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"Let's go in the hall," I suggested.
I walked out and dropped my bag on the floor against the far wall of the hallway. Josh leaned back
against the opposite one, keeping his distance. Next to him was a large bulletin board papered
with information about various clubs and plays and outings. A huge, colorful Holiday Dinner sign
was tacked up right in the center, reminding me of how very lame the gift I'd bought him for said
dinner was. But that wasn't the point right now.
"Listen," I began. "I know you're going to think I'm insane, and I know you're probably not in the
mood to do me any favors--"
"Is this about Ivy?" Josh said grimly, picking at an old piece of Scotch tape on the frame of the
bulletin board.
I tried not to cringe. His question was, after all, called for. The last time we'd spoken I'd told him
he didn't know his girlfriend the way I did, and then I'd fled.
"No. It's not," I told him. "You still talk to that Cole guy, right? Astrid's ex-boyfriend?"
Josh and Cole Roget had hit it off at Cheyenne's Christmas party the previous year after
discovering their mutual love of art, and I knew they had kept in touch via e-mail while Cole was
studying in Paris last spring. Josh took a deep breath and stopped picking at the tape, instead
tucking his hands behind him against the hallway wall. He looked suddenly uncomfortable.
Squirmy.
"Yeah. My brother and I actually met up with him one night in Vienna over the summer. Why?"
I bit my lip and prepared myself for his forthcoming reaction.
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Lacing my fingers together, I brought my hands up over my chest and held my breath.
"Is there any possible way you could call him and find out if he knows why Astrid was kicked out of
Barton?"
Josh looked at me like I was insane. "What?"
"I swear there's a good reason," I said in a rush. "You know that I wouldn't come here and ask you
to do this unless there was a good reason. Especially not after the way we left things."
"No. No way," Josh said, standing up straight and shaking his head. "What would I even say to
him? 'Hey, I'm calling you out of nowhere to ask why your ex-girlfriend got expelled?' You're