Chapter 13

“This is a pre-made mask,” Salvador began, holding a full-face mask up for his students to see. It looked like it was made of some kind of plaster, and looked clearly ugly. “For the next few weeks, this mask will be your face on stage. You won’t be able to talk, you’ll only be able to use your body. The smallest of motions – head turns, bending knees, hunched-up shoulders – will be how you inform your characters.”

“Wow, Salvador, you really wanted us to stop talking that badly, huh?” Callum quipped from the audience.

It was always a fifty-fifty if Salvador would respond to quips with mirth or anger, but I guess today was a good day. “If that’s how you choose to see it,” he told Callum with a sparkle in his eye. “Now, all of you will approach the stage and look at the masks laid out for you. You can only use the masks in this auditorium, you can not take them home, and you will place them on that table in the corner at the end of the day. Take care of the mask like you’re taking care of your own face, do we understand each other?”

“Take care of your own face...?” I heard Zelda murmur next to me. “Is that some kind of expression?”

“No, Salvador just talks weird,” I whispered back honestly. All of us got up from our seats and walked over to the edge of the stage, where masks were lined up neatly. I looked them all over as students hesitantly picked up one or two – so I was supposed to wear this and say nothing, huh? Was one supposed to speak to me or something?

“At least one mask should speak to you,” Salvador cut in, answering me perfectly. “Look them over. There should be a mask for you. The only reason you pick a mask you don’t like will be because you hesitated too much.”

I frowned. The masks were all vaguely face-shaped but had some kind of deformity. The cheeks were puffed up or there were jagged spikes all around the face or were wrinkled all to hell. I understood that drama was all about letting myself go and embracing the weird or whatever, and I wasn’t even weirded out by the class ... I was actually kind of worried that I was too dumb to get it or something.

“Hurry up, Adam,” Salvador cautioned me, walking by. He didn’t just limit his comments to me – I saw him say something to Hannah as he walked past. She promptly put down the mask she was holding and searched for another one.

Eventually I settled on some kind of tense-looking mask with a bunch of forehead wrinkles and a long nose. I looked at it from all sides, and then experimentally put it on, strapping my face in.

It was hot in there. Breathing was a little difficult, but manageable. I turned around, getting used to the new weight on my face, and Zelda noticed me and started giggling.

“Oh my God, that’s amazing,” she laughed. A few other students looked over and started giggling too. Salvador looked as well, though his was a stone face. After a bit, he nodded and walked away.

Once we all picked our masks, we brought them back to our seats and Salvador sat on the stage again. “Today, we’re going to learn about our masks,” he told us. “When you put that mask on, you become a character. That character will have a walk, they’ll have a dominant emotion, and they’ll have something they want. Your task is to figure all of that out, then you’ll be put into groups and you’ll put on a silent play of your own making. It’ll only be about five minutes per group. Do we understand?”

I looked at my mask. Sorry, little dude. You’re stuck with me.

Drama always had this way of making me feel so damn pensive. Maybe it was because it required you to think critically about yourself, or maybe because I was just an overthinker and this was my comfy place. I wasn’t sure.

At the end of class, Salvador asked us to come up to him one by one so he could record who got what mask. I was near the end of the line, and when I approached and showed him the mask, he nodded much like he did before.

“Ah, burattino,” he marveled. “Quite the fitting choice.”

“Here we go,” I mumbled. “Why’s that?”

“He’s one of the three low-life zanni characters from the commedia dell’arte play Fiammella,” Salvador began.

“Low-lifes. Fantastic,” I reflected sarcastically.

He shot me a look. “You asked me to explain,” he darkly commented, then continued. “He’s good-natured and wants to do right, but finds himself particularly unable. In The Fortunate Isabella, when he thinks that Isabella has been captured, he can’t think to do anything but weep.”

“And that’s me, huh?” I asked.

Salvador wrote something down then looked at me, a complete blank look on his face. “No. That’s the mask you picked,” he answered simply. “And I imagine you’ll do good things with it. Next!”

“Arright, everybody,” Mr. Wainwright said through his cheesy ‘50s Archie grin. “Just go on ahead and work on those questions until the bell, and once the bell rings, well ... that’s class!” With no fanfare, he walked over to the desk and allowed us to focus on our assigned questions.

