"He's only at Easton because he got kicked out of his old school. He used to go to St. James Prep in New Hampshire."
"Josh got kicked out of school? Please," I said.
"I'm serious, Reed. And it wasn't for anything normal like going on a bender or flunking out," Noelle told me. "There was this whole scandal involved."
I felt a tickle in the back of my throat. "What kind of scandal?"
Noelle blew out another sigh. I wasn't sure if she was having a hard time telling me this or if she was pausing for dramatic effect. If it was the latter, I didn't appreciate it.
"What, Noelle?" I prompted.
"His roommate died," she said.
All the air whooshed out of my lungs.
"Come on."
"Supposedly, he killed himself, but the details were all suspicious," she said. "Some people said that the suicide looked--"
"What?"
"That it looked staged."
I laughed. My temples started to throb. "Yeah, right."
"I'm not kidding, Reed. There was this huge investigation, and no one ever proved anything, but people suspected that the guy was actually . . . murdered."
A chill shot down my spine, but I ignored it. It was just that word. That god-awful word I could not seem to get away from. It was not the congruity of the situation. Because it wasn't even a situation. It was a lie.
200
"And--don't tell me--Josh was a suspect," I said wryly, holding up my hands.
She was not getting to me. She wasn't. My heart was not fluttering in a way that scared me.
"Well, apparently, rumors started flying that maybe he had something to do with it--"
"Noelle"
"And then he, like, stopped taking his meds or something and went on this manic -schizo rampage that ended with him tearing apart the dean's office," she continued. "That will get you booted. Deans tend to like things tidy, you know."
"His meds?"
Noelle looked at me blankly. 'You didn't know about his meds? Kid's like a walking pharmacy. He's on everything from Haldol to Ambien. It's a wonder he's not walking around drooling half the time."
At that moment I heard a snap. "Stop it, Noelle!" I was on my feet. I didn't even know how I got there. "Just stop it!"
"Reed--"
"No! This is some kind of joke, right? More hazing?" I said. I was shaking. My fingers trembled so violently I shoved them into my hair and held them against my skull.
; "Reed, no."
I didn't understand. She wasn't actually saying what I thought she was saying.
"So . . . what, Noelle? What do you mean? Are you trying