prove everything to you? I just know it, okay? I talked to him before school started, you know, just to see where we stood before all the rumors started about us being broken up. And he was distant, like he had moved on to someone else after me.”
“So, you and Cleo think he moved on to someone that he got pregnant?”
“I don’t care what that bitch thinks. I got her back though, crushed up an Ambien and put it in her little Frenchie water carafe she keeps next to her bed. She passed right out in Chem that day. It was awesome.” Isla laughed a little.
“That’s … um.” †Devon paused to make sure she phrased this the right way. “Isla, I’m not here to tell you what to do, but slipping anyone a prescribed drug is extremely dangerous. They could have an allergic reaction, for one thing. After what happened to Hutch—”
“What do you mean ‘what happened to Hutch?’ It was suicide. The asshole did it to himself and left us to pick up the pieces.” Isla’s dark blonde eyebrows pushed toward the center of her face.
“Okay, but do you understand what I’m saying about slipping people prescriptions?”
Isla chewed on the inside of her cheek and stared at the Rorschach poster behind Devon.
“Isla. Seriously. I have to refer to you to Mr. Robins if this could happen again. I really don’t want to narc on you.” Devon tried to keep her voice steady. She wouldn’t let this turn into one of those moments that people regret for the rest of their lives. If only I’d intervened.
Isla eventually brought her eyes back to Devon. “Fine. I hear you. I won’t slip pills into anyone else’s water. You’ve gotten really boring you know. Or maybe you’ve always been boring and I just never knew it.”
Devon sat back in her chair. “I’ll take boring, just as long as you hear me on the prescription thing. Speaking of, do want to tell me any more about the Oxy you asked me to hold onto last week?”
“Why, what’s wrong with it? Did you flush it or something?”
“No, I still have it. Keeping it safe like you asked. It’s just … I’d like to know where it came from.”
Isla leaned forward in the creaky leather chair. “I told you. I got it at home before coming back to school. It’s not that hard in Portland. Doctors are pretty lax about pain meds.”
“And there’s no chance you shared any pills with anyone when you came back to school?”
“I had them and then I gave them to you. That’s all there is to it. Why are you so obsessed with this?”
Devon stared back down at her notebook. She realized she hadn’t taken nearly as many notes since she’d lost her Mont Blanc pen. Of course, the cheapness of her Pentel had nothing to do with the lack of note-taking. “The thing is, before you gave them to me, Hutch overdosed on the same drug. So, you can see why I’m interested. Just trying to make sure that there wasn’t a chance Hutch got into your stash or something like that.”
“Well he didn’t, okay?” Isla picked at her split ends. “You wanna know where I was on Sunday? I went to the Cove. I couldn’t see Hutch in a coffin. I watched the surfers floating out in the waves and pretended that Hutch was one of them. When we were together, I would watch him catch a wave and he would wave back to me on the shore every now and then. Even though we weren’t next to each other, I could still feel him.” Isla absentmindedly scratched at her arm again. Her eyes brimmed with tears and she let them fall from her lids and skate down her cheeks. “There’s nothing to feel now.”
Devon nodded. She envied Isla’s memories. To feel that connected to someone, even from afar.… He’d wave to her on the beach. She’d wave back and return to her homework, smiling, feeling that warm glow spread across her body, the warmth of knowing someone loved you.…
“Whoever she is, she doesn’t get to have Hutch’s baby.” Isla’s words pulled Devon back to the session.
“Well, we don’t know what it’s like to be in this girl’s shoes. Maybe she doesn’t—”
“No!” Isla slammed her hands on the arm of the chair. “It’s not her choice. I get a say, too. It’s Hutch. There can’t be a baby.”
Devon stared at Isla. She was breathing heavily. Her cheeks turned a