Zenon's Game Chapter 160

"Why don't you come out and talk to them?" Zenon asked, leaning his elbow against the top of the car, "We're not going anywhere until you do."

I could barely see Art through the tinted windows of Bryce's car, but his yelling was loud enough for the whole park to hear.

"I didn't do anything wrong! We're on the same team, man!"

"I thought so too," Zenon shook his head, taking his time to peel Art out, "So I was disappointed to hear you weren't being truthful with me before."

Zenon just played the disappointment card, like a character out of the Godfather.

"I'm loyal, Zenon!"

"Then why didn't you tell me who took your jersey?"

"I didn't know for sure!" poor Art sounded terrified.

"Now you do," Zenon said, checking his phone, "And I'll give you three seconds to tell me."

Zenon was the only person I knew who could lean on Bryce's car without problems. His usually playful expressions were gone. His blue eyes had no glint in them.

Zenon was not playing around.

His body language was casual, but his words were not. "I'll give you three seconds."

I stood on the pavement beside Christopher Hayes. Hayes held a basketball under his arm, staring at the other guys with very little understanding. They hadn't given him any context.

One minute, he'd been playing basketball with Zenon. The next minute, the whole gang had shown up with a car full of drama.

Now Art was hiding behind the dark tinted windows of Bryce's car. After Zenon's warning, and without delay, he crawled out of the backseat.

He squinted up at the daylight and his face was already anguished. It was like watching a mouse venture out into a trap.

Bryce reached in and grabbed Art by the scruff of his shirt, yanking him out faster. He didn't have the patience to count to three.

Art had given up on yelling by now and raised his hands in defeat, "I'll tell you everything I know, but it's not much."

Subtly, Axel pulled out his phone to start recording. He did it without drawing any attention, and I had to respect that he thought about getting evidence.

Art's scared eyes were entirely focused on Zenon while he told the story. "Don't tell coach this, or I'll lose my scholarship. But some nerds asked me and a couple other guys on the team if they could buy our jerseys. It wasn't just me-"

"Ah man," Axel cursed, interrupting the most important part of this conversation - AKA the actual confession. "I wasn't recording. Can you start from the top?"

Zenon gave Axel a confused look and Art seemed nervous to see a camera pointed at him.

Bryce shoved Art to keep talking.

"I don't know what happened to the jersey, ok?" Art said, "They bought it. I don't know why they asked for it, maybe to impress girls or whatever, but they paid. Straight up cash."

"What's this?" Christopher Hayes asked, annoyed. "You're getting aggressive about dealing basketball uniforms? This is the preppiest sh*t I've ever heard."

A uniform dealer... yeah, doesn't have a ring to it.

Axel summarized rapidly, while still recording Art's confession, "Someone broke into Candace's house and left a basketball jersey dripping in cat's blood on her bedroom door."

Layton slowly looked from Axel to me. He raised his eyebrows, "Carry on."

"I... uh..." Art continued, before breaking eye contact with Zenon and staring at Layton. "OK, why is Christopher Hayes here? Isn't he the biggest competition we have for state championships every year?"

Zenon shut that question down. "You're the last person to question loyalties. Keep going."

I exhaled, feeling my heartbeat faster than recommended. Maybe this is what exercising feels like but, if it is, I'll live longer without.

Zenon had a firm grip on Art and was not going to let go until we got to the bottom of this. His expression was cold and unforgiving.

So, Art continued, "I didn't know what to do. When I heard you were going after my jersey, I panicked. It was never stolen Zenon, I sold it."

"To who?" Axel asked, zooming in for the closeup like he was directing an indie film.

"You probably won't know him. It's another junior, a nerd. His name's Aiden."

"That doesn't ring any bells," Axel sighed, lowering the camera.

Art quickly corrected himself, "Oh wait, sorry, no. His name's Kaden."

That's a big frickin' difference.

Bryce exhaled, "What a letdown. This is a dead end."

We were feeling very different things right now.

I couldn't blame Bryce for not having the backstory. He didn't know about my ex-boyfriend who dumped me and was now apparently harassing me to never find happiness again. Kaden was a piece of work, I knew that. But this is a whole new low.

Zenon looked down at the pavement, to control his anger.

He then slowly, very slowly, turned his head towards me. "Is that-"

I nodded, "Yes."

His jaw clenched. "OK."

I didn't really expect myself to do any of the things I did next. I'm not known for having the greatest reactions, and here I found myself thanking everyone.

"Thank you Axel and Bryce for finding Art and thank you Art for telling the truth," I said, "Sorry Layton for disturbing you with another absurd situation like this and Zenon... you've done so much for me. I'm going to finish this."

"Not alone," Zenon said.

Axel lowered his phone and stopped recording, "Then I'll roll credits."

Zenon walked over to me and his hand softly touched my cheek. He curled a loose strand of hair to behind my ear and asked, "Do you not want me to come with you?"

"I do but I have to get to Kaden first," I said, "He's at school for mathlete practice and they're going to finish soon. I'll be safe and I know you need some time to wrap this up."