If my eyes could roll into the back of my skull, they would. “Promoting healthy behavior” was the theme of today’s lessons, and judging by the class syllabus, it would be the theme of a lot of future lessons. Not even bothering to make it look like I was doing my work, I took out my phone and did what I usually did in class these days: texting Sabrina.

Luckily, Sabrina was just as bored of her second-period classes as I was, and all too eager to reply. A part of me couldn’t help but wonder if she just missed what we usually did during class first semester and was working back up to it, but just didn’t want to ask. Of course, it wasn’t like she needed to.

wanna come over 2 my place after school?;)

I stared at her text message. It was weird how in first semester I’d be almost hesitant after getting a text like that, but now it was ... exciting. Sabrina was really cool.

Hell yes! I responded. In response, she sent a bunch of cute emojis. I was really growing to love how bubbly she was. I knew that when we’d hang out after school, we wouldn’t just have sex, we’d also talk and share thoughts and have life chats and stuff. We’d connect. I missed connecting. And, maybe, the more I connected to her, the less hopelessly connected I could be to Nicole. Maybe. Hopefully. Fuck, I didn’t know. It was so weird; I was surrounded by so many people, more than ever ... so why did I feel so damn lonely?

The counselor, Ms. Dewitt, nodded, adjusting her glasses. “I think a lot of people feel that way, Adam,” she told me. “So the good news is that if you needed to tell people who would understand, your friends might know where you’re coming from.”

I stared at her for a bit. “A large part of this is because my friends don’t want to see this from my perspective,” I answered her. She meant well, but she was no Salvador. “They keep being selfish or making drama out of it.”

“Well, to be honest, that might be because what you’re doing is accidentally hurting their feelings too,” she replied gently. “When’s the last time a friend of yours told you something secret, and you decided to hurt them?”

“Well ... I...” I started playing with my fingers. “I don’t decide to hurt people. I don’t think I do, at least.”

“I believe you,” Ms. Dewitt replied with a nod. “But I bet that’s the same case with your friends. And if they are trying to deliberately hurt you, then they’re not your friends. Real friends don’t want to hurt their friends. So maybe they don’t see what they’re doing as hurtful.”

I scoffed and threw my arms up. “So what, I should instantly forgive them?”

“Oh no. Not at all,” she replied swiftly. “Let them know how they’re making you feel. And when you do, they might tell you a few things about how you’re making them feel too. You’ll need to communicate, and listen, if you want to solve things. And I can tell, if I can say, that you’re not the type of person who goes to counseling just to rant. Is it fair to say you like getting advice?”

I sighed, then slowly nodded. “Yes,” I admitted. “To an extent, I like being told what to do when I screw myself over. And this...” I gestured to nothing with my hands. “Yeah. It helps.” I don’t think what she was saying was even anything new, but it was helpful to hear it from someone else.

I didn’t say anything for a bit and stared at the floor. Huh. It helped to hear it from someone else. I guess that was why even Nicole would benefit from counseling. She could know literally everything about herself but get told one thing and immediately cave and accept some kind of truth about herself. Fuck, I bet I did that to her a couple of times.

“Does it help Nicole?”

Ms. Dewitt was silent for a bit. “I can’t answer that, Adam.”

“I know it’s weird, but like, I did say I was with her for a while. And you know how ... how difficult life’s been for her lately. Does hearing stuff from another person help Nicole?”

“Does hearing...?” Ms. Dewitt trailed off. Oh, oops. I guess that connection only existed in my head. “Adam, even if I wanted to tell you about my private sessions with another student and thought it was okay to tell you about them, it’s my job not to tell you. No matter what, I won’t be disclosing that.” She gave me a patient smile. “Just like how I won’t be telling anyone about anything you say here. That way you can feel okay saying what you want without it getting out and possibly affecting anything else. You wouldn’t like it much if I told other people about you, right?”

I scowled. “Yeah,” I admitted. “I’m just worried about her.”

“I understand,” she told me gently. We worked out another appointment and she gave me a piece of paper with some notes, then I was free to go. It was still a good ten minutes before the end of lunch, so I ran to the lunch table, hoping to catch Carson and Megan.

Surprisingly, Sabrina was also there. When I arrived, she waved me down, a big smile on her face. “Hey!” she said warmly, scooting over and allowing me to sit at the table. “How was your meeting?”

