Chapter 17

He hated it here. Too many demons from his past haunted these empty corridors, rattling the lockers like noisy ghosts. At least registration wasn’t held in the gym—he would have never been able to walk through the baseball diamond around the back of the school, or past the stands of bleachers folded against the gym walls, or by the doors that led to the locker rooms. Too many memories there. Too much pain.

A girl his own age stood up from the counselor’s station closest to him, and before she could even move aside Stacy slid in her place. To the counselor he said, “Hey,” ignoring the hateful look the girl shot his way. He laid his folder on the table between them. “They told me I need to get into a class.”