A Dilemma

Judging by Andrew's expression of distracted happiness, there was only one person he could have been talking to.

“Send Katie my regards.” Though he wasn’t exactly stealthy with the two heavy bags of trash in his hands, Andre was still mildly startled as he turned towards his friend.

“I will. She’s decided to go to the U of K with me!” His startlement gave way to joy as he communicated the news.

Clement smiled. “Happy for you two. Didn’t know she liked the legal industry, though.” Calling Katie Andrew’s girlfriend of two days would not have been entirely accurate. Her status was the logical conclusion of a connection dating back to freshman year, that neither party had the necessary means to escalate until very recently.

“Oh, she doesn’t. She just found out that they offered roughly the same music program that she was planning to attend. The things people do for love!”

These words were as ill-fitting in his low, gruff voice as they were funny, but Clement did not feel like laughing. They continued to exchange pleasantries about each other’s cleaning abilities for a little longer as Clement took several trips up and down the stairs, depositing his storage boxes into a small hatch in an unremarkable corner, but the conversations died down as quickly as they started. It was like there was a third person standing between them, that neither of them could acknowledge no matter how hard they tried.

It was fifteen to six when Andrew finally had enough. They oily had to wait fifteen more minutes until the punctual Jean got there, but, clearly, the elephant in the room became unbearable.

“The fact that we got such a strict hush order means something really is going on. What do we tell the others?”

Clement understood the necessity of a discussion such as this. He knew that his characteristic sigh would not get him out of this one. In spite of all this, he really did not want to participate in it.

It was a difficult, multivalent issue with no definite correct answer. The very opposite of scientific. In fact, he hadn’t fully made up his mind on it yet. However, there really was no more beating around the bush.

“I dunno, man. Should we even tell them anything?” he said uneasily, at the same time eyeing Andrew’s phone with great suspicion.

“Ah. Good point.” In a quick, precise movement, Andrew raced up the stairs, placed his phone onto the floor of the top level, then descended just as quickly. On the way back to his seat, he flicked the power button of a small radio that was standing on one of the shelves. A rapper’s voice described his preparations for a big heist and how he got backstabbed by his own informant as the two friends stared each other down.

Andrew wasted no time in stating his case “I feel like we owe it to them. It’s their club too, after all.”

“Their club, true, but our discovery. In my opinion, this is too trivial an incident to waste valuable meeting time talking about.”

Andrew’s face fell. “Oh, stop it. You know exactly what I mean. Don’t get lost in sem-whatever that word is.”

“Semantics.”

“Right. Anyways, if any of them found it, they would tell us for sure!”

“Debatable. Jean probably would. Evan might, but I wouldn’t count on it. Eliza? Hell no.”

Though humoured by the analogy, Andrew would not take no for an answer:
“Maybe that wasn’t the best example, but they’re still all here for us. Why can’t we do the same? You’re obviously not protecting the secret for scientific clout, so are you so strongly against it, anyways?”

“To put it simply, I don’t want to drag them into it. This whole thing smells of actual federal interference, and I’ve had more than enough of that during my brother’s background checks. Why are you so keen on telling them, anyways?”

“Well, like I said, we shouldn’t have secrets from fellow club members, especially in the field that brings us all together. It undermines the professional relationship, type of thing. And also, I want to get back at those damn agents. I bet they’re laughing at us right now listening through a flower pot or something.” He shook his fist menacingly at a small stalk of flowering hibiscus on the windowsill.

“Well what’s stopping us from just calling them on Monday and raising hell? We don’t have to drag them into this mess!”

“Oh, you and your dragging again. There’s been worse situations we’ve dragged them in. And they aren’t fully innocent either. Remember that yearbook stunt?”

Despite the gravity and urgency of the situation, Clement laughed. “It’s hard to argue with someone who knows me so well. And yet, I think we should respect the order.”

“The feds won’t respect anyone or anything if they need to. All I’m saying is we need to look out for one another. Think about it, what if this is actually serious, and some stupid rock is headed straight for us. We’d be giving them some more time to prepare, and we both know just how valuable that can be.”

Pressured hard on many fronts, with a reasonable argument finally opposing him, Clement began to make concessions: “You know what, I’m starting to understand the point you’re making. There’s a lot of fluff and bloat attached to it, but at the bottom of it it’s pretty noble and just. The hush order’s on my name anyways, so I suppose I won’t be too mad if you told them.”

“No, it has to be both of us. Won’t be believable if it isn’t. You expect them to believe that I sifted through months of blurry pictures just to extract a few dumb numbers?” Andrew sure knew how to exploit a breakthrough.

Clement’s nature battled against the seemingly earnest and logical arguments that were being put in front of him. The caution was slowly giving way, but he still had to account for edge cases.

“Okay. Say we bite the bullet and tell them. What-”

“Tell us what?” The door creaked and Jean Duloup, the club president for the last three years, entered the room. The voices of many more were audible behind her, but given her important position, it was only natural that she would be entering first. Natural, yet unnatural, as the clocks still showed 5:58. Clement and Andrew exchanged a look, their debate temporarily on ceasefire, because the seventeenth club leader who was universally respected for her scarily accurate punctuality, could not be off by a whole two minutes without something being really off.

In that moment, however, they were both too startled and too self-serving to notice the fatigue beneath her happy and confident appearance and the sadness deep within her clear green eyes. This wasn’t too unexpected - they were still looking for a way to preserve the status quo and continue their debate, while simultaneously coming up with ways to win the other over and excuses to keep her from being suspicious. They struggled with this as a crowd of people - some much more familiar than others - entered the room. Among them were the usual club members, a few friends from other clubs, a few of the lower years who would take over in September, the president of the student council, and a painfully familiar yet strangely unfamiliar man. They both recognized him, but he had changed so much - and not in a positive way across the board - that a part of them did not want to. Regardless, they put this task on the back burner, still trying to compete for their point of view being adopted.

After a few awkward seconds, Andrew broke the stalemate with a decisive blow: he approached Jean and gave her the news: “Top secret club business, Madame. We’ll explain after this clears up a bit.” Without needing to change his mind, or really do anything Clement had lost. What a dirty trick, he thought to himself, but not unexpected for Andrew. He chided himself at not being the one to make the first move, but found some solace in Andrew’s visibly guilty appearance. At least the bastard felt remorse, he had thought.

Jean accepted his reasons very quickly: “Well, alright then. We’ll hear about it later. You better have cleaned up around here, though.” As she spoke, new and new guests entered the room, laden with heavy packs of food and drink, and began to set food on the table, take their spots at it, or just mill around aimlessly. With none of the three being quite satisfied with the course of events, the party was beginning