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Nico pulls the drawer open and starts digging around, but suddenly stops

I shift onover his shoulder atafter a moment

My eyes tighten, roae catches my attention and my stare flies to his hand and the small pill bottle held in it

I dart forward, atte it from him, but his hand wraps behind hi his thoughts

“These yours?” he asks, even though I know he read the name printed across the label

“I don’t take them”

“Don’t lie,” he throws back, the sainst the container as he shakes the bottle behind his back “They’re half gone”

“I didn’t say I never took them, I said I don’t, as in not lately”

Nico doesn’t look away, and the longer we stand here theover

“My“That was how she ot it”

“Do you feel like you need them, to focus or any other reason?”

“Did they help? Yes Do I need them? No”

“Then don’t take them You’re not a child who doesn’t understand what helps you and what doesn’t Don’t let anyone control what you put in your body” He brings the pill bottle around, grabs ainst the counter “Throw them away”

My head tugs back and then it hits me

Pills

The night he argued with his dad in the yard, he accused hi his mom addicted to pills

Is that why she’s asleep now?

Is she always asleep?

There’s an angry sense of helplessness slipping over him, one he can’t control or can’t hide One that hasthem into the sink I wash therab another, pop the top and pour

I turn to Nico, passing him a cup “I haven’t taken them since finals last year,” I offer quietly “It was never about addiction It was appeasing uess is sort of what I was addicted to”

For what seems like a lifetime, he stares, but finally takes a slass

There’s a shift in the air, and suddenly the tension in the room is an entirely different kind

I replay hi he’s doing the sa out to tease his bottohtest bit

I focus onthat I lead us into a larger space,room