The kid looked around at his friends, like I was joking, like he was waiting for them to start laughing so he could, too. But the laughter never came. They were all too shocked by the bloody scrapes on my face.

“Where’s Ruthie?” I asked. “Where is she?”

“I don’t know who you’re talking about,” he said.

“Where are the other two?”

He shook his head again. “I don’t know who you’re talking about.” He laughed to his friends, uncomfortably, stiffly.

“She’s wasted,” the girl said to her friends. “That’s really embarrassing,” I heard her add as I walked away.

Dr. Bregg’s pen moved furiously over her notebook while I spoke, like she was writing down every single word I said, a record of the night, step-by-step, that we could use to call the police, to find Ruthie. To figure out what happened to her. To get her back.

When I was finished, explaining that I tried to talk to Brigid but was stonewalled, she capped her pen and sat up straight. She glanced down at her notebook, still cradled against her chest like a small child. Then she looked at me.

“You’re aware that parties go against the Covenant Code?” she asked.

I sat back in the chair and let out the kind of breath that makes you light-headed. Fuck.

“And you were drinking?” she continued. “How much did you have to drink?” She sighed, disappointed in our behavior. “This is a wily accusation, Elizabeth. That your roommate, who had also been drinking, is in danger. Do you think it’s possible she just went home? That she needed some time to think about the violations she’d committed? Drinking, premarital sex, being alone with a member of the opposite—”

“She didn’t go home. Her parents don’t know where she is,” I started to yell. “Something happened to her.”

Dr. Bregg put her notebook on the table and leaned over it, toward me. She knew exactly what to do to make me think she cared—get on my level, speak softly, calmly. If I didn’t hear what she was saying, by the looks of this meeting, I’d think it was going well.

“I understand you’re concerned for your friend. But I need you to understand that by filing this report, by getting the university involved, you could be found to have broken the Covenant Code yourself. We’ll have a proper trial, of course, like we do for every large-scale violation, but by making this report official...well, you remember what happened to Lucy and Isabella? They were in your dorm, right? And I believe you and your dormmates were also penalized for their transgressions?”

I might have nodded but I couldn’t tell. It was like my entire face was numbed by her unwarranted reaction.