Lachlan remembers all the attempts to stop him, to help him, to cure him, to deny him, to fix him and it was all for nothing. Most of it didn’t touch him; some of it made everything worse. And then he nearly killed Jayden, and he realised that the simple solution was no longer a solution, that what had helped no longer helped, that he was a danger to the only person who mattered.
So he chose a different path. It took a lot of work, a lot of help, a lot of forgiveness, but he chose it. Sixteen years later, he was still choosing it. Every day.
Lachlan thinks: if it’s true, and I can’t work out how to help her, then I will... I’ll...
I will offer her my arm, he decides. If nothing else will stop her, I will offer her my arm and take the cocaine with her. If I can’t save her, I’ll go down that path with her. I won’t let her be alone. I will not let her walk that path alone. I don’t care if I go down with her, as long as she’s not alone like I felt I was...
He stamps on the brake in front of the hall and dismisses that train of thought as destructive and not in the least helpful.
Which isn’t to say he won’t choose it, if he can’t offer Amelia anything else.
He runs to the door, ignoring the loud music and the sound/scent of the close-packed bodies of dancing teenagers. He runs past a clump of kids having a furtive smoke by the bushes. As he bursts into the hall, a teacher is there to intercept him. She grabs Lachlan by the elbow and tugs him aside.
‘Mr Carroway, it’s Mrs Braithwaite. We’ve put Amelia in the caretaker’s office,’ she says.
‘Where’s Chloe Dyskstra?’ Lachlan demands. This is Chloe’s school dance. Chloe, 15, had invited Amelia along as her sort-of- date, on the logic that Amelia was a good friend, and good fun, and (Lachlan knew, although Chloe hadn’t said as much) Amelia was meant to be the perfect wingman for the evening. ‘They were here together.’
‘We’re looking for her now.’
That’s ominous. But first things must come first.
Lachlan follows Mrs Braithwaite down the hall and into the caretaker’s office. She lets him in then goes in search of Chloe Dykstra.
Amelia stands in the middle of the room and glares at him. She is furious. He hasn’t seen her in such a rage. It stops him like a wall.
‘Amelia?’
‘If you believe one word of that lie for an instant, I’ll never speak to you again.’
The relief that floods through him makes his breath hitch briefly, but immediately he’s calm and still and he knows he can and will do anything. Amelia is all right and so nothing bad can happen now. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. I know you better than that.’
Amelia scowls but nods, satisfied.
‘Tell me what happened?’
‘Some fart-doodle planted this gear on Chloe. She told me about this guy at school who was stealing from the science lab. She warned him off and said she’d report him if he didn’t stop right away. Next thing, I see some dude going to a teacher and pointing at Chloe, and you know, he looked like a fart-doodle. So I got to Chloe’s bag and grabbed the stuff out first – a needle and a foil. Arsehole. Then that idiot teacher found it on me before I could ditch it and wouldn’t listen when I tried to explain.’
‘Did you see him plant it in Chloe’s bag?’
‘I didn’t have to see it, did I?’ she says scornfully. Lachlan, in spite of himself, grins. Amelia was always a smart one.
‘But he’s meant to be a Grade A student, and other people do love direct evidence, don’t they?’ Amelia sighs her bitter disappointment then raises her chin to glare over his shoulder at the sounds coming down the passage.
Mrs Braithwaite brings Chloe into the room. Chloe has been crying.
‘Meely!’ Chloe pulls away from the teacher’s grip on her arm and rushes to her friend, who wraps her in a hug, but does not stop glaring at the teacher.
‘You will show some manners, young lady,’ the teacher snaps at Amelia.
‘I will when you stop being an idiot,’ ripostes Amelia. Lachlan knows he’s not supposed to encourage her in being disrespectful to adults, but honestly, the woman is an idiot and Lachlan is not going to berate Amelia for so intelligently noticing this fact.
Mrs Braithwaite takes a breath, no doubt to demand he insist on Amelia exercising manners, but he turns his back on her and faces the girls.
‘Now,’ he says. ‘The facts.’
Mrs Braithwaite, getting angry, starts to tell him about the drug paraphernalia found on Amelia, and possible police charges. Lachlan shushes her. ‘Let Chloe tell the story.’
‘It’s nothing to do with Ms Dykstra.’
‘It’s everything to do with me,’ says Chloe fiercely, and Mrs Braithwaite is forced to silence in the face of the girl’s sincerity. Mrs Braithwaite is unhappy, but she’s not an idiot. She folds her arms and waits for the new data.
Between them, Amelia and Chloe tell the story of Jez Palmer’s petty larceny and attempted frame-up. Braithwaite’s lips are pursed. Lachlan gives the teacher an assessing look.
‘I think perhaps I should find young Jez and call his father as well,’ she decides. She gives a glare to Amelia. ‘You could perhaps have told me this earlier.’
Amelia opens her mouth to snap that she’d tried, but she catches the look in her uncle’s eye, the one that says play along now, Amelia, we’re starting to win. She closes her mouth. ‘I was upset,’ is all she says.
Mrs Braithwaite summons Lachlan to talk with her briefly in the hall. ‘Stay with the girls for the moment,’ she says. ‘I’ll see what I can get from Jez. Perhaps we can avoid police involvement.’
‘I won’t have Amelia suffering because of that vindictive little bastard,’ says Lachlan, voice tight with protective indignation.
The teacher raises an eyebrow at him. ‘Jez Palmer is certainly not the Golden Child he pretends to be,’ she says. ‘But Amelia Carroway has her moments too.’
‘She’s a bit… brash,’ he concedes, because right now Mrs Braithwaite has too much power over them. ‘But she’s also honest.’
Mrs Braithwaite gives him a funny sort of knowing smile, and Lachlan thinks maybe she knows a lot more about Jez Palmer’s true nature, and Amelia’s and Chloe’s, than she’s letting on.
‘Stay with the girls,’ she repeats. ‘I’ll be back shortly.’
When Mrs Braithwaite returns an hour later, it is with the brief news that Jez Palmer has confessed all, that Mr Palmer senior will be handling the discipline for the matter, and that unless they wish to press charges, everyone is free to go home.
Chloe is too embarrassed by her lapse to want anything more to do with it. Amelia seems to feel that justice has been served, because she
