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be.”
    “I just wanna ask. Nothing wrong with that.” Pat groaned and walked off followed by Chris.
    “You wanna come, Rob?” Chris asked, turning on his heel with a grin, which Rob supposed was intended to invite him in to join the ‘fun’.
    Robert knocked his fists on the tabletop, furious he was being forced to take a stand. “No, and Kelly’s right. Leave the freak alone.”
    Pat shrugged and didn’t even turn around, disappearing in the exit, but Chris made a one-eighty and looked back at Rob. “Hey, it’s just fun. I wouldn’t hurt him or nothing.”
    “I’m not saying you would, but he just had a piece of wood up his brain. Christ!” Robert made a broad gesture, and his hand knocked down his Coke, which spilled all over the table. “Oh, fuck me!” he grumbled, not even bothering to pick up the empty can. He slumped into the chair and threw a napkin into the wet mess.
    Kelly nodded and started clearing up her stuff. “Exactly. It was all the way up there. He barely made it out alive. He’d be dead if it wasn’t for Rob.”
    The praise was cut short by the bell, and the rest of their friends, who were focused on their own conversations anyway, got up.
    “Let’s just go to class.” Chris sighed and brushed his fingers through the thick mane of his hair. “See you later, I’ve got math now.”
    “Wait for me,” muttered Kelly, who dumped some of the wet napkins onto her tray and gave Rob one more charming smile before getting to her feet. She was pretty, smart, and interested. Too bad Rob was gay.
    He dumped the remainder of his pizza slice on the tray and slowly made his way to the trash can. He actually had class with the little bastard now.
    But when he got to the door, he froze, because there Ethan was, at the end of the corridor, standing at the bottom of the stairs with his hand on the railing, and looking up as if he were about to climb a steep wall without equipment. Ethan adjusted his shoulder bag, took a step forward, took a step back, gripped the railing only to let go of it. God only knew what he was doing. Robert stopped, watching him when a group of girls ran past him and up the stairs with loud chatter. His stomach twisted when Ethan grabbed the railing, as though it was his lifeline, and leaned into the wall. He didn’t know what to do.
    Ethan’s shiny black hair obscured his face as he started walking up the stairs, as carefully as an old lady. It was pathetic and sad at the same time. With every step, he was dragging his foot up the vertical edge of the step, as if he were afraid to stumble.
    “Hey, you all right?” asked Robert, putting his hands in his pockets. As much as he despised Ethan for what had happened the day before, the guy’s physical condition was still his fault, and he couldn’t let go of the responsibility while still being able to look himself in the face.
    His heart froze when Ethan glanced back at him so quickly he looked as though he was about to lose his balance. At the last moment, Ethan grabbed the railing again.
    “Yeah,” Ethan muttered. “I just… stairs are shit. Like a fucking death trap.”
    Robert didn’t need to listen to this anymore. He stepped forward and offered Ethan his arm. “I’ll help you. Go on.”
    Ethan pulled back, pressing his side into the railing. “I’m sorry, you don’t have to,” he said but looked up at Rob with utter amazement and took him up on the offer in the blink of an eye. “The doctor said I’ll adjust to it in no time.”
    Robert swallowed. He couldn’t believe the helplessness in that face. It was as if Ethan had two different people in him. “Is it, uh, your head? Did this... thing affect your balance?”
    “It’s the eye. I can’t figure out all the distances that well just yet, and on the stairs it’s the worst because a wrong inch can make you fall. And because I’ve had these stinging headaches every now and then, it freaks me out to be somewhere where I can break my neck if I lose my