“Make another appointment. You don’t have to talk about anything you don’t want to, you could go there and just apologize, and then you’ll stop feeling this guilt.”

Captain scrunched up his face as if he was in pain, then nodded. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

He got to his feet. “I’ll see if I can sort out an appointment now.”

As soon as Captain walked away, Ollie slid into his seat.

“Where’s he going?”

“To make an appointment with the psychiatrist.”

“Why? He’s stopped screaming now.”

“Only because of the medication.”

Ollie shrugged, and Rory tapped his temple. “It hasn’t fixed anything going on in his head, only put a block on it, or a veil or whatever.”

“End result’s the same though. He’s sleeping now when he wasn’t before.”

“But he’s not himself.”

“But what is the ‘self’ exactly?”

Rory groaned, and clutched his brow. “Don’t start this again. Why the hell did you take that philosophy class?”

“I took all the classes, even drama. Apparently, they do a big show at the end of the year, they haven’t said what yet, but hopefully I’ll get to be something good.”

“Not a tree…”

Ollie narrowed his eyes. “Not a tree, a speaking part.”

“Could be a speaking tree.”

“Whatever, you better watch, you better be moved to tears.”

“Jesus, what’s gonna happen to this tree. Will it be cut down? Burned as firewood?”

Ollie kicked him under the table and he yelped.

“That hurt.”

“You deserved it.”

Rory snorted. “What class is today?”

“Creative writing, Teddy goes to it, too.”

“Does he write about maggots by any chance?”

“Do you want me to kick you again?”

“Is that a serious question?”

They both laughed, then Ollie shook his head.

“I was wrong about the maggots.”

“You didn’t know they were so important to him.”

“No, I didn’t mean that. They weren’t maggots.”

Rory frowned down at the table. “What were they then?”

“Caterpillars. He showed me a book in the library, pointed them out.”

“How the hell did he get caterpillars?”

Ollie shrugged. “No idea.”

“What are you doing in creative writing?”

“Poetry.”

“No shit?”

“I like it. I like all of the classes. I’ve got to fill my time doing something, and besides, I failed everything at school. I wasn’t exactly a model student.”

“You get called into the headmaster’s office?” Rory snorted.

“Yeah, all the time. I was known as the scummy kid with the crazy father.” Ollie bowed forward and shut his eyes. “I didn’t have the best time at school. It was bad enough what went on at home, but to get it at school as well…”