“Oh ... fine,” I said awkwardly, looking at Megan and Carson. Neither of them said anything. Carson thought I was in a meeting with a teacher, so I guess that helped. “So you’re sitting here now?”

Carson chuckled. “Here we go,” he began. “You gonna tell a beautiful girl like her that she can’t sit here and wait for you, buddy?”

I glanced in his direction. I was glad he was at least more cheerful than a few days ago when Zelda forced him to sit somewhere else during business. “I guess I’m just surprised,” I admitted. “But, uh, yeah, it’s good to see you.” I gave her a smile.

I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket, and pulled it out below the table. Megan was texting me about how the counselor appointment went. I put my phone away and flashed her a quick muted smile and a thumbs-up, and she nodded. I hoped Megan was okay with Sabrina – as far as I knew, her only interactions with her were through my and my sluttier adventures, though Megan seemed pretty at peace with the unpredictability of my sex life.

“Because if you aren’t gonna man up and claim her, some other guy will,” Carson continued, then did that chin-upwards gesture towards her.

Sabrina smiled in surprise at Carson. “Wow, Carson,” she giggled.

I felt my back straighten. “You know each other?” I asked, realization hitting me like a train.

“You know it, buddy,” Carson replied confidently.

“Yeah, Carson and I have been ... acquaintances since mid-ninth grade,” Sabrina continued.

My hand flew to my face, covering my face’s left side, ensuring Sabrina couldn’t see. I stared daggers at Carson and raised my eyebrows once, as if to ask, ‘Did you fuck her?’ He raised his eyebrows twice in response. My hand lowered. “Carson, why didn’t you say you knew her when I first talked about her to you?”

“ ... You said you didn’t know me?” Sabrina asked in slightly hurt confusion.

“No I fuckin’ didn’t. You okay, buddy? Whatcha trying to start drama for?” Carson demanded.

“Maybe you didn’t say it, but when I mentioned her name, you didn’t say you knew her or anything,” I continued.

Carson’s brow furrowed further and further until it clicked in his head. A thousand micro-emotions ran across his face as he seemingly figured out in real time that this was the Sabrina I was referring to. It made sense, since I couldn’t recall him actually meeting her. I would have thought Carson would have figured it out, but Carson was Carson. “It’s called ‘tact,’ buddy,” he replied, all of the emotions giving way to pure smugness. “If you’re going for a girl, what’s the point in saying me and her got a history?”

I turned to Sabrina, who was biting her lower lip nervously. “Hope that’s okay,” she said quietly.

“And if it ain’t, the fuck are you gonna do?” Carson roared, laughing.

“Well, there goes tact,” Megan observed, elbowing Carson in the side. “Anyway, it’s cool to have Sabrina here. We didn’t really get to know each other apart from PE last year.”

“Yeah, and kind of talking to you at the Halloween dance,” Sabrina added.

Megan blushed a little. “Yeah,” she murmured.

I racked my brain. “ ... Did you two talk that much at the Halloween dance?” I asked. “You really only talked to me.”

“Oh gosh,” Megan murmured, turning pinker.

“I, uh ... how cool are you with getting personal at this table, Adam? You were open, right?” Sabrina asked me.

I understood her completely, and smiled confidently. “You know what, if it helps, sure, I don’t mind talking about how we kissed at the dance.”

“Yo, you kissed her too?!” Carson asked in surprise. Megan’s eyes squeezed shut and Sabrina giggled nervously.

Oh my God. Sabrina kissed Carson at the Halloween dance?! I didn’t understand things at all! “What?” I managed after a bit.

“Are you mad at me?” Sabrina asked.

“No, but I sure am shocked!” I exclaimed, pointing at Carson. “You really heard me talking about this cute girl in my class named Sabrina, and didn’t even put the pieces together that the girl you were kissing was the same one?”

“You were calling me cute to your friends?” Sabrina interjected.

“I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but we got like five girls named Sabrina in our grade, buddy,” Carson defended himself. “You were in a relationship anyways. It’s not like you can complain that you weren’t the only guy to her.”

“And you,” I continued, pointing at Megan. “What was your role in all this?”

Megan rolled her eyes. “I was aware that Carson was ... missing feeling connected to girls, and Sabrina and I got talking when she got into the dance, and she let me know she wanted to let loose and kiss some boys. So I may have given her a recommendation,” she answered. “I saw them ... having a good time, and Sabrina and I talked about it afterwards.”

