“Still.” She shakes her head. “That’s five this year alone.”
“Did another student die?” I ask Penelope as soon as I’m out of the classroom.
She chews on her lip, eyes turning away from me, telling me all I need to know.
“Fuck,” I hiss harshly, running a hand through my hair roughly.
“It’s going to be okay.” Penelope places a hand on my arm.
“Okay?” I scoff. “Nothing is okay about the drug problem this school campus has. One too many kids are dying, Pen. They come here, expecting us to keep them safe, and look at what’s happening.”
“We can’t help them all.” She gives me a sympathetic look.
Can’t help them all, no. But we can help by using the school funding to help clean up the school rather than use it all on the sports department.
What’s more important, students being safe and healthy, or people watching men throw a football around?
“Nice of you to grace us with your presence,” Dean Robbison quips as we step into the teachers’ lounge.
My teeth grind together as I bite my tongue to keep from making a snarky comment back to the asshole. That man is homophobic, doesn't matter how much he denies it. I know what I see. What I hear.
Giving him a little nod, I take the seat closest to me.
“I’m sure you're all wondering why I called this meeting," the Dean says. “It’s been brought to our attention, Chad Wentworth was found over the weekend and has passed away due to a drug overdose?—”
I don’t hear anything else he says as dread fills my stomach, and my body feels like lead. Chad Wentworth. As in the young boy who came to me months ago, seeking help because his father tried to beat him to death when he found out he was gay.
And when I tried to be the voice he needed, it got me nowhere. With his father being a well respected man of this city, no one believed Chad. Made him out to be a troubled kid.
The best I could do to help him was get him out of his father’s house and into the student dorms.
Right into the hands of people who could give him something to ease the pain he was clearly going through.
I should have done more to help him. Give him a place to stay. But it wouldn’t have looked good on my part letting a young male student live with me. That would have violated the rules of my job, risking my termination.
What I should have done is paid for it myself. It’s not like I don’t have money. I have more money and power than I know what to do with.
It’s why I moved here, getting away from the life I’m destined to take over one day, using this chance to live my life for myself. I’m focusing on what I want before I’m in charge of an entire empire.
Did my pride cost me this young man's life?
I need to stop being so hard on myself. This isn’t my fault. I did what I could. I tried more than anyone else seems to have. I didn’t do this to him. I didn’t fail him. His parents did.
And I’d be lying to myself if I believed any of that for a moment. This guilt is going to eat at me. I’ll always feel like I could have done more, should have saved him from the people in his life who should have been the ones to protect him.
You can’t save them all.
But fuck, I wish I could.
I try to listen to what the Dean is saying, but my mind is somewhere else. Dread and guilt weighing heavily on my shoulders.
“An email regarding everything we’ve just talked about will be sent out. If you have any questions, please come see me.”
Everyone gets up and starts to make their way out of the room, most likely returning to their respective classes.
“Can I speak to you for a moment?” I ask Dean Robbison.
He looks over at me and the look in his eyes tells me he’s done with this conversation before it even starts. Feeling is mutual, buddy.
