Page 40 of Until the Ribbon Breaks

“I know.” The game comes to a stall, and I can’t make any more moves. “He totally took her side.”

“Parents suck.”

Gathering the cards to shuffle, I nod. “Tell me about it.”

“Max,” Marcus says as he and two other nurses walk toward our table.

She turns in her chair, shaking in fear, but before I can say anything to her, she’s already crying. Lurching out of the seat, she scrambles to make a run for it with nowhere to go. Max only makes it halfway across the room before they get ahold of her and drag her out while she begs them to let her go. It’s a nightly disturbance we’ve become immune to—well, everyone except Sebastian, who looks on in shock.

I won’t see her again until it’s lights out, so I decide to deal another game.

I don’t even realize that Sebastian is now standing next to my table until he says, “What’s up with that girl?”

Why is he talking to me?

“Go bother someone else.” I flip three and score an ace.

“Who am I supposed to talk to?” he questions, and I peer up to see him scanning the room as if he’s surrounded by wild animals.

“Why not your roommate?”

“That guy?” He nods to Jeremy, who’s currently talking to the floor. “What the hell is he even doing?”

“He sees rats ... big ones.”

He cocks a brow. “You can’t be serious.”

“He’s schizophrenic.”

“What?”

“Relax, he’s harmless.”

He pulls out a chair and takes a seat, but I wish he wouldn’t. It’s beyond mortifying for him to see me in this place. If only a force of nature could scoop me up and drop me somewhere else—anywhere other than here.

“What are you doing?” I ask, irritation heavy on my words.

“What does it look like? You’re the only normal person in this place for me to talk to.”

I roll my eyes. “You sure about that?”

He reaches over, swipes the Jack of diamonds off the top of the stack and places it on the queen of spades before smiling at me like the prick he is.

“You having a fun summer?”

“Seriously, dude,” I snap. “What’s your problem?”

“Just trying to make small talk. You don’t have to be a bitch.”

“Hey!” Nurse Shanice scolds loudly, snapping her fingers at him from across the room.

Raising his hands in defense, he stands and walks away from my table to busy himself over by the shelves filled with puzzles.

No one else bothers me for the rest of the evening, and when we’re dismissed to our rooms, there’s a collective groan from the Olympics watchers.

“You can catch the recaps in the morning,” Shanice tells them as she leads the girls into our private hall while Marcus takes the boys to theirs.

When I walk into my room, I find Max sitting on her bed, weeping against the pillow she’s hugging tightly to her chest.

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