Derek waltzed out of his room with Nick’s envelope. He walked over to where his parents were at the table, going over schedules, when Derek sat down and plopped the envelope in front of him.

  Amanda and Miguel glanced up at him before noticing the envelope.

  “Derek?” Amanda asked.

  “Hey, mom. How are you doing?” Derek asked, setting his elbow on the table and resting his head against it.

  “Uh, good. Good,” Amanda said.

  “Do you want to tell us something?” Miguel asked.

  “No. No, nothing at all. Just waiting to see if you notice anything,” Derek said, keeping his head against his palm, circling a finger around the envelope.

  His parents both looked at the envelope again before making eye contact with him.

  “Alright, I’ll bite. What’s in the envelope,” Miguel asked.

  “Definitely not money I got for selling drugs,” Derek said.

  Amanda blinked, then glanced at Miguel who snorted. Miguel picked up the envelope and glanced at the bills. His smile dropped as he noticed just how much money was in there.

  “Derek, this is… a lot. Where’d you get it?” Miguel asked.

  Derek sighed. “There was supposed to be well over ten thousand in there.”

  The alarmed look on both his parents made him realize that maybe he shouldn’t have joked about this not being drug money.

  “I need your advice,” Derek said, glancing around. His siblings were elsewhere, which is why he chose this time to talk to his parents. “You know my friend, Nick? How he spent so much time at our house a few years ago because… he doesn’t have the best homelife?”

  His parents listened as Derek gave a quick rundown of what he discovered that day. How Walt stole almost the entirety of Nick’s life savings. He had finished talking to Tyler, and he still didn’t feel good about it. Tyler said he’d reach out to Neal, because Neal could help somehow. But Derek’s heart ached for Nick. His friend had suffered silently for years, and him asking for any sort of help usually meant he was scared. And the first person Nick turned to was him. He couldn’t mess this up.

  Miguel had his hands together, placing them over his mouth as he stared into the distance. Amanda had a frown on her face, shaking her head.

  “I… had an idea,” Derek whispered. “You know what you did for Izzy her first year of college? How you stuffed her cupboards and made sure she didn’t have to worry about groceries for her first semester?”

  “Yeah,” Miguel said.

  “I… don’t know if you were planning on doing the same for me when I left for college-”

  “We were, yes,” Amanda said.

  “I want you to just buy me a twenty-five-pound bag of rice, and a twenty-five-pound bag of beans. That’ll get me through my first year, honestly. Take everything else and give it to Nick. Make sure he can survive his first six months of living on his own. He needs to, for his own sanity. But I… don’t want him to worry about if he’s going to eat. I can’t.” Tears filled Derek’s eyes. “I can’t let my friend be in that position. He’s already had a hellish life so far. He needs help, and I… don’t know any other way to help him except make sure he doesn’t have to go back to Walt and Lydia for anything. Give him time to get on his feet. Make sure he’s not starving. If he doesn’t have to worry about groceries for six months, he can save up for other things.”

  Miguel placed his hand on Derek’s shoulder. “You’re a good friend, Derek. I’m really proud of you. I like this idea. Your mother and I will talk about it, and I want you to keep us posted on everything. Keep being a good friend, and make sure he’s okay,” Miguel said. “I’ll look into the legal aspect of this as quietly as I can.”

  Derek picked up the envelope. “Nick’s going to cash his paychecks until he’s eighteen to give to me.” He handed the envelope to Miguel. “I know I’m almost eighteen myself and should be a bit more responsible, but I would feel so much better if you put this in a safe somewhere.”

  Miguel chuckled as he took the envelope. “Yeah, I’ll keep this safe. Don’t worry.”

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  Derek smiled, and it wasn’t until later that night that he was quite blessed to believe his dad when he assured Derek things would be safe with him.

  ***

  Evelyn was hugging her legs, almost feeling nauseous. School had felt like a daze, and she was surprised to have gone through two school days before sitting at her very last therapy session. Gemma had finished something on the computer before glancing up and smiling.

  “Well, this is certainly a development I didn’t expect,” Gemma said.

  Evelyn shook her head. “It’s not fair. I’ve loved these sessions.”

  “I know. And I’m glad. I’m relieved to hear they’ve been helping. You know they can’t force you from therapy. You can still attend,” Gemma said.

  “Yeah. As long as I pay for it. And… I’ve got no money.”

  Gemma nodded. “I want you to know that this does sadden me, but I’m not scared. You’ve made incredible progress, and you’ve got a great support system. It sounds like you have an older brother, too, who is looking out for you.”

  “I do. Nick is great, even if we don’t get along all the time,” Evelyn said.

  “Mmm, sounds like a typical sibling relationship,” Gemma said.

  Evelyn smiled. “Yeah. I do love him, though.”

