Students replayed theories, retold rumors, pieced together fragments of teacher contradictions like detectives in a bad TV drama. But now? Now it was as if a switch had flipped. It started quietly, almost invisibly, with students shifting their conversations back to normal teenage priorities: dresses, who might hook up with whom, who had rented the most extravagant ride.
Within a short period of time, Richard’s fading presence had been pushed aside by limousines, hair appointments, and playlists. It wasn’t that they stopped caring. It was that caring was inconvenient. And Westbrook High was excellent at forgetting anything inconvenient. Posters advertising the prom brightened the hallways.