Fuck u K.

And then:

I’m swallowing blood.

And then:

I lost a tooth.

She lost a tooth.

Lia lost a tooth.

I wonder how that happened. I mean, I saw her that day. I saw her face . . . She wouldn’t tell me.

(beat) She was standing right there, her mouth all black and blue. She said, she said to me: Something broke.

Maybe she meant her tooth. Maybe she meant something else.

(beat) Fuck u K.

I’m swallowing blood.

I lost a tooth.

You don’t have to speak twenty languages to know what that means.

KHADIM: I didn’t do that to her.

DANIELSON: Maybe she knows another Khadim.

KHADIM: I didn’t do that!

DANIELSON: What’d you do? Punch her in the face? Throw her against a wall? Knock her down some steps?

KHADIM: I didn’t hurt her like that! It wasn’t me!

DANIELSON: Well, she blames you!

KHADIM: (starts to lose it) She does not! She does not! How do you . . .

(gets control of himself) She came to your office?

What did you talk to her about? Huh? That must have been a great talk, man, you talk with her and then she throws herself off a cliff?

DANIELSON: You, you’re gonna walk out of here, you’re gonna leave this school, you’re gonna slip away like you always do, but I want you to understand very clearly that I know about you.

Everyone’s like, Oh Lia, she was so troubled.

But she was getting her life back together until you came along. Why do you think she left her phone with me?

Maybe it was so I would know. So I would know about you.

And now I do.

Beat.

DANIELSON: Look at you.

A guy who’d kill beautiful little birds just to make some money.

And then what. What do you do? You nurse the ones that are still alive back to health. You give them medicine. You care for them. You give them warmth, protection . . . so they get better . . . so you can sell them.

Did you ever think it was cruel?

I asked you a question.

KHADIM: (quietly) She needed money.

DANIELSON: Excuse me?

KHADIM: She needed money. She didn’t have any money.

DANIELSON: So what?

(with real anger) SO WHAT?! Almost everyone needs money. Do you understand that? No. You don’t.

KHADIM: She knew I could get her money.

I know people who . . .

Kids who . . .

(beat) These kids I know from Riyadh. Saudi kids, oil kids. Way more money than me, and they throw these parties . . .

And they like to bring in girls to be there, you know, to just wear a little dress and be sexy and get all fucked up with them.

I told Lia about it, but not to . . .

I didn’t tell her about it so she would go there and do that!

I told her because it was crazy. And Lia, she loved hearing about everything, all the stuff I’ve seen in my life, you know? She liked hearing about the world.