“But if that really was only your first experience with cocaine, it doesn’t explain why you’re still feeling this terrible and crying eleven days later. I’m wondering if there’s more to the story? I promise you I’ve heard it all before. Not to say your unhappiness isn’t special, because it is. I’m just saying you need to trust me and tell me if there’s more than you’re letting on. Because if I had to make an educated guess, I’d say there may be a boy involved.”

Kimmie nodded glumly and finally spilled the tea about her shameful abasement at the hands of Vronsky. “I thought he was into me!” she blubbered, looking at the floor. “And I … I loved him. Or at least I thought I did. He used me, and I feel so stupid!”

When Dr. Becker asked Kimmie if she’d had sex with Vronsky, or with any boy for that matter, she blushed crimson and emphatically stated she had not. “No way, I would never. We just did … other stuff,” and watched as her pediatrician typed a sentence into his iPad. Hours later in the cab going home, Kimmie wondered what he had written, and if it was along the lines of “Thou doth protest too much.”

After her physical exam was over and his nurse had drawn four tubes of blood from her arm for the slate of tests he had ordered, Dr. Becker handed her a red heart-shaped lollipop with the word LOVE printed on it in white. “Sorry, kiddo, these are the only ones I have today,” he apologized. “I know you feel like crap about this Vronsky fellow, but I’m sure you’ll have no problem finding someone more deserving of your affection.”

Waiting for the elevator with her mom, Kimmie thought about her doctor’s last words to her, which she knew he’d said to make her feel better, but instead made her feel worse. Because it wasn’t true. Even though she hated Vronsky’s guts right now, she honestly felt there was no one more deserving than him in the entire city. She stared at the word LOVE printed on the heart-shaped candy in her hand and her bottom lip started quivering. She threw it in the trash can next to the elevator, but it was too late, a storm of fat tears had already begun to fall.