after that. The lawyer leaves so I can change into the pair of jeans, shirt, and hooded sweater my dad sent. Shedding the grungy suit is like peeling away a layer of skin. I shove it all into the bag and it just sits there, all crumpled up, looking like crime scene evidence. If I manage to actually get out of here, I might just burn the fucking thing.
The room the hearing is in is cold and eerily quiet. Every breath, every shuffle of paper, every pen click is amplified harshly. I don’t know where my dad found this lady, but she sends me the occasional glance, a warm smile softening the concern in her eyes.
I want to tell her not to worry. I know what’s going to happen here. I know so acutely that I pretty much space out when the magistrate appears on the screen and the lawyer starts talking. Possession with intent. I brace for the breaking and entering charge, but it never comes. Doesn’t matter. Breaking and entering is a misdemeanor. Possession with intent is going to bulldoze right over any hopes I might have had for a normal life here.
I don’t really tune in until I hear her say, “…the statement from the minor and her parents regarding the ownership of this medication and the special circumstances regarding his possession of it, we’ve requested a dismissal from the state, which the district attorney has generously suggested, and with prejudice...”
“Wait,” I say, head snapping up. “No, it wasn’t—”
The lawyer instantly covers the microphone, eyes shooting daggers at me. “You need to be silent, Reynolds!” She looks beyond pissed as she whispers, “Silent!”
My heart hammers in my chest and I know.
I know Vandy’s trying to take the fall.
Before I can think of a plan to save it—to save her, her future—the magistrate is dismissing the case. The screen goes blue and I stare at it in numb, stupefied horror.
The lawyer touches my arm. “There’s going to be some paperwork, it might take a few.”
I look at her hand, throat constricting. “What’s going to happen to Vandy?”
She gives me a strange look. “You don’t need to worry about her. You need to worry about yourself. You just dodged a serious bullet, young man.”
But I hadn’t. Vandy had taken it for me.
I’m so exhausted by the time they dump my bag of personal effects in my arms that I can’t even muster any excitement about leaving. The door opens with a harsh buzz and I shuffle through to the sally port. My dad’s waiting there for me, hands stuffed in his pockets, propped against the windowed counter. He looks a lot less pissed than he sounded on the phone yesterday. A lot less confused, too.
“Got everything?” he asks, like I’m being picked up from camp instead of lockup.
I hold out the bag containing my wallet and car keys. My picking kit is toast, probably gathering dust somewhere in a seizure locker. “Yeah.”
He claps a hand on my shoulder. “You look like shit, son.”
I grimly assure him, “The outside matches the inside.”
He gives me a small shake. “Let’s not keep her waiting, huh?”
I figure he’s talking about the lawyer, who’d sat with me over the paperwork. God only knows what her billable rate is. I don’t know how my dad isn’t foaming at the mouth about it, but he’s not. If anything, he looks… settled.
But when we exit the sally port, crossing into a long corridor and entering the lobby of the main entrance, the lawyer isn’t there.
Vandy is.
She’s right by the door we enter through, eyes fixed to a plaque on the wall. Her blond hair is pulled up into a ponytail, sweater wrapped tight around her, and she looks almost as tired as I feel.
When she hears the door open, she whips around. Her eyes go alight when they land on me, and I’m not expecting it. I’m not expecting her to be here. I’m not expecting the way she looks at me, so full of fear and something soft and assured. She jumps to throw her arms around me, and I’m so stunned that I drop the bags to catch her, instinctively folding her into me.
“Oh my god,” she gasps, clutching my neck. Her cheek is smashed against my jaw, but she turns her face to press a quick kiss to it. “I’m so sorry! Are you okay?” She pulls back to take my face in her hands. “They kept telling us to wait and wait, and