“Mr. Galloway.” The counselor grinned wide enough to show his fangs. “Please, close the door and have a seat.”
This had better be worth it. Dylan took the offered chair. “Ms. Yang thinks you can fix me.”
“Fix is a loaded word. It implies that you’re broken.”
“Well, there’s something wrong with me.” There had to be, or he wouldn’t be doing so badly in gym.
“We’ll get to a discussion of your issues. How about we start with introductions first? Hi, I’m Mr. Emery.” He offered his hand across the desk. “What would you like me to call you?”
“Dylan is fine.” People called him “Mr. Galloway” when he was in trouble. He waited a second before shaking the man’s hand.
“Nice to finally meet you, Dylan.” He actually did look happy. “Now, before we get started, I want you to know that anything we talk about in here is confidential. I won’t share our conversations with anyone else. The only exception is if I think you might harm yourself or others.”
Dylan snorted. “Everyone always thinks I might hurt them.”
“Well, I don’t think you’re going to hurt me.” He smiled, flashing his fangs again. “I need to believe there’s a real, immediate threat for me to break confidentiality. I take that very seriously.”
Dylan crossed his arms and frowned. “So you won’t report everything I say to the wardens?” He could just picture Warden Bully studying Mr. Emery’s notes.
Mr. Emery shook his head. “Nope. Not one word. I can report on your general condition and progress, but those reports are only at the request of your parents and the principal. I want to emphasize general. The details of what we discuss are only between us.” He pointed a finger at Dylan and then at himself.
God, Dylan didn’t want to do this. The idea of discussing his problems with a stranger made him want to walk out right now.
“Okay?” Mr. Emery asked.
Dylan swallowed and made himself nod.
“Good. Now, what’s on your mind?” The counselor folded his hands and tilted back in his chair.
The past few losses in class replayed through his head. Aiden had been too afraid of matches two years ago, and now he was getting better than Dylan. And he said this had helped. “I suck at gym.”
“I noticed that Ms. Yang signed the recommendation slip. What do you mean by ‘suck’?”
“I keep losing matches or barely managing a draw.”
“And you used to win?”
He nodded.
“You’re in the advanced class, aren’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you think that maybe the class is just more challenging?”
Fear whispered that he might have reached the limits of his abilities. Dylan shook his head. “There’s something wrong with me.” It was easier to believe that he was broken, because that meant he could be fixed.
Mr. Emery nodded, all concerned. Dylan wondered if he practiced that face. “What do you think is wrong with you?”
He thought about what Aiden had said. “I was kidnapped. Everybody knows that.”
Another nod. “I know what I read in the news. But I don’t know what the experience was like for you.”
Terrifying. It was the first time he’d felt real fear, believed he might die. “They knocked me out, and I woke up in a cage.” Dylan looked away from Mr. Emery, at the bright posters about self-esteem that decorated the beige wall. “They hunted me like an animal.” The story started spilling out of him. The fear, the helplessness, the rage. The way he’d killed the human hunter. Being shot and Aiden coming to his rescue. The desperate flight with Aiden clutched in his arms and the fight against the warden. “I wasn’t strong enough,” he confessed. “My magic wasn’t strong enough.”
“And do you think a little voice in the back of your mind is whispering that when you’re in Major Magical Control?”
Dylan frowned. “You think I’m doing this to myself?” He wasn’t sure if he was angry at the counselor for suggesting it or angry at himself because it might be true.
“I think it’s possible. The subconscious is a powerful thing.”
Okay, if that was the problem, then he needed to find a solution. “So how do I make that stop?”
“It’s not quite that easy. First we need to figure out if that’s really the issue or if it’s something else or if there are multiple contributing factors.”
This was so damn annoying. “Yeah, fine. Let’s do that then.”
Mr. Emery smiled. “We’re not going to solve it today, Dylan. This is going to take some time and might involve discussing some very uncomfortable things.”
Dylan clenched his jaw. Adults were always like wait, wait, wait.
The counselor glanced at the clock. “We still have some time today. I’d like you to talk a little bit about what happened last year with the dark fae.”
Dylan’s instinct was to shrug it off with a muttered comment or two. But his problems hadn’t really started until after he was attacked at the pit. Aiden said this counseling thing worked, so Dylan should at least give it a serious try.
He described what happened while Mr. Emery pushed for details about how it made him feel. The deeper Dylan got into the memory, the faster his heart beat. After a while he realized he was gripping the chair arms, and magic rose inside him, ready to lash out.
Slowly he loosened his fingers.
“I think that’s enough for today, Dylan. Thank you for being open.” Mr. Emery pulled out a pink hall pass. “I’d like to see you once a week for half an hour. You can come anytime you’d like, but I suggest choosing a class you’re doing fairly well in so you won’t get too far behind.”
Health class probably. Although skipping out on English a few times might not be bad. Dylan would love to get out of algebra, but he was barely holding a C minus. If he was going to graduate, he had to get his grade point average up, and he was dragging around a bunch of Fs from freshman year. He was also facing the horrible specter of summer school to get enough credits.
“Thanks.” Dylan took the hall pass and stood.
“As long as you’re willing to work for this, I can help you, Dylan. I promise you that.”
* * *
Tiago sat in the larger, more comfortable gaming chair. “So why did you finally invite me over alone? Is this your way of proving you’re cool with the gay thing?”
“Actually, about that…”
“Yeah?” Tiago turned wary.
“I know I said I was cool with you and Aiden dating, but—”
Cat Boy tensed. “Yeah?”
“If you break Aiden’s heart, I’m gonna have to kick your ass.”
Tiago laughed, all the tension gone. “Fair enough.”
Dylan handed him a controller.
“So you invited me over here to give me the big-brother talk?” Tiago asked.
“The what?”
“The big-brother talk. You know, the older brother pulls the guy aside and says, ‘You better not break my little sister’s heart.’ Or you know, little brother in this case.”
“Oh.” Dylan snorted a laugh. “Well, that’s not the only reason I asked you to come over. Aiden doesn’t like zombie games, and I want someone for co-op.”
Tiago laughed again. “You know I’m not good at this.” His expression tightened. “I haven’t played games much.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure you’ll be fine with some practice.” Dylan slid over to the game shelf and pulled out his newest zombie game. “And you can have my old Xbox if you want,” he said as he put the disc in. Cat Boy didn’t seem to have much, not even a phone, and Dylan felt bad for him.
“Really?”
“Yeah.” Dylan tapped the button to bring the main menu up. “Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to get good enough to play co-op with me online and kick everyone else’s ass.”
“I accept. As long as you don’t kill me today for running into walls or shooting you by accident.”
“I promise not to kill you, but I’m probably gonna laugh.” Dylan had been pretty good about not laughing at Aiden because he knew his friend was sensitive and that might make Aiden not want to play at all. He hoped Tiago could take it.
“So you’re gonna laugh at me and then give me an Xbox so I can get better?” Tiago clicked his tongue. “You might regret that, Lizard Boy.”