Page 14 of Speak

“Yes?”

Dark eyes peer at me over her dark framed glasses but she’s lowered her voice. “You’re still required one hour of therapy once a week after classes starting next week.”

I tense. “I thought Dr. Brown retired?”

“Yes, we have a new psychiatrist. Doctor Damon Archer.”

I nod, remembering the BMW I watched pull into the faculty parking lot. “Okay. I’ll make sure to make an appointment with Dr. Archer.”

She beams at me. “Perfect. I’ll let him know to be expecting you to pass by his office.”

Shit.

All good feelings gone.

Chapter Three

Raven.

Being back at Rayne-Moore was fucking nerve-wracking. The second I saw the spike above the bell tower a mile away before

Axel pulled up to the iron gates, I couldn’t stop bouncing my

knees.

Axel let go of the gear shift and placed a large tan hand

on my thigh. “Hey, it’s gonna be okay. I don’t exactly know whyyou want to come back; I mean, Hartford would love to have you.”

I look at him then look back out to the windshield as the rest of the huge stone gothic-style college comes into view. It’s

still as breathtaking as the day Sofia and John brought us for the campus tour with its magnificent size, its stony arches, high walls, and huge stained-glass windows. As beautiful as it is, it’s just as haunting.

A squeeze on my thigh brings me back to the present. To him; my rock.

“I got your back, Cooks. You call me if you need me, okay? Keep the location on your phone on when you leave the dorms soI can always find you.” I won’t be doing that. “I love you. You’ll be okay. I’m proud of you for coming back and facing your fears.” He pats my thigh and puts it back on the gear shift so he can park the car.

I wish it was just my fears I was facing instead of my demons. See, a couple of months ago, I forgot to pop one of the sleeping pillsDr. Archer prescribed me for my nightmares because I had completely knocked out after a super intense workout and a self-defense class, and then… something happened. Irememberedsomething in my dreams. A tattooed hand. Well, a tattooedfinger. A finger I knew belonged to Tyler Prescott. So when I was home on the three days I was allotted freedom, I wouldn’t take them. It was kind of hard not to at Lorne Wood, because they check your mouth. But at home, I had way more autonomy and no cameras.

The first night was always terrible, weaning myself from the medication. Eleven straight days of meds, then three days no meds. Sometimes, I didn’t know if what I was seeing was real. Except bits and pieces of that night started coming back to me when I was home.

When I woke up a week later in the hospital, and the cops started asking questions, I didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer. I didn’t remember anything.

But now?

Now that the bits ebbed and flowed closer together and were making more and more sense, I had to come back. I had to know why. Not just why me butwhy? What had I done? But more importantly,whohad done this to me? Tyler, obviously, but he wasn’t alone.

Dean Whitmore holds his dark hand out to me and I look at it. I don’t want to shake it, but he offers to take my cello inside for me so I shake it and then hand him my cello case.

The dorms are still exactly like I remember them; luxurious, spacious, comfortable. I’d only lived in them for the first four weeks until I pledged and then moved into the Zeta Gamma Phi House off campus with Sabrina, Ashleigh and Taylor.

Safe to say I won’t be pledging this year.

I have other things to worry about than fucking parties. Orfucking, for all that matters. Yeah, I’m sure nobody wants to fuck the freak that doesn’t speak.

It’s not like I haven’t tried. Both the fucking and the speaking. I could only wear so many short skirts around Dr. Archer before I felt like an idiot, crossing and uncrossing my legs, trying to flash him my ward-approved cotton panties. Only for him to ask me someridiculous question like; “How was your weekend with your family, Raven?”

It was fucking boring, Doc. Sofia and John were gone the entire time, on some extravagant business trip where they don’t have to look at me or introduce their defective daughter and they can just pretend I don’t exist entirely. Shit. The only one that even tries to speak to me is Axel and even then… he has his own life, his own friends, his own dates and parties to go to where he can’t take his sister because she has fucking panic attacks!

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