Next day was therapy, which was awesome because it meant I got to go to school late. I sat down on the couch next to Rosie and I don’t know why, I just started talking, about Trevor, about the in-school suspension, about what I’d said to Francine. About Mama.
Dr. Fremont listened. When I finished talking she said, “You want to know why Trevor’s bullying you? And why your mama couldn’t shake her addiction?”
I nodded. “And why Clifton—why he did what he did.”
“I don’t know why,” Dr. Fremont said. “If I knew their whole stories I might be able to guess, but it would only be a guess.” She sat up straighter. “Some people get hurt so badly they lash out. They hurt other people. A small percentage are truly evil. Bad from the start. Addiction is very complicated—some people can shake it off, others never do. I don’t know what went wrong with your mama. You’ll probably never be able to find out.”
Dr. Fremont said, “What Clifton did to you and Suki—that’s common.”
I jerked my head up so fast that Rosie, who was half asleep across my lap, startled. She licked me once across the face before she lay back down. “Common?” My stomach lurched. “You mean—not just Suki and me?”
“Honestly?” Dr. Fremont said. “You’re probably not the only kid it’s happened to in your class.”
I thought for a moment. “You mean in my school, right?” I said. “My class, that’s only, like, twenty-five people. Only thirteen girls.”
Dr. Fremont looked sad. “I mean in your class. Yes. It happens that often. And it happens to both boys and girls.”
It was so icky, so dark in my memory. I had thought it’d had to be just me—me and Suki. Nobody else. “I never heard anything like that,” I said. “Nobody ever talks about it.”
“I know,” she said. “Maybe more people should. Maybe if more people felt they could talk about it, it wouldn’t happen as often.”
“Does it always cause problems?” I asked.
Dr. Fremont nodded. “Always,” she said. “It hurts people in lots of big ways.” She reached out. I thought she was going to pat my arm, and I didn’t want her to, but she scratched Rosie’s head instead. “The good news is, people can and do heal. They can and do get better.”