Dead Girl Walking ― Aaron Minyard

14. shake it out

and it's hard to dance
with a devil on your back
― florence and the machine

♦

MARA, TO THE SURPRISE OF ABSOLUTELY NO ONE, had never been to therapy. She understood the notion, she supposed—talking to someone about your mundane stresses probably helped a lot of people.

But those people hadn't been raised by serial killers and sold to a sadistic Mafia reject.

The day before classes started, the Foxes were split into pairs to meet with the team's psychiatrist, Betsy Dobson. Wymack scheduled them to go throughout the morning and tried to set it up in a way that didn't leave holes in his scrimmage lines. Matt and Dan went first, then Aaron and Kevin, Seth and Allison, and Nicky and Andrew.

Mara, because the Foxes had an odd number and the universe just loved to fuck with her, was stuck going last with Renee—and Neil.

If she'd been paying attention to Wymack when he announced the pairs in the beginning, she might've been able to bully Nicky or Aaron into switching with her, but she'd been stupid enough to listen to Nicky complain about already having a reading due for a class that didn't start until next week.

When Andrew and Nicky returned to the court, Wymack called Mara, Renee, and Neil off. Andrew waited for them in the inner ring long enough to hand Renee his keys.

"Thank you," Renee said, smiling. "I'll take care of her."

"Kevin's not allowed to drive your car but Renee is?" Neil asked. Mara glared at him for speaking.

"It's fun telling Kevin no," Andrew said with a wicked grin.

"Andrew only lets me and Renee drive—and Mara, like, once," Nicky said. His smile didn't reach his eyes as he watched Renee turn the keys over in her hand. He only had nice things to say about Renee, but it was clear that no one—Nicky included—wanted Renee and Andrew to be friends. He likely sided with the upperclassmen in thinking Andrew was an awful influence on someone as sweet-tempered as Renee.

"Not Aaron?" Neil asked.

"Don't keep Bee waiting," Andrew said in lieu of an answer, then headed onto the court.

Mara, Renee, and Neil split up in the locker room long enough to change out and freshen up. There was no point in showering when they'd be coming back to a lunch break and more drills, but none of them wanted to show up at Betsy's office a sweaty mess. Mara took off her armor, toweled dry, and changed into the lighter uniform they'd need that afternoon for cardio.

Neil was waiting for Renee and Mara when they came out, and they left the stadium together.

Mara took the front seat, glad when Neil took the backseat behind Renee. After a minute or so of silent driving, Renee turned on the radio, letting the music fill the silence between them all.

There were more cars at Reddin Medical Center than Mara expected, though she shouldn't have been surprised. The school year was just around the corner. Fox Tower was full now, and she'd seen traffic around campus as the rest of the student body moved into the other dorms.

Reddin was split in half, with psychiatrics down a hall out of sight and an array of doctors' offices closer to the front. Renee signed them all in at the desk and went down the hall in search of Betsy's office, leaving Mara and Neil alone to wait.

Mara sat down on one of the pale blue couches. Neil sat down on the other. They were the only people in the waiting room save for the receptionist, who was typing away at his computer like his life depended on it.