“It’s not really a fight if only one person is doing the hitting,” Dr. Johnson said. “That’s just a beating.”

Will couldn’t argue with that. “What’s going to happen?” he asked.

“I’ll speak with Brendan, and then I’ll decide,” Dr. Johnson replied. “In the meantime, I’ll be calling your parents.”

“Great,” Will said. Things were already tense at home. His parents were going to hit the roof when they learned he might be suspended.

Maddie heard Will had been hauled into the principal’s office for fighting. She was leaning against the wall of the school when he came barreling through the front doors, letting them slam shut behind him. She jogged after him and caught up in a few steps. “Bad day?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he answered. “How about you?”

“Same,” she said. “Let’s get out of here.”

They hopped into Will’s pickup and peeled out of the school parking lot. Maddie wanted to ask him what had happened, but it didn’t seem like he wanted to talk. She could understand that.

“Where do you want to go?” he asked her.

“Anywhere but home,” she replied.

“Same,” he said. “Let’s go out to the tree house. No one will be there.”

He didn’t say anything else, and she fiddled with the radio, running through the stations. Nothing good was on. From her purse she pulled an airplane bottle of Absolut that she’d taken from her parents’ bar and downed it in two gulps. She winced, then pulled out a second one and did the same.

Will raised his eyebrows, but she turned away to stare out the window, and he didn’t say anything.

As he pulled onto a road lined thickly with trees, a deer leaped out in front of them, its knobby legs sending it sailing across the road. It happened so quickly that Will didn’t have time to hit the brakes. The deer turned its head at the last second and stared at them with eyes that were wide and terrified. Will swerved hard to the right, and missed hitting it by inches.

“Dumb animals,” he muttered.

Maddie put her hand on Will’s knee. “That was close.”

As soon as her hand touched his knee, he leaned over and kissed her. It was the first time he’d done that since the night of the party. He’d been so distant. She’d worried that he wouldn’t want to touch her after what had happened.

Another car came up behind them and started honking. “Alright,” Will said, hitting the gas. “We’re moving.”

Will parked the truck in the public lot for the orchard rather than pulling up to the house, and Maddie followed him into the woods behind the farm.

They climbed onto the platform of the tree house, and talked for a few minutes before Will kissed her again. “Is this okay?” he asked her, and she nodded.