Ryan dropped it. “She lets her cats run loose here. I thought I’d get my revenge on her. Brought a cat carrier, some smelly fish for bait. I even thought I’d bring you guys in, before deciding it was better to do it alone.”

“What?” Amanda asked.

Lloyd was silent. Ryan didn’t answer, instead choosing to eat, fixing his glasses.

“Do what alone?” Amanda asked.

“Catch some cats, check their collars, make sure they were hers, and take them down to the water there. Sink the cage until bubbles stopped coming up.”

Paper and aluminum foil crinkled. Lloyd, angry, squeezing the wrapping that Amanda had put his lunch in.

Not because of the act—maybe because of the act. But because it shocked and hurt Amanda to hear this coming from a supposed friend’s mouth.

“I didn’t,” Ryan said. “I brought a cage on the back of my bike, caught the first cat. Then I stopped there. I was bored, I was annoyed. I’ve… I’ve been trying really hard to play nice, act good, and I don’t get anything for it. Wouldn’t it be nice to stop trying?”

“No,” Amanda said. “No, not at all.”

Ryan nodded. “Exactly. You’re right. It’s… never been that nice, when I’ve done that sort of thing before. That was something I had to figure out.”

“What sort of thing?” she asked, almost with a note of panic in her voice now.

Ryan took another bite of his meal. He was the only one eating, now.

“What sort of thing?” she asked.

He held up a finger while he swallowed.

“Christina had a bruise,” Lloyd said. “Back at our old school. Huge bruise, like you wouldn’t believe. Purple and green, like she got smacked by a car.”

“You knew about this?” Amanda asked.

“I pinched her,” Ryan said, keeping his voice level. “Grabbed her and pinched, twisted, held one hand to her mouth and… kept twisting with the other hand. Because she annoyed me.”

There had been others. Friends of those others who pushed back, used numbers or threats to get him to back off. And it had worked. There had been retaliation from the school, warning letters. Testimony from witnesses, waved in front of his face, before he’d asked that his parents be called.

And so much disappointment, which he didn’t care about, and shouting, which he considered annoying, and privileges taken away, which did deter him. His parents had been consistent on that last one. They couldn’t make him do anything, but they could take away what they’d given him. He could fight back, but past a certain point, it wasn’t worth it.

Slowly, steadily, he’d found his way here.

Amanda stood from her seat, disgust clear on her face.

“It wasn’t worth it,” Ryan said. “I’m messed up. I know it. My parents would say I was broken from the time I was born. And they’d say I was better now.”

“Are you?” Lloyd asked.