my issues and stuff.”
“It’s just for a few sessions.” Devon pulled her notebook from her bag and dropped it unopened into her lap, then leaned back. She hoped the gesture was non-threatening. † It felt good to have something to write in, something that made her feel removed from their existing relationship, however thin that was.
Isla smirked at the pad of paper. “So, what? Are you going to peer into my soul, Devon? Show me the error of my ways?”
“How about we start with the Oxy. Why’d you give me those pills?”
Isla chewed a nail.
Devon smoothed out the empty page of her notebook, shiny Mont Blanc pen poised. But her heart had started to pound again. “Isla?”
“I didn’t give them to you. I just wanted you to hold onto them for a bit. There’s a difference.”
“Fair enough. Why did you want me to hold onto them?”
“I just did, okay? With Hutch and everything.…” Her voice trailed off and she studied her fidgeting hands in her lap.
Therapy is what happens when you let the subject fill the silences
, Devon reminded herself. Isla’s eyes brimmed with tears. “Maybe I didn’t want to end up like him,” she said in a hoarse voice. “Is that the answer you’re looking for?”
“Why do you think you would? Are you planning on taking those pills?”
She stared back down at her hands. “I wasn’t there for him. And now he’s not here. I just worried about, like, what if I got into a bad place like Hutch did and had those pills around.… I just didn’t want them in my room anymore, okay? I thought I was making a good decision.” Her tone hardened. “Why are you grilling me for it?”
“No one is grilling you. You’re right; it was a good decision.” Devon made sure that her tone was warm, inviting Isla to open up. “I’m glad you asked me to hold onto them for you. Do you think Jenny Martin will miss them, though?”
Isla’s head snapped up to meet Devon’s gaze. “What?”
“The pills. I noticed the prescription is made out to Jenny Martin in Portland. Is that someone in your family. Maybe your grandmother?”
Isla scratched at her arm and stared at the yellow daisies on her quilt. Her pupils flickered. Devon had struck the vital nerve.
“How about an alias for Isla Martin?” she pressed, even though she knew she was reaching. “Is Jenny Martin a name you use to get prescriptions filled in Portland?”
“Shut up!” Isla snapped. “You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. Why am I even talking to you? Just give them back.”Her voice was no longer raspy or choked. She held out her trembling hand, palm up to Devon. “Give them back, NOW.”
Jackpot
, Devon thought. But having her suspicions confirmed gave her no pleasure. “I’m sorry, but I can’t. I’ll hold onto them for you though, okay?”
“You’re not going to rat me out?”
Devon shook her head and gazed into Isla’s bloodshot eyes. “Part of the deal here is that nothing we talk about gets shared with anyone else. So, as long as we keep talking, and I feel like you’re not a danger to yourself or others, no. I won’t rat you out. That’s the truth.”
Isla folded her arms. “That’s still a pretty lame reason for not giving back what’s mine.”
Devon held her hands up in a mock surrender. “Hey, you gave them to me in the first place. I’m just doing what you wanted.”
“Touché.” Isla leaned against the cold cinderblock wall.
“You and Hutch have been together since last year. Did you talk to him at all that night? Did he give you any indication of what he might be thinking of doing?”
“I didn’t see him that night, okay?” Isla said.
“Okay. Was that for any specific reason or just circumstance?”
Isla laughed in a hollow breath. “We broke up over the summer. Clearly you didn’t get the memo.”
Devon swallowed. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” Her mind raced to process. They weren’t together anymore? Hutch was single again? When he
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