“If this is all in the open, I meant to ask you about that,” Carson butted in. “After we kissed for a bit, you, like, bolted right out of the dance. What was that all about? What, did you need to report to Megan or something?” He turned to Megan. “That was nice of you though, I thought you hated me kissing other girls.”

Megan lowered an eyebrow at Carson. “I just disliked your cavalier lifestyle,” she answered. “I still understood it.”

“Fuckin’ ‘cavalier.’”

“I’m more at peace with it now,” she continued. “Do it with anyone you want. I will not judge.”

Sabrina cleared her throat. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Carson,” she answered timidly. “I just get ... butterflies when doing stuff like that, and not the good kind. I thought I could handle it, but...”

Carson looked back and forth between Sabrina and myself. “So did you kiss him before me? Yo, who’s the better kisser?”

“I kissed him afterwards, and I’m not telling you,” Sabrina said with a giggle, just as the bell rang.

Carson shook his head, smiling. “Fuckin’ tease,” he joked, grabbing his bag and starting to say something to Megan. I was still trying to process all this new info. Like Carson said, I was with Nicole at the time so it wasn’t like I had any right to be upset, but me running around kissing girls and getting into drama wasn’t really a ‘just me’ thing after all, was it? I couldn’t help but think back to what Ms. Dewitt told me, and how maybe my friends were going through the same things I was. I thought I was weirdly unique or special, like I was the exciting one in the friend group. It was weirdly comforting to think about how I was just ... a normal teenager, even if I was a normal teenager in a horny friend group.

“I hope this doesn’t change anything,” Sabrina said, bringing me out of my daze. Megan and Carson were gone. Only Sabrina was there, blushing slightly. “I don’t know if I should have told you or something.”

I stared at her for a bit before shaking my head. “Nah, you’re good,” I told her. “Carson’s a horndog and Megan...” I trailed off, looking at the door to the hallway. “Megan starts a lot more drama than she’d like to admit.” I couldn’t stop myself from replaying the memory of the Halloween dance, and Megan’s shit-eating grin when she saw Sabrina and myself going off together. My friends were the biggest wildcards.

“So ... this doesn’t change anything? You’re still okay to come to my place after school?” she asked in a small voice.

Relief splashed across her face when she saw my reassuring style. “Oh, totally!” I answered her. “What am I gonna do, get mad at you for having casual fun three months ago when I was having casual fun at the same time? No, don’t worry. The only thing that makes me not wanna go to your place is your dad.”

“Well, we’ll need to be sneaky then, won’t we?” Sabrina purred, her voice coming back. She stepped towards me, getting very close. For a second, I thought she was going to kiss me right there in the caf, but she pulled away. “I’m looking forward to it, Adam.”

Sabrina’s dad was not at all thrilled to see me back, especially since the new semester was upon us and “studying for finals” was no longer an excuse. Still, he didn’t say anything, and as always, Sabrina kept the door open.

At least, her bedroom door. We wanted to make small talk or catch up or something, but within a minute of getting to her room, we were digging things out of her closet, making sure there was enough room so that we could both slip inside and let loose like the horny teenagers we were.

I grew to really love Sabrina’s tight little body. All of the girls I had been with before her were busty in some way, or at least not lacking in the chest department. I thought that I wouldn’t care much for Sabrina’s more modest chest, but I actually really loved it. It helped that she had puffy cute little nipples that were clearly sensitive and ready for me. Within seconds of getting in the closet, I was rubbing them above her shirt and bra, listening to her exhale quietly as she shut the closet door.

“It sucks we can’t see each other,” she commented. “I really like your body, Adam.”

“The feeling is mutual,” I cheesily retorted, diving in to her neck and not even bothering to hold back. There was something so sexy about diving in to a girl’s neck and knowing she wasn’t going to bother to hold you back. Sabrina was going to show up to school with a litany of hickeys tomorrow, and she was making no effort to stop me from ensuring this.

I ground up against her while I kissed and sucked on her neck, my cock already painfully hard. She lightly moaned and giggled, enjoying the feeling of my body against hers. No weird feelings, no complications. Just two horny teens enjoying each other ... in her closet. You could never have it all, I guess.

