The New Apprentice

Chapter 3: What the Room Heard

I heard Miles say my name through the half-open door.

Practice had ended ten minutes earlier, and I'd gone back to retrieve my phone. I stopped in the hall when I heard Graham's voice inside the equipment room.

"You can't keep changing the pairings every time she walks in."

"I'm not."

"You asked for the change."

A pause followed. I stood with my fingers curled around the doorframe.

"She can't be my partner."

"Why?"

"I saw what happens."

The room went quiet.

I pushed the door open.

Miles was standing beside the gear shelves. Graham faced him with his arms folded. Both of them looked at me, but only Miles seemed surprised.

"What did you see?"

He shut his eyes for a moment. "June."

"Tell me."

Graham stepped toward the door. "This isn't the place."

"Then tell me somewhere else."

Miles picked up his bag. "I'm not discussing it."

"You were discussing it when you thought I couldn't hear."

"I didn't say anything about you."

"You said you saw what happens."

He walked past me into the hall. I turned and followed.

"Was it about the trials? Did I do something that got us disqualified?"

"No."

"Did I get hurt?"

"Not in a way you need to worry about."

"That's an impressive way to make me worry."

He stopped near the coat hooks. His face had gone pale beneath the warmth of the practice room.

"It was a dream," he said.

"Then why treat me like it's true?"

"It felt real."

"That's not the same thing."

His eyes met mine. "I know."

"No, you don't. You're making decisions for both of us because of a dream you won't explain."

"I'm trying to keep you safe."

"From what?"

He looked away.

I felt my patience give out. "You keep telling me what you can't do. You keep moving me around like I'm a problem to manage. If you have something to say, say it."

"I can't."

"Then stop acting like I'm supposed to understand."

He left before I could stop him.

*****

I waited until Coach finished locking the office, then asked him what Miles had seen.

"Ask Miles."

"I did."

"And he didn't tell you."

"Right."

Coach dropped the key ring into his coat pocket. "Then I can't tell it for him."

"That sounds a lot like you know something."

"I know what he told me. It's his to explain."

I wanted to argue, but Coach had been the person who gave me a place at Ashcombe when no one else thought I was ready. I didn't want to turn his refusal into another reason to be angry.

"Does he believe it?" I asked.

Coach looked down the hall, toward the door Miles had used. "He believes what he saw."

I watched his face, searching for the kind of doubt that would make the situation smaller. I didn't find it.

"What do you think?"

"I think people make mistakes when they treat a possibility like a fact."

It wasn't an answer. It was the closest thing I'd get.

At home, I found a message from Miles.

Miles: I'm sorry you heard that.

I stared at the words for a long time before replying.

June: Are you sorry you said it, or sorry I found out?

The message showed as delivered. He never answered.