was getting sued, that was a guarantee.
Nope, that’s a piece of her sessions Devon could keep stored away in a forgotten storage unit in her brain. Unit 24, reserved for potentially threatening activities by counseling subjects, in the box marked Stuff No One Else Needs To Know, Seriously.
“Hey, sunshine,” Grant opened the door a crack and leaned his head inside. She wrapped her notebook around her chest and squinted at the sunny outline of Grant.
“Hey, you’re not supposed to be … what if I was with …?” Devon couldn’t find a polite way to say: What the hell are you doing here?
“Don’t worry, I saw Isla leave. I’d never barge into a session like that; I know what you look like when you get angry. No thanks,” Grant laughed and Devon relaxed.
“Sorry, no one’s ever been in here with me that wasn’t a—”
“Nutjob?” Grant plunked himself down into the leather chair. “Tell me Doctor? Is it bad that I want to have sex with my mother and kill my father?”
Devon didn’t laugh. “We should go.”
“Wait, wait, I’m sorry. That was insensitive of me. Let’s talk about you, your feelings. Any lingering emotions you want to confess to me?”
Devon tried to squirm out of Grant’s way, but he held her hands and kept her in her chair. “Grant, I don’t know.…”
“Isla’s gotta be a real piece of work once you get her in here, huh?”
“You know I can’t talk about that stuff.” She pried her hands from his grasp.
“Right, right, of course. Heaven forbid Devon breaks a rule.” Grant shook his head.
“You know, since you are in the chair, I have a question for you.”
“Shoot, Doctor.”
“How are you and Eric Hutchins so tight?” Devon was more curious how Grant would respond to the question that what his answer could be. He blinked, avoiding her eyes. Hmmm, so telling already.
“We’re not really.”
“So, why did he ask you to be a pallbearer?” Devon asked.
“Okay, you got me. It was Colonel Mustard in the Billiard Room with the lead pipe. Happy now?” The bell rang for the start of next class. “And I’m late to French.” He stood and reached for the door.
“Grant, seriously.”
He sighed. “Eric and Hutch and I went to the same lacrosse camp once, years ago. It was before Keaton. To be honest, I don’t really know why Eric asked me. Now, can I be excused?” His voice took on a harsh edge.
“Hey, I didn’t ask you to barge in here.”
“Yeah I’ll remember that next time I try to visit you.” Grant slammed the door behind him.
Devon felt sick. Keep this up and not only will your subjects quit, you’ll drive away all your friends, too. She grabbed her backpack and locked up the therapy room. How did an extracurricular start taking over everything in her life? There was nothing “extra” about it.
THANKFULLY, BAY HOUSE WAS quiet. Devon was grateful to have a free period. Clean my room, catch up on homework, be a human again.
As she approached her room, she noticed that Sasha’s door was open at the end of the hall. Devon stopped and listened. No toilet flushing, no phone call chatter, no shower running … no Sasha. Devon poked her head inside the room. Sasha’s dad had once played for the New York Jets. Apparently he was Hall of Fame material. Sasha’s room looked like a Jets-themed sporting-goods store. But, Devon supposed it was why Sasha pursued her athletics and education with equal intensity.
On her desk Devon spied a pad of green paper. The same paper she had seen Sasha give Matt. “Sasha?” she called out to the empty room. Nothing. A place that bases everything on an honor system leaves a lot of room for stupidity. Devon darted toward Sasha’s desk. The green paper had the Keaton logo at the top of the page. Now she felt like an idiot. She had the exact same pad. Everyone always got a pad of Keaton paper on their desks at the top of the school year. Nothing could go more unnoticed.
BACK HER OWN ROOM, Devon examined the paper she’d swiped from Matt before Hutch’s funeral. It was hastily scrawled with 25Ad/15 in dark pencil. “Ad” probably was code for Adderall; that part wasn’t too hard to guess. 25Ad probably meant 25 mg pills and /15 meant that person wanted 15 of them. Her heart thumped. If Devon ratted Matt out for selling Adderall, there would be a lot of angry classmates. As far as she was concerned, Adderall for