While I left marks on her neck, she reached into my pants, undoing my fly and slowly moving her fingers over the shaft of my cock. “Fuck,” she moaned, feeling my warm hardness. “You have such a nice dick, Adam.” She kissed me, evolving her motions to giving me a handjob. I eagerly kissed her back as I lowered my pants to the floor, somehow gatting them fully off of me without breaking the kiss.

We broke the kiss, barely able to see each other in the dim lighting from whatever light came in under the door. Still, I could see her bite her lip in excitement. “I kinda want to get right into it,” she whispered.

“Me too,” I replied huskily. “From the front or from behind?”

“Behind seemed easier for you last time,” she moaned, already getting into position. I took in the sight. It was so sexy barely seeing her, but clearly seeing how much she wanted me. She knew what I could give her, and she wanted more. “Adam,” she moaned needily. “Please...”

I chuckled, closing the space between us and feeling up her slit with my middle finger. It was so wet that my finger effortlessly slipped inside despite her tightness. “I swear to God, please Adam, your dick,” she moaned impatiently, even with her eyes closing from the sensations my finger was giving her.

I retracted my finger and quickly lined my cock up with her, the sensations of her wetness already sending small sparks of pleasure throughout my body. Last time, she was the one to unite us, so this time, after getting my cock decently lubricated with her juices, I made sure that I was the one to thrust into her, closing even more space between us, pushing her up against the wall.

She emitted a small high-pitched squeak and covered her mouth with one hand, the other hand hopelessly grabbing the wall. Taking advantage of the fact her mouth was covered, I began to thrust, pumping in and out of her tightness. Coupling with her felt so amazing, like no one else. I couldn’t stop myself from grunting a little, “Oh, fuck, Sabrina” as my thrusts picked up speed.

“A-Adam...” she moaned in response through her hand. “God, I need this so ba- fuuuuck...”

“We’re going to need to find a place to fuck soon,” I told her, trying to sound authoritative even though my voice was wavering from our motion as well.

“Well ... mmnh ... h-how about y-your place?” she managed, despite my efforts.

I thought about it. My place, huh? My parents never exactly were the best at noticing these things, and always stayed on the ground floor unless they were going to bed. Unlike Sabrina’s house, where her room was just down the hall from where her dad seemed to always be. That could work, couldn’t it? I’d just need to tell my parents, ‘no, she’s just a friend... ‘

... Or did I even need to do that...?

“Fuuuck,” Sabrina moaned again. “Adam, your cock is fucking addicting, I love doing this with you so much...”

“I love it too,” I groaned, grabbing her hips and slamming them with reckless abandon. Hopefully the little slapping noises we made were muffled by the closet door, because at this point, it was clear that neither one of us wanted to stop. Being inside Sabrina was just too good. I was reaching that climactic point of horny. At this moment, I could have done anything. I could have knocked her the fuck up and not cared about it.

That was such a sexy idea. Getting Sabrina pregnant. Claiming her. Making her mine in the most final way. Changing her forever. And judging from the helpless noises Sabrina was making while I filled her, stretching her pussy like no guy had before, I bet Sabrina would have loved it too. She slammed back against my cock like a girl that had no worries, no priorities, other than feeling more, getting more, and satisfying the cock inside her.

“Fuck, I’m gonna shoot it inside you,” I moaned, not caring how cheesy it sounded.

“Do it,” she said with determination. “Fill me, Adam. Mark me up, make me yours.”

“Fuck yes,” I whisper-roared back. “I’m gonna explode inside you. I ... fuck, imagine if it knocked you up.”

I just said it out loud. I couldn’t help myself. Amazingly, Sabrina only responded by moving her hips back against me more forcefully. “Oh shit, fuck, yes, give me a fucking baby Adam, get me fucking pregnant, mark me up, shit, fuck...”

She wanted it too. We both knew she was on birth control, but for one moment, I could imagine that this load would knock her up. I’d give Sabrina a baby. I’d get her pregnant and she would grow with my kid. Fuck, that was so hot. I kept slamming against her, grabbing her hair. “I’m gonna cum,” I growled.

That did it for her. With a volume that was definitely way too high for the covert fucking we were doing, Sabrina threw her head back and moaned for me while feeling my load shooting inside her. I felt it all the way from my balls to the end of my dick, exploding inside her with a force I couldn’t even remember. I couldn’t stop myself from groaning either as my cum blasted into her, with both of us holding onto each other and the wall for dear life.

