I LEFT RINTEAU IN the do jang. He had a very satisfied smilirk on his face, and was enjoying the moment a little too much seeing as how we hadn’t even kissed.
I told him I was leaving, and he waved me off without saying a word. I shot out of the do jang, searching for Alex. Of course, he could be anywhere and I couldn’t find him in any of the usual places. The computer lab, the rec room, and the cafeteria were all no-Alex zones.
Taking a chance of getting caught by one of the resident faculty, I busted down the boys’ hall to Alex and Brent’s room, but neither of them were there. Brent was usually in the electronics lab this time of night, but when I found him there, he told me he hadn’t seen Alex since Tae Kwon Do class.
What to do. He might be with Pilar, but I thought not. In fact, both of us were likely to avoid Pilar during this drama. Maybe Alex had feelings for me, maybe he didn’t, but he clearly felt something for Pilar. I didn’t see him running to her to tell her that he was upset to see me almost kissing another boy. If you’re a guy, it’s not a good idea to let your maybe girlfriend know it upsets you when another girl is almost kissing another guy. It leads to questions. So I didn’t think he was with her. And I certainly wasn’t going to mention anything about it to Pilar. Nope. Alex and I were going to work this out and talk about it like civilized adults. If I could find him.
He was in the weight room. I should have thought of that. Whenever Alex is upset his natural instinct is to work out even more. The weight room is just off the main gymnasium in the lower level of the school. He was on the bench press. I won’t guess how much weight was on the bar, but it looked like he was trying to single-handedly lift Montana. I mean the state, not the famous ex-football player or the pop singer’s alter ego.
“Don’t you know it isn’t safe to lift weights alone?” I said.
Alex didn’t say anything. He set himself, then pushed up, lifted the bar off the bench, and brought it down to his chest. Muscles bulging, he raised the bar and the weights shot upward and then back again. He was through eight repetitions in a matter of seconds.
The weight slammed down on the bench and he stood up. He didn’t look at me or say anything. He grabbed two more five-pound weights from the rack and added them to the barbell.
“Aren’t you going to talk to me?”
“Wasn’t planning on it.”
“Alex, don’t be this way,” I pleaded.
“What way? What way, Rachel? The way that says ‘what the heck are you thinking’? The way that says ‘why are you so determined to get close to some guy you don’t even know’? The way that says ‘everybody else knows that something about Rinteau doesn’t add up, but you’? Is that the ‘way’ you’re talking about?” He made the little air quote signs again. He knows how much I hate it when people make air quotes.
“Listen. First of all, who I choose to spend my time with is my business, not yours. Second of all, you’re the only one that has a problem with Rinteau; everybody else—”
Alex cut me off. “Everybody else thinks he’s totally wrong, Rachel. They just don’t want to say it to you. Everybody. Me, Brent, Pilar, they all agree something isn’t quite right about the guy, but you just choose not to see it. Heck, I’m half-convinced Mr. Kim thinks so too. ”
Okay. This was news. I didn’t realize Pilar and Brent had reservations about Michael. I mean, at mostthe least, I thought they might be neutral. Or just staying out of another Alex and Rachel debate. Maybe Alex was making it up.
“You’re making that up,” I groused. “If they had reservations about Rinteau they would have told me.”
“I am not making it up. We’ve all talked about it. They just haven’t said anything because they’re afraid of hurting your feelings and Pilar can tell you’re all gooey over the guy. They’ve keept quiet because they don’t want to listen to you prattle on about his ‘“good qualities’” for forty-five minutes every time his name comes up. But they all agree he’s not rightwrong. There’s a robbery at the mall that practically happens right in front of us. He shows up out of nowhere—why? Because he’s a Good Samaritan? When you go to look for him, he just happens to be back at the mall? Nobody hangs out at a mall that much! And here’s the kicker. Mr. Kim can find out anything about anybody. Any. Body. But Rinteau’s got no paper trail. Nothing. Not even a birth certificate. But you just don’t see it. Well, I’m not afraid of hurting your feelings. This guy is bad news. And you need to hear it. It’s for your own good.”
He lay back down on the bench and pushed the barbell up and off the rack, starting his reps again. His face was red, whether from anger at me, or the strain of lifting, I couldn’t tell. Probably both.
“Look, just because you don’t like the guy, doesn’t mean you have to pretend the others don’t either.” I couldn’t process all that he’d said yet. So I was still clinging to my “he’s just misunderstood” defense.
Alex rolled his eyes and slammed the barbell back onto the bench. He stood up, getting right up in my business. So close that I backed up a step. I hated giving ground, but the man was angry.
“You think I’m making it up? Well, you couldn’t be more wrong. You know why? It’s because I don’t care enough about it to make it up. What I care about are my friends, Mr. Kim, and this school. Rinteau, and your little whatever you got going on, is way down on the list. And I’m telling you, ever since L.A., we’re even more convinced that he’s not legit. Why did he just happen to show up when you were stuck on the cable? That wasn’t his position!”
“He just came to help,” I said. “You see? He’s very helpful. That’s a good quality in a person.”
“That wasn’t his job. He was to stay at his post and watch for bad guys. He left to go where he wasn’t needed and you almost got caught,” he said.
“He’s just inexperienced; it was his first time—” I said. Inexperience can be kind of cute.
Alex cut me off. Again.
“Don’t give me that. You and Pilar could have handled it just fine. But have you stopped to ask yourself why the mechanism broke in the first place? You’d rehearsed that drill a hundred times and Brent had checked and rechecked that equipment obsessively before you went live. But right at a critical moment, it breaks down?” he asked.
“Things happen,” I said, though I had to admit I was starting to sound lame even to myself.
“Yeah, well, Brent has looked at the cable motor about a dozen times ever since we returned. And he can’t find any reason for it to have malfunctioned. So you need to ask yourself. What’s the common denominator here?”
Alex picked up a towel he’d brought with him and wiped his face. I think he was waiting for me to say something, but I didn’t know what to say. I thought he was wrong, but it was impossible to convince him of anything when he was in a mood like this. Rinteau wasn’t a bad guy. I was sure of it.
“Alex …” I said.
“Just save it, Rachel. Talk to Pilar. She’ll explain.” Then he left me alone in the room. Just me and the other dumbbells.