You stare at him. How can he do this to you?
His eyes soften, though.
“Even the Energizer Bunny needs fuel,” he says. “I’m not trying to punish you. I’m trying to help you. I can even give your parents the name of my therapist.”
You shake your head. “Yousee a therapist?”
He shrugs. “I’ve got problems. Who doesn’t? It never hurts to get help.”
You sigh. He pushes the Snickers your way.
You shouldn’t.
You really shouldn’t.
But it does look good.
“I’ll split it with you,” you say softly.
He nods and breaks off part for you.
Maybe he’s right.
Maybe you do need a little help.
27DAYTON
You miss Brody.
You miss him at your locker before school.
You miss him at lunch.
You miss him during passing periods, when you’d walk by each other as you hustled to opposite ends of the building and barely have time to bump fists.
You especially miss him in conditioning, because now you have to jog alone during warm-ups.
You did your best not to make a big deal out of it that day. Frau pressed you on why you needed to go to the office, so you told her you saw a defaced locker on the way back from the bathroom. You didn’t tell her you knew who did it. But she handed back the little helmet pass and sent you on your way.
You had to talk to one of the admins before you could actually get anywhere, but finally Dr. Matthews asked you to step into his office.
You told him the whole thing.
You made sure to emphasize it was Reggie you actually saw with the Sharpie, Reggie doing the actual defacing, but it didn’t seem to matter.
Brody and Reggie both got suspended. Out of school, this time. Seven days.
The district minimum, because of the whole zero-tolerance thing.
You don’t know if Brody knows you told on him. After two days, he still hasn’t answered any of your texts. You don’t know if it’s because he’s mad at you or because he’s grounded.
You can’t decide what you’re supposed to feel.
You betrayed your best friend.
A friend’s supposed to stick with you, right? Not dump you, like Tyler and Cooper did. A friend’s supposed to call you in, not call you out, right?
But you tried that. He didn’t listen. And you couldn’t let him hurt someone, not even Farshid.
