The Best of Friends

At her mother’s house, Dani receives a text from Kendra about Lindsey and Andrew’s decision to bring Jacob home. The story is all over the TV news, and Andrew tells the cameras that his son is still breathing 36 hours after being taken off life support, which he thinks may be Jacob’s way of telling them he wants to go home. As Dani and her mother puzzle over how Lindsey and her husband can possibly care for Jacob by themselves, Caleb “lets out a small whimper and drops to his knees on the floor” (209). Quickly, Dani turns the TV off, and curses herself for forgetting how easily her son, in his traumatized state, can be “triggered.”

Waking Paul in the middle of the night, Kendra steels herself to tell him the truth about Reese’s Adderall. Since she rarely enters their bedroom anymore, Paul thinks she has come for something else. The amorous glint in his eye is, for her, a guilty reminder that they had planned a sex date for the night Sawyer was killed. Hesitantly, she confesses to Paul how she has been secretly dosing Reese with prescribed Adderall, hoping to improve his grades.