Page 139 of Devoured

“What are you doing?” Mason said. “Why are you mounting me?”

“I’m making Matt feel better. I’m the only one who knows how.” He reached out and tickled Matt’s side.

Matt started laughing. “Stop,” he said.

Rob started tickling him harder.

“Why do you always fucking tickle me!?”

“Because it makes you laugh.”

“Stop!” Matt yelled through his tears of laughter now.

Mason started tickling Rob’s side in retaliation.

Rob yelped. “I don’t need to be tickled! I’m already laughing!”

For some reason, I started tickling Matt too. And I was pretty sure he started tickling Mason. And Rob somehow managed to tickle me while still tickling Matt.

“Stop!” I said through my tears. I couldn’t stop laughing.

And then one of our final club brothers walked by with what I could only presume was his younger brother who was also visiting for the weekend.

“What kind of weird off-campus orgy frat den are you a part of?” the younger boy asked.

And we all burst out laughing.

Chapter34

Tuesday

“And how did relieving that night make you feel?” Dr. Clark asked.

I gripped my cell phone a little tighter. “It made me want to fix my relationships with my friends. And Rob. Starting with Rob. Which is good since he’s visiting this weekend.”

“That’s fantastic. Tell me more.”

“I miss them.”

“I can tell. You’ve isolated yourself in Delaware. And you think it’s time to stop doing that. I agree with you. That it’s time to move forward.”

“You do?”

“Well, earlier in the story, I wouldn’t have been as sure. The four of you together are trouble.”

I laughed. “Yeah.”

“But later in the story? You finally showed me the other moments. The ones I was digging for. The hard ones.”

“The end of the night is always shittier than the beginning.”

“But what if none of it has to be shitty?” Dr. Clark asked.

I nodded. “You mean with Penny?”

“James, were you happy in college? Truly happy?”

I took a deep breath. “No. I was miserable. Yes, I had fun with my friends. But I was drowning. I didn’t know what I wanted. I was…aimless.”

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