Page 26 of Headcase
“I admit, I don’t know a whole lot about the mental process behind suicide,” Asa said as he chewed.
“A single suicide has the ability to touch around a hundred and thirty-five people. Exposure to a peer’s suicide can increase suicidal ideations, but it doesn’t, on its own, cause an increase in suicide in a low-risk person,” Zane said, looking a little green around the gills.
“What?” Arlo asked, his fork halfway to his lips.
“He’s saying just being around a person who took their own life isn’t enough to cause a person to copycat unless they were already considering killing themselves in the first place,” Dimitri said, looking to Zane to confirm.
Zane nodded. “Yeah, that. Suicide only increases the chance of someone who already had ideations following through with it. You’re saying none of these kids were considered at risk?”
Dimitri shrugged. “I just know that it was really scandalous. Lots of whispering behind hands and popular girls holding candlelight vigils.”
“Yeah, there are tons of little mini-shrines all over campus now,” Arlo said with a shiver. “It’s…kind of creepy.”
“Have you heard any whispers about a game?” Zane asked, voice strained.
Asa frowned. Zane was sweating, his skin unnaturally pale. First him vomiting when Asa even brought up the word suicide, then his almost savant-like statistics, and now, he was once more looking like he wasn’t going to be able to keep down his breakfast.
Arlo and Dimitri exchanged glances before Arlo said, “You think these suicides are part of the game?”
“The game?” Asa repeated. “What game is this?”
Arlo bit down on his bottom lip, chewing thoughtfully before he said, “I mean, I don’t really know. There have just been rumors on campus about a bunch of kids playing some kind of online game. Like, they earn points for doing dangerous shit. There’s supposed to be some kind of monetary reward.”
“That didn’t strike either of you as weird?” Zane asked.
Arlo raised a brow. “We don’t even know those people. Besides, there’s always some kind of dumb internet thing going viral. Our school was in the paper last year because a frat was using a rating scale for the girls they slept with. People ate tide pods and laid down in busy streets for TikToks. Like, college boys suck.”
Asa wouldn’t argue with that. He and Avi had been pretty insufferable during their college days. Nothing like rating their bedmates, though. His father would have killed them himself if either of them had humiliated him like that. “I need you to find a way to get us information on that game and whether it’s still going on.”
“Do you know if this is the first time this game has hit campus?” Zane asked. “Have they played it at other schools?”
Arlo looked at Zane, startled. “Are you okay? You don’t look so good.”
Zane’s gaze darted to Asa. “I need to use the bathroom. Now.”
Asa didn’t question him, just moved, watching as he lurched for the bathroom just to the left of the kitchen door.
“Is he okay?” Arlo asked again.
“I’m not sure, to be honest,” Asa said. “I need you to get me literally anything you can. Either text me, or send it to your mom so she can get it to me. Seriously, don’t fuck me on this. My father’s on my ass.”
Dimitri gave him a sympathetic look. “I get it. It’s been six months and my mom’s still pissed about one tiny murder.”
Asa gave him a nod and tossed a hundred dollars cash on the table. “Can you two catch an Uber back to your car? I need to go take care of this.”
They looked at each other and then him, nodding. “Yeah, sure. I hope your friend feels better,” Arlo said, expression earnest.
“Me too,” Asa said.
Zane kneeled by a toilet for the second time that night. This time, in a shitty roadside diner. His stomach was now gnawingly empty, burning from hunger or maybe just acid, his muscles cramping like he’d been kicked by a horse. When was the last time he’d eaten? When Blake had brought his sandwich? Was that only yesterday? He fell back against the stall door, begging his brain not to think too hard about the tiles beneath him.
This story was proving hazardous to his health.Asa Mulvaneywas proving hazardous to his fucking health…and his sanity. Sweat beaded along his forehead, ran into his eyes, rolled down his spine until his t-shirt clung to him. He definitely hadn’t predicted this was how last night would go. He’d anticipated boredom. Charming Thomas Mulvaney into friendship and slowly ferreting out all his dirty little secrets had sounded intriguing in theory but would probably have been boring in reality.
When Thomas never showed, Zane almost left—was in the process of leaving—when he’d seen Asa at the bar. Why hadn’t he just kept walking and tried again? Instead, he’d decided to try to seduce a different Mulvaney. He’d been so smug about it, too. Until he was in the car driving to his house. Zane had gone looking for a news story and had somehow cast himself in the world’s gayest action movie.
Action movie? Try porn movie. And not even vanilla porn. The kinky niche stuff you have to dig for on the internet. The borderline illegal kind.
Ugh.“Not now,” Zane said out loud to…to nobody. Because his brother wasn’t there.
