Page 75 of Risking it All

“He means he doesn’t like us,” Relic said as interpretation to the rest of us, but we knew that already.

Lev shrugged then looked over at Relic with the saddest eyes. “He doesn’t get sharks like we do.”

“We have to do something.” The alarm in Melanie’s voice caught my attention. “We can’t let that happen. Lev is a part of us. How do we stop this?”

“Well.” Zuri’s eyes darted between all of us and Mrs. Collins who had taken a seat in the circle. “Mrs. Collins and I will check our emails again. But we haven’t received anything yet, so maybe your father didn’t mean it.”

Lev took his phone out of his pocket, and with a few pushes of his fingers, he brought up his email. He showed it to Zuri. “He sent it ten minutes ago. And if you’re wondering, he’s currently rage texting me because he figured out that I’d walked here.”

“You live five miles away,” Demarius said.

“I left early,” Lev said. “I wanted to be here.”

Demarius turned to him, “You should have called me.”

“Or any of us,” I said, but Lev stared at the floor. “We’re your friends.”

“I wanted this last meeting to go like normal, I guess.” Lev gave a bitter laugh. “As normal as we all are, you know?”

“This can’t be happening.” Melanie’s voice broke, and I reached over to her to take her hand as I understood the panic. She held tight to me.

“What do we do?” Relic asked in a low and threating tone, and he looked at Mrs. Collins and Zuri for an answer. “How do we stop this?”

“Lev,” Mrs. Collins said. “Is your father coming to pick you up or your mother?”

Lev checked his phone. “Dad and Mom are turning into the parking lot as we speak. I guess this is goodbye.”

He stood and so did Mrs. Collins. “Lev, stay here. I’m going to talk to your parents.”

All the blood drained from his face. “Please don’t do that.”

“It’ll be okay.” Mrs. Collins offered him a reassuring smile. “This can happen. Sometimes parents put their children in therapy with the idea of what they want out of it for their children. When that happens, we have to step in to remind them that the point of therapy is for their children to grow into themselves, not into someone who meets another person’s ideal. Give me a few minutes to talk with your parents and we’ll try to sort this out.”

“You don’t understand,” Lev said. “Dad gets mad.”

“Dealing with upset people is part of my job description,” Mrs. Collins said cheerily as she left.

“This is bad.” Lev paced as Zuri said, “Why don’t we sit, Lev, and we can discuss what’s going on inside you.”

“Inside me?” Lev skidded to a halt. “There are a million things inside me, and Dad hates them all. When I’m here, when I’mat work, there are people who love the things inside me, but Dad doesn’t, and it makes him angry, and I wish Mrs. Collins wouldn’t talk to him.”

“Why?” Zuri pushed.

Lev trembled. Relic and I glanced at each other again because everyone in the room had to feel the shockwave his quake caused.

“Tell them.” Melanie stood and confronted Lev.

Lev folded into himself, wrapping his arms around his stomach. “I can’t.”

“You can.”

His face contorted. “I told you because I trusted you to not tell.”

“You told me because you need help. Just like I need help. Just like we all need help. Some secrets aren’t meant to be kept.”

“Brave from you,” he spat. “You haven’t told anyone else why you’re here. Why should I spill my secret, but you get to keep yours?”

“Fine,” she said, never taking her eyes from him. “I’m here because I cut myself. All my friends dumped me the summer between eighth grade and freshman year, and I had nobody this past year, so I cut myself because I preferred that pain over the one inside me. My parents found out, so they sent me to a psychiatric hospital, and this is part of my outpatient therapy. Now, it’s your turn. Tell them, Lev.”

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