, and the seesaw would come crashing down. I could feel words coming up my chest and I didn’t know how to stop them, or if I wanted to.
    Something wet and sudsy dripped from the ceiling into my eyes. I let go of Ari to wipe it away, and that’s when the shouting started. When my eyes were clear, I could see Ari staring up toward the dark gym ceiling, laughing. Big soapy drips plopped from the ceiling vents. Around us, girls tried to shield their updos, and guys slipped in their formal shoes.
    “I love it, but I don’t get it,” Ari said. “Where’s Markos?”
    I grabbed her hand and we slip-n-slided to the doors to the gym. People were mostly streaming out to the parking lot, sowe turned in the other direction, heading deeper into the dark school. At a fork in the hallway we paused until we heard voices.
    Down the hall to the right, Markos had his back against a locker, his arms crossed over his chest. A cop stood in front of him.
    “. . . lucky it was me and not someone else assigned to the school. This is so unbelievably stupid, Markos,” the cop was saying, and I knew before we got close enough to see that it was Markos’s oldest brother, Brian. I hurried the last thirty feet to them, Ari close at my heels. Brian turned to us. “Win, get back to the dance.”
    “What’s the problem?” I asked.
    “Markos put bubble machines in the heating vents.”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Markos said.
    “Really? So if I check inventory at the store there won’t be a bunch of supplies missing?”
    “Good luck with that.” Markos’s family’s hardware store was notoriously disorganized; Markos probably banked on that fact. Brian knew it, too, and his frown deepened.
    “I should take you in, Markos. Might teach you a lesson.”
    “Come on, Brian! What about all the pranks you and Dev and Cal did?”
    Brian glared. “That’s different. You flooded the gym.”
    “Flooded? It’s only a few bubbles.”
    “They’re not bubbles after they go through the heating vent, dumbass. They’re just soap.”
    “You’re such a hypocrite.”
    “And you’re such a fuckup. That’s thousands of dollars of damage and no one can even tell what it’s supposed to be. You can’t even plan a simple prank right.”
    Markos flinched. I stepped toward him out of instinct—no one was allowed to hurt my best friend—but before I could reach him, Ari ducked in between Markos and his brother. “It wasn’t Markos,” she said. “He’s been with us all night.”
    Brian rolled his eyes. “I found him out here, not in with you.”
    “He just left, I swear. There’s no way he’d have time to set all this up,” she insisted. “And it doesn’t make sense, Brian—I mean Officer Waters. You guys always did your pranks senior year, right? So why would Markos do one now?”
    Brian took a second to absorb this piece of logic, then turned to Markos. “Is this true?” Markos didn’t look any of us in the eye, but he nodded. “What were you doing out here, then?”
    Markos cleared his throat and looked up and down the hall. For the briefest second, when he caught my eye, he winked. “Meeting a girl. You probably scared her away. Thanks a lot, by the way.”
    Brian made a disgusted noise and turned to Ari. “So you’re going to vouch for him.”
    Ari planted her feet and looked at him levelly. “Markos didn’t do it, Officer.”
    Brian turned to me. So did Markos and Ari. It was my turn to decide what to do.
    But