“You’re right,” I said. “Forget I mentioned it.”
Priya waited calmly for us to finish arguing. But despite her outward serenity, I could tell she was practically ready to explode.
“There’s more?” I asked.
“Oh yeah.”
Oh no.
“And this is the best part,” Priya said. “Brea told me she heard from Avi . . . did I tell you he asked her to prom? He poured hot oil on the grass of her parents’ front yard to spell out the question. Mr. Grant was so pissed. But she said yes, and—”
Dustin said, “Get to the point,” with his mouth full of meatloaf.
“Anyway,” Priya continued. “So Avi had to go to the office to pick up his inhaler because he’d forgotten it at home and his mom had dropped it off for him, and he saw police there talking to Calvin.”
And there it was. Dr. Sayegh had called the cops. I checked my phone again to see if Calvin had messaged me, but his last text was from the day before, asking me if I still wanted to go to prom with someone as screwed up as him. To which I’d replied with a simple “Yes.”
I considered texting him to ask if he was all right, but there was only one reason I could think of that the police would be questioning Cal.
“Ozzie?” Dustin asked. He was staring at me. They were all three staring.
“What?”
“I asked if you know what’s going on?”
I shook my head. I’d already done enough damage by telling Sayegh.
But Lua was watching me, and I knew she’d put it together. I just prayed she didn’t say anything in front of the others.
Then Lua said, “Probably steroids or something. Isn’t that what you said a few weeks ago, Priya?”
I could’ve kissed Lua right then. Priya eventually sat down and spent the rest of lunch spinning theories about how the whole wrestling team was likely hooked on steroids, and that’s why Trent and Calvin had been called to the office. Either they’d taken steroids or witnessed others shooting up. By the end of lunch Priya had concocted an entire conspiracy.
I kept my mouth shut and let her believe her little fiction, because it didn’t matter. The truth would reveal itself eventually, but I could try not to make the situation worse.
? ? ?
Lua turned down the stereo in my car as soon as we drove out of the parking lot. Like the truth, she was a tidal force.
“It was Reevey, wasn’t it?” she said. “The teacher Calvin was banging?”
My eyes widened. “How did you . . . ?”
“It’s not that tough to figure out,” she said. “He was sleeping with a teacher, something happened, he quit wrestling. Any idiot could’ve connected those dots.”
“Don’t tell Dustin,” I said. “Or Priya.”
“I won’t,” Lua said. “Did you convince Calvin to go to the cops?”
I shook my head. The muscles in my face felt tight, and I had to keep blinking back tears. After lunch I’d walked past the office and had seen Mr. Frye’s truck in the parking lot.
I couldn’t speak. I knew the moment I opened my mouth I was going to lose it and probably get into an accident and kill us, so I pulled into the parking lot of an emergency animal hospital.
“I told my therapist,” I said, before I broke down crying. My body shook. Tears streamed down my cheeks and snot dribbled out of my nose. I was sobbing so hard I wasn’t even certain Lua could understand me. It took me a minute to piece myself back together, and Lua waited patiently. “I was worried. Calvin’s been acting weird, and he cut himself again and then he told me Reevey used to drug him and I don’t even know what else that asshole might’ve done to him, but I was scared he was going to do something stupid, so I told my therapist and she said she had to report it.” I slammed my fist on the steering wheel. “He’s going to hate me so much, Lua.”
Lua took my hand and cradled it against her chest. “He won’t hate you.”
“Of course he will.”
“Okay,” she said. “Maybe he will.”
“Is that supposed to help?” I tried to wipe my nose with the back of my hand, but I just smeared the tears and snot across my face.
Lua sighed. “You did the right thing, Oz. It’s better for Calvin to hate you than be dead, right?”
“Yeah.” I hung my head. I hadn’t felt so low since the Fourth of July.
“Christ. You really like him, don’t you?”
“That’s not important right now.”
“Of course it is,” Lua said. “If you didn’t like him, you wouldn’t have risked him hating you to get him help.” She dug into my glove box for a wad of napkins. “Being honest with the people you care about is hard. I’m kind of proud of you, Ozzie.”
“I doubt Cal will see it that way.”
“Maybe not right away. But give him time.”
I finished wiping my nose.
“How do you think Trent’s involved? Do you think he knew?” Lua asked.
I’d nearly forgotten that Priya said Trent had also been pulled out of class. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t think Reevey and Trent . . . ?”
“Well, now I do,” I said. But I couldn’t even think about Trent right then. “I just don’t want Calvin to hate me, Lu.”
“We’ll figure this out. It’ll be okay.”
“I hope you’re right. I don’t think I can lose anyone else.”
199,207 KM
COACH REEVEY WAS REMOVED FROM school the day after Calvin and Trent were questioned by the police, and Calvin didn’t show up for the rest of the week or the following Monday, either. I texted him a couple of times, playing dumb, asking where he was and if I could come over, but he didn’t reply. I’d wanted to go to his house over the weekend, but Lua convinced me to give him time. I didn’t want to give Calvin time. I wanted to see him—I needed to know if he blamed me—which is why Lua was right to tell me to stay away. My feelings were irrelevant. It didn’t matter whether Calvin despised me, only that he was okay.
It took less than a day for the news that Coach Reevey had also been questioned by the police to travel through school, and the Cloud Lake Herald splashed the story across their front page on Monday. Reevey hadn’t been arrested, though the article suggested it was only a matter of time, but the school had suspended him with pay pending an investigation.
Calvin and Trent weren’t named in the story—it only stated that Reevey had allegedly been involved in relationships with at least two underage students—but it was easy to piece together that Trent and Calvin had been pulled from class the day before Coach Reevey’s suspension. The biggest surprise was that Reevey had also been abusing Trent, and I wondered how the police had figured it out. Obviously, they’d learned about Calvin from Dr. Sayegh, who’d gotten it from me, but I never would’ve guessed Trent was involved.
“Dude, Pinks,” Dustin said after physics as we walked to the cafeteria. “Did you know?”
I’d skipped lunch since the day Calvin was pulled from class in order to avoid this exact conversation. I hung my head as we walked through the halls. People knew Calvin and I were friends, and I imagined them pointing at me and whispering. I deserved much worse for betraying Calvin’s trust.