Ivy’s deflection wasn’t going to deter me. “At the very least, go to the infirmary for a detox, or talk about it in group therapy. That’s what it’s for,” I suggested.
“They’re just going to sell me the same bullshit they always do, tell me the same shit they tell every addict. They don’t really care about me,” Ivy sneered.
“Well guess what, your friends do. How’s Ava going to feel when she finds out?”
“Don’t tell Ava.” For the first time, Ivy actually sounded scared. “She doesn’t need to know about this. She’s got enough to deal with.”
“Everyone’s going to find out if you keep using, and you can’t stop on your own. Then what are you gonna do?”
Ivy gave a teary laugh. “Well, everyone always leaves me eventually, so why do I care?”
My mouth got dry. “We’re not like your parents. We’re not going anywhere. If you don’t care about yourself, think about Chancey. What’s this going to do to him?”
Ivy didn’t have anything to say to that, and maybe that’s because the question was unfair. I reallywasbeing an asshole today. I didn’t get a chance to add anything else before Ivy pushed past me, slamming their shoulder into mine. They hurried out of the room, and I sighed as I followed behind them. I barely made it out the door before I slammed into something. It moved, and I realized it was Ivy.
“I thought you were walking away,” I said.
“Iwas. But then I thought…” Ivy trailed off.
“You thought what?” I asked.That I was right?
“I thought I saw someone down the hall.”
I instantly became more alert. “Who’d you see?”
“I don’t know,” Ivy admitted. “I’m sure it was nothing. I mean, what would a girl with blonde curls have business doing down in an abandoned cell block? We’re the only ones who know about the workout room.”
My veins turned to blocks of ice. Blonde curls could only mean one thing.
Esther.
The Warden had her spying on us. Surely she couldn’t have heard anything inside the room. But what had Marcus and I said out in the hall?
We had to be more careful.
* * *
The week after, I wheeled Ava into Rehabilitation Skills. It was more or less an advanced Home Economics class to teach us how to assimilate back into society once we left this hell hole. Most students didn’t pass.
“You need a haircut,” Kallie said from the table next to us.
“I like my hair long!” Marcus countered. “I can almost fit it into a ponytail.”
“Imagine if you slicked it back, though,” Kallie suggested. “It’d look hot.”
They were talking like nothing had changed. Obviously, Marcus hadn’t asked her on that date yet.
“Girl, you don’t know what you’re talking about,” Alistair piped up from the table behind them. “Marcus is already one hot piece of ass. He doesn’t have to changeanything.”
“Uh… thanks?” Marcus said.
“Are you hitting onmy— on Marcus?” Kallie demanded. Very possessively, I might add.
“Look, I’m taken,” Alistair said. “Doesn’t mean I don’t recognize a good slab of meat when I see it. You agree, don’t you, Thaddeus?”
Thaddeus laughed from beside Alistair. “I’m not really the right person to ask.”
“You hear that, Kallie?” Marcus said proudly. “I’m agood slab of meat.”
