“Earth to Adrian! Get in the car. You must be freezing.” I knew that voice. I got to my feet and there was Scarlett waving for me to get in. I got in into her car, and the first thing she said was, “What are you thinking? You’re in a tracksuit . . . jogging? It’s freezing!”

“It’s not that cold out.”

“Young people are weird. It’s cold outside.”

She made her way onto the road and through the intersection.

“So, you fell off the face of the Earth. Looks like you made it back with a whole lot less of you.”

“Oh, yeah, uh . . . Thanks.”

We approached a red light and began to slow down.

“What happened to you, man? Not a text? Not a hello? Not a ‘I’m doing okay but I’ve moved on from King’s’?”

That was valid. After Mel left me, that was the end of King’s for me. I hadn’t even told Scarlett or Ryan that I wasn’t coming back.

“I’ve had a lot going on.” I didn’t know what else to say.

“Seems like it. Do you still talk to Mel? She stopped going shortly after you did. But she at least thanked us for helping her out.”

Yeah, I’d kind of just ghosted everyone at King’s. It wasn’t a good plan, but I seemed to be a body of bad decisions.

“Anyways, I just got off from working my night shift. Seems like you’re skipping school. Wanna grab a coffee?”

“Sure,” I replied. I didn’t drink coffee, but I did want to catch up.

Scarlett drove into the drive-thru, bought herself a small black. She had a feeling I’d only like my coffee if it had a lot of milk and sugar, so she ordered me a double-double. She was right. She paid the employee and handed me my coffee.

“Warm up, kid. My heater isn’t working.”

The coffee was hot, and I could feel it through the paper cup. She pulled over in the parking lot and sat back.

“So, what the hell happened? You left kickboxing, but you lost the weight. What did you do?”

I didn’t want to tell her. I knew she’d be ashamed of me if I did. I valued Scarlett’s opinion even if I hadn’t kept in touch. I hadn’t planned to fall out of touch, it just kind of happened. I would have reached out to her eventually, but I just didn’t know when. So much had happened since I had last seen her. I trusted her, and I felt like I was carrying a weight in my heart made of pain, anger, and regret. It all just kind of flowed from there. So I poured everything out.

I told Scarlett that I had started purging and about the night that Mel had found me over the toilet. I told her that Mel had left me. I told her that I began purging more and more, I told her about my excess skin, I told her about my doctor’s appointment, I told her about Mel coming to get me from the hospital washroom. I told her about that night at the punk show, I told her about waking up to see Desmond and Mel kissing, I told her about needing distance, and finally, I told her about the night before. I told her about Mel revealing her past to me. And how I had unloaded all of my anger onto Mel right after. It was a lot. It was a long story, but Scarlett listened. I could see her face go from worried, sympathetic, shocked, and then mad.