Page 33 of Considering Us

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“What’s wrong?” Heath rolled over onto his side as I frantically texted Andrea back. I was sitting up in his bed, having woken up due to receiving ten text messages telling me to do just that. I needed to get back to campus.

“It’s not good,” I said, scooting off the bed and grabbing my jeans from the floor next to me. “Rockwood is trashed. The Head of School’s office is a mess. They did all sorts of things to that stupid sculpture. Somehow, they dismantled all the security cameras. The security detail was playing poker all night in their office, and no one knows why. So, that’s all part of the investigation now. How these kids managed to get a horse into Andrea’s office, I’ll never know.”

Heath sat up in bed, and admiring his chiseled upper body, I wanted to crawl back in there with him. I had no regrets about going to his place the night before. I had forgotten about Kyle for a few hours, which felt freeing. Spending time with Heath was easy. If I had found Kyle after his karaoke performance, I probably never would have gone over to Heath’s apartment, but I had no idea what the right answer to any of it was. All I knew was that I had had fun, and now the fun was over. I needed to go back to reality, and from what I was told, a heavily vandalized fire escape outside my kitchen window.

“They brought a horse into her office? Up those flights of stairs?” Heath asked, shaking his head. “I can’t believe I didn’t get any kind of notification from the station yet.”

“I don’t think anyone is hurt, which is good,” I said, pulling on my sweatshirt. “The Rye police found a bunch of students at the beach at five in the morning with a bonfire and a ton of champagne.”

“Classy,” he said. “Hey, I need to work today, but I’ll call you later. Can I get a kiss before you leave?”

“Sure,” I said, walking over and sitting on the edge of the bed. “This was a good time.”

“It was,” he said, his hands on my thighs, lightly massaging them. “And I’m excited to meet your friend Tamara this week.”

“I’ll get in touch with her today now that I know your schedule. We’ll figure something out,” I said and then kissed him softly.

“I like you a lot, Devon Paige.”

...

“Sorry to interrupt your romp with the paramedic,” Andrea said from behind her desk. She gestured at the dark brown horse that was standing and snorting in the corner of her office, its reins connected to what looked like a dog’s leash, tethered to the handle of a massive filing cabinet. I gave it a pat, not knowing what else to do. “Animal Control is on its way to get him out of here.”

“Looks like he’s pretty well-behaved,” I said, sitting across from her. Andrea looked awful, both exhausted and with damp yet somewhat greasy-looking hair. There was also a strange smell, but maybe it was coming from the horse. “Are you okay?”

“No. I am not,” she said. “I turned on my shower this morning, and guess what happened?”

“I have no idea.”

“Beef soup rained down on me. Those fuckers taped beef bouillon cubes onto my shower head.”

I suppressed a laugh, feeling both badly for her and impressed by the ingenuity. That was some prank. “They broke into your house? How on earth?” This was a new low. I started connecting the dots in my head and realized who might be able to access the Head of School’s house.Oh.“I have an idea.”

Andrea shook her head. “I guess giving your niece a key to your house isn’t a good move.”

“And you know she was involved?” As horrific as Ashlyn was, I didn’t want to assume anything. But I knew it was likely.

“She was found at the bonfire guzzling a big Yeti mug full of champagne. Taittinger, no less. How do they pull this shit off? I was drinking Korbel until I was at least thirty. If I was lucky.”

I wasn’t sure what to say, what was appropriate, what would be overreaching. “What are you going to do?”

Andrea sighed, waving to the Animal Control officers who had entered the room. She signed off on the paperwork, bid adieu to the horse, and settled back into her seat across from me. “I wonder what his name was.”

“He seemed like a good horse. At least he didn’t trash the place.”

“Maintenance came through and cleaned up some poop earlier. Luckily, he didn’t keep going with that. I am grateful because who needs horseshit on top of everything else? I also wonder where the hell he came from. Even Ashlyn doesn’t own a horse.”

I thought back to Adrienne’s horse stunt at Walden Pond. “Adrienne Preston wasn’t in that group at Rye Beach, was she?”

Andrea scrolled through her phone for a few seconds. “No, she’s not on the police report. Of course, we don’t know for sure if there were others involved, but my guess is this is the core group, given the celebratory nature of the gathering.” She passed her phone over to me so I could take a look. Of the student names I knew, they were mostly from the crew that I always saw surrounding Ashlyn. The same kids, I assumed, were involved withThe Underground Stallion.No big surprises. “We now have to conduct a full investigation. Parents have already been notified. Many have indicated they are hiring lawyers. It should be lots of fun.”

“That must have been awkward, you know, calling your brother.”

She took off her glasses and wiped them with a cloth. “These keep getting greasy. I need to check the other shower in my house to see if they defiled it, too. I don’t think I’ll be able to trust mine again for a while. But yes, it was terrible. He and my sister-in-law tend to think Ashlyn can do no wrong, so there were plenty of excuses given despite the fact that they hadn’t even spoken to her yet.”

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