“Holy ... shit...” she moaned. “That was ... the hottest sex ... I ever had.”

“Yeah ... me too,” I managed, still slowly pumping away inside her. It was like I was addicted to the feeling. “Fuck, being inside you is amazing.”

“Yeah, I feel the same way,” she breathlessly replied, going back to whispering, as if that would at all help us now.

“Sorry about the whole ... I dunno, pregnant thing,” I lamely added, feeling like we should quickly address it.

She whipped her head around. “Sorry? It was the hottest fucking thing! You said it just as the thought happened in my mind. It was like you were this ... sexy psychic.” We both giggled. “I’m on the pill anyway, so what’s the harm? It’s actually kinda hot that fucking me gives you baby fever like that.” I slipped out of her and she turned around, leaning against the wall and playing with her pussy in front of me. “Mmm, it’s still warm.”

“You’re a total freak,” I laughed, and she joined in. “But you’re my freak.”

“Oh, am I, Adam?” she teased, her other hand playing with her nipple. “Am I yours?”

The implication came down a lot harder there. I shrugged nervously, looking around.

Sabrina chuckled. “Don’t worry about it. Maybe someday we should talk about it some more? But I get you like to play around. I wouldn’t want to force you to settle down if you don’t want to. Especially with the New Semester Party coming up.”

“Force me to settle down?” I asked.

It was her turn to be nervous. “Oh, sorry,” she quickly replied. “I thought ... sorry.”

“What?” I asked. “What did you think?”

She stopped playing with herself. “Uh ... nothing. Sorry.”

“Come on, say it!” I coaxed. “I won’t judge.”

“I feel like you might,” she admitted, blushing. “I just think ... we really work well together and ... you know, when I’m with you, I don’t have to stop my thoughts. You don’t tell me that it’s too much or that I’m overthinking things or even that you don’t have an opinion. You’re actually engaged in the stuff I have to say. It’s nice, I don’t really get that from boys.”

“I know what you mean,” I replied. “I don’t get it a lot either. It’s like, if I say too many things or explore too many possibilities...”

“Yeah, people tell you you’re overthinking,” she finished the thought. “Meanwhile, I’m only having so many thoughts because...”

“Because all of those thoughts feel like they matter so much,” I concluded. We stood there, smiling at each other.

She was silent for a bit. “So, I’m sure you get it when I say I’ve been thinking about what would happen if we happened to ... be with each other,” she said gingerly. “Just an imaginary thing, I’m obviously not gonna make you do anything.”

It was very sweet, but I had to keep context in mind. “I’m-”

“I know, you just broke up with Nicole so who knows what you’re feeling,” Sabrina continued, reading my mind. “And you don’t want to just jump in and hurt yourself, or me.”

“Yeah,” I said with a nod. “I’d be lying if I said I never thought about it, but I’m good leaving it without any labels for now. And ... can I say something that adds context without making it weird? And you’d have to not tell anyone.”

“Sure!”

“Nicole and I kind of did have sex again recently,” I admitted. “We’re trying to go back to the dynamic we had in ninth grade. I’m her dude friend, she’s the mysterious older popular girl, and we have sex sometimes. Nothing more complicated than that.”

“Oh. Uh, congrats,” Sabrina quickly replied.

“You don’t seem happy,” I noted.

“Well, I’m happy for you I guess. If I’m being a hundred percent honest with you though, I’m kind of ... worried for you?” She shrugged. “You had a bad breakup and she ... I mean, not gonna lie, I cried when you texted me those things she said.”

“You agreed not to see her differently!” I argued.

“I know, I know, but like ... that’s still extreme. And now you two are having sex again? I just don’t want you to get hurt.” She came up to me, hugging me. “I wouldn’t have thought about us together if I didn’t care about you.”

“I can take care of myself,” I gently replied. “I’m a big strong guy.”

“Yeah you are,” she giggled, feeling my arms. I flexed and winked at her, and she bit her lip. “But yeah, just ... y’know. Don’t do anything silly. And if you two are just having casual sex, then if she tries to pull some shit with you, just ... walk away.”

“If she tries to pull some shit with me, that means she’s hurting,” I told her. “I’m going to try to help.”