  Gemma raised an eyebrow. “Do you tell him that?”

  “What?”

  She gestured toward her. “That you love him?”

  Evelyn hesitated. No. There was no point in lying. Evelyn and Nick didn’t share their feelings like that with each other. She figured that, too, was a typical sibling relationship.

  “It’s, um…” She gave a defeated shrug. “I guess not. We haven’t exactly had the best sort of example for that.”

  Gemma nodded. “I thought not. It’s three words, quite powerful, and people need to hear it often. Before it’s too late. Tomorrow is not guaranteed, after all.”

  Evelyn didn’t speak. Gemma’s words made her uneasy. Sure, they were the sentimental words everyone said to make sure the words were kind. But Evelyn and her friends were fighting to stop an apocalypse from happening. Sure, maybe tomorrow wasn’t guaranteed. Next year definitely wasn’t.

  And yet she still didn’t know if she could tell Nick she loved him. Obviously brother and sister love, but it still felt too weird. That’s not how they expressed their feelings. It was more… being obnoxious siblings expect for those moments where they risked their lives for each other.

  “Now, I wasn’t sure if we’d get to this for another few weeks, but since there is now a good chance we won’t see each other, let’s talk about what might happen if Rafael confronted you. Perhaps in the hall,” Gemma said.

  Evelyn waited for the rest of Gemma’s explanation, but her therapist was looking at Evelyn, expectantly.

  “Confronted me about what?” Evelyn asked.

  “Everything. About that night. About what happened to you. About your perception of things.”

  Evelyn waited again, and realized what she was waiting for. Waiting for the fear, the shortness of breath. Some indication that she was still scared, but she didn’t feel that. In fact, what she felt was hope. Hope that she and Rafael could finally talk about this and get it behind them. That Rafael could stop looking at her with such shame. The hope that maybe, maybe, they had gone through so much that they could go back to being friends again.

  Is that really what she wanted? To be friends again?

  No. That was ridiculous. Rafael hurt her. She needed to keep him at arms length.

  Which is what she’d been doing. For months. And Rafael respected her. Evelyn never had feelings for Rafael. Now that she knew without a doubt she had feelings for Tyler, she acknowledged that it was never there in Rafael. And what with Rafael moving on and getting a girlfriend, she was certain he had moved on, too.

  But she didn’t dare do anything until she was certain. Rafael had respected her boundaries so far, but they needed to talk. And she had a feeling she needed to be the one to instigate it, because Rafael was not going to seek her out.

  “Evelyn?” Gemma asked.

  Evelyn brought herself to the present, blinking. “Yes?”

  “Are you sure you want to talk about this? Do you think you’re ready?” Gemma asked.

  “Yes, sorry. Just… lost in thought, that’s all.” Evelyn brushed some things off her shorts. “Honestly, if Rafael confronted me in the hallway, I’d tell him that we should talk about that night. To make sure he really would never do that again.”

  Gemma looked surprised. “Oh. Don’t you think he’d brush it off?”

  “Um…” Evelyn furrowed her brow. “No.”

  “Huh.” Gemma leaned back in her chair. “Now, what if Rafael tried to grab you again?”

  Evelyn chewed the inside of her cheek, remembering all the times Rafael went out of his way to avoid her. The shame she clearly saw in his eyes whenever their gazes met. The way he bent over backwards to make sure he was only in her life as much as she wanted him to.

  “He… won’t,” Evelyn said.

  Gemma again gave her a look. “You’re certain?”

  “Yeah. Yeah, I am.”

  “Well, is there anything at all that you feel scared about? If and when you’re around him? Anything at all about Rafael that you want to talk about?”

  Evelyn hesitated. She thought. The more she thought, the more she drew a blank. She realized that Rafael was not the biggest issue she wanted to discuss in her life. Her eyebrows rose in shock. She hadn’t needed to talk about Rafael ever since she talked about Tyler in therapy.

  Was this what it was like to move on? To realize that the thing that had been such a huge part of her existence wasn’t nearly so life consuming? After months, a traumatic part of her life was filed away as something that happened to her, but it no longer controlled her. A sad, horrible thing that never should have happened, but it did. She stared at it right at the face, worked around it, cleaned the festering wound, and now it was healing. Healing to the point where she thought about it occasionally. She could breathe again. She was… fine.

  She blinked, then looked at Gemma. Gemma was smiling. “That’s a good feeling, isn’t it.”

  Evelyn nodded. “Yeah.”

  Gemma kept smiling. “I’m so relieved.” She sighed, glancing at the computer. “Something tells me that it’s your family, now, that you’d rather talk about.”

  Evelyn nodded. “Yeah. And… my dad is stopping me.”

  “Well,” Gemma glanced at her watch. “In the thirty minutes we have left, let’s talk about them.”