I try to tell them to go, but it comes out as gibberish.
“Sybil, Stella.” Sebastian appears in front of us, his eyes narrowed in on me.
“I’m so sorry, Mr. C,” Sybil apologizes. “I’m trying, but I think Stella’s too drunk to move.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
SEBASTIAN
THERE AREexpectations for how situations like this should be handled at Loyola Academy. If I was doing my job, I would take Stella straight to the school medical office, where they could observe her until morning. Upon which, she would be questioned and most likely suspended. Loyola has an uneasy track record of making examples of students like Stella. Students who haphazardly expose the ugly side of this school. Feeding her to the wolves and leaving her to fend for herself might be the smarter option in this case, but I refuse to do that.
Stella is barely coherent as Jennifer examines her on my living room sofa. I’m breaking more rules than I can even count right now, but all I can think about is beating the ever-loving shit out of whoever did this to her.
“I can test her for benzodiazepines if we can get her to urinate,” Jennifer says. “But that could take some time.”
“The headmaster’s son supplies the kids with prescriptions. It’s likely Valium or Xanax.”
“Has this happened here before?” Jennifer frowns.
It’s evident she’s torn about this entire situation, and I don’t blame her. Jennifer is a doctor, and an old friend of the family, but those ties only go so far.
“This is the first time I’ve seen it,” I admit. “It’s widely known that the students use uppers and downers for studying and partying, but I’ve never seen them used as a weapon before. She should have known better.”
My blood boils every time I look at Stella lying there in her barely conscious state. She put herself into a dangerous situation. She completely disregarded every rule she should have followed.
“She’s young.” Compassion laces Jennifer’s voice. “Teenage girls don’t always know better.”
“She’s almost eighteen,” I argue, and I know how it probably sounds. “She should know better. If I hadn’t shown up, it could have been an entirely different outcome.”
My chest heaves as I pace the length of my floor, unable to hide my frustration. Jennifer studies me and her eyes soften. “We’ve never really talked about it, Sebastian… but you do know what happened to Katie wasn’t your fault, right?”
Her observation stops me in my tracks. “This has nothing to do with Katie.”
“Really?” she challenges. “Because it looks like it has a lot to do with Katie. Why are you even here? Why are you teaching at some boarding school in the middle of nowhere?”
I release a breath and shake my head. “It’s only temporary.”
“You think you can make up for what happened to her by following her dream, but it’s obvious to everyone you aren’t happy.”
“Everyone who?” My voice darkens.
Jennifer looks at the floor to avoid my arctic gaze. “Your father is worried about you.”
A dry laugh erupts from my throat. “He’s worried about someone other than himself? That would be a first. I think the more appropriate line is he’s worried about the company.”
Jennifer sighs. “At some point, you’ll have to deal with this, Sebastian. You can’t put it off forever.”
“At some point, I will.” I turn my attention back to Stella. “Right now, I need your help, not your therapy. What can we do for her?”
“At this stage, I’m just keeping track of her vitals. When she starts to wake and consents to a drug test, I can give her one. But being that it’s most likely benzos, we’ll need to wait for them to eliminate from her system. She’ll have one hell of a raging hangover tomorrow, but she should be just fine.”
That answer isn’t good enough for me. Stella isn’t fine. She shouldn’t be lying here in my living room. She shouldn’t have put herself in this position, and when she wakes up, she’s going to hear about it. But for right now, I have somewhere else I need to be.
“Can you stay with her for an hour?” I ask. “I have something I need to do.”
“Sure.” She shrugs. “I’m not going anywhere. But whatever you’re about to do, be careful, okay?”
Her warning barely registers as I wind my way across campus to the small cottage where the janitor resides. The janitor, who also happens to be the headmaster’s son, Charles. After banging on his door for the third time, he opens it, and a cloud of smoke filters out into the evening air.