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His face crumpled and he sighed. “Nobody was here. I got hurt myself.”

That was when I noticed his swollen wrist. He had it tucked tight against his stomach.

“What happened to your arm?”

“It’s fine. I fell… by myself,” he repeated. I opened my mouth to argue with him and he squeezed his eyes shut. “I fell, Alvin. Alone.”

“Trevor…”

“I fell, okay! There was no one else here!” The shout cracked halfway through, and he folded forward on himself.

I moved before thinking, then stopped myself. “Can I reach you to help you?”

Trevor froze. He appeared to consider the question and nodded. Just once, but I kept moving until I was sitting beside him. I took the edge of my sweatshirt and helped pull it farther over his legs. He stared straight ahead.

“What happened to your wrist? The off-the-record thing I’m not allowed to say apparently?”

“I tried to get away.”

“Did somebody hold you down? How many were there?” I looked towards the woods again. When Trevor didn’t answer, I added under my breath, “I’m going to kill them.”

His head snapped in my direction. “No.”

“I’m not literally going to⁠—”

“Don’t go after them,” he croaked. “Please. You’ll just make it worse. You know how this goes. Don’t give them any more reason to hurt me. Please, Alvin.”

Fuck. The kid was fucking terrified.

“They can’t get away with this, Trevor… I saw them. I’ll just say⁠—”

“They were covered up. They’ll know I told you.”

“You didn’t tell me anything.”

“They’ll know, Mr. Carter.”

“Then they’re already scared.”

He looked down at his hands. “No, they’re not. They’re monsters.”

Something about the certainty in his voice made me feel sick, and I stood.

Trevor grabbed my wrist with his good hand. “Alvin. Please don’t do anything,” he pleaded with me.

I should have listened. I knew that. Counselor. Adult. Responsible fucking human being. Instead, I glared at the tree line. “I’m just going to find them and see what the fuck else their inbred parents taught them,” I ground out. “Tell me names, Trevor, before I massacre the innocents.”

“You’ll make it worse. They’ll kill me next time.”

That stopped me. Because I understood the real panic. “I’m sorry,” I said.

His mouth trembled. “For what?”

I didn’t know what to tell the kid. For everything? For not seeing the signs sooner? Not being louder when those assholes crooned every time Trev got close to Mason. Not being there. Not making camp safe enough. Not knowing that some little bastards had decided another human being was something they could humiliate for entertainment because of their own disillusioned homophobia.

I crouched down to Trevor’s level. “We’re going to the infirmary.”

“No.”