anyway.
âSheâs pulling your chain, Mick. Trust me. You keep responding to her, sheâll keep making crap up.â
Iâve got my helmet in my hand. I consider slamming it into his head but put it away instead. âShe didnât make anything up,â I say. âI was there. I saw Gavin. He had a migraine.â
âMaybe heâs in on it too.â Quinn leans over the sink to check his so-called sideburns in the mirror.
âHeâs four years old. You think a four-year-old can make himself throw up? Go pale? Heâs a preschooler, Quinn, not Ryan frigging Gosling.â
âFine. Whatever.â He turns and looks right at me. âBut you donât think this is a little strange? Youâre out on your first date inâwhat?âthree years, and suddenly Jade absolutely needs you to drop everything and rush right over?â
I close up my duffel bag. Thereâs no point arguing with him.
âWhat can I tell you, Quinn? Coincidences happen. If she needs help with Gavin, she needs help with Gavin. Iâm not going to desert her.â I grab my jacket. âI gotta go. Dalmaâs waiting.â
âThatâs what Iâm talking about. How long you think sheâs going to wait while youâre off looking after your ex-girlfriendâs little brother? Youâre not the only guy around here interested in her.â
I push open the change-room door. âThanks for that, Quinn.â
âDude. Just trying to be your friend.â
I walk through the rink. I wave across the ice at the coach. Jade has always said Quinn didnât like her. Maybe sheâs right.
Then I think about last night, and I wonder.
No question about it. Gavin was really sick when I got there. He must have puked five times. Jade might have been able to handle it herself, but she was worn out. I could see that. Anyone could see that. Dalma and I could go to a movie another time.
I lay in the dark with Gavin until he fell asleep. I checked my phone. It wasnât that late. Dalma had said I could drop by any time before eleven.
When I came out of the bedroom, Jade was sitting on the couch, folding laundry. Her Chemistry book was open on her lap. I felt sorry for her.
Iâd never felt sorry for her before. Iâd just figured thatâs the way she is. The perfect little A student. But then I saw her there on a Friday night, cleaning up, studying, taking care of Gavinâdoing all the stuff she has to do just to surviveâand I thought, Frig. No wonder she called me.
âGooGoo asleep?â she said.
I nodded.
âGood. Give me a minute, Iâll be done here soon too.â
I sat down on the couch next to her. She canât do this alone anymore, I thought. She needs help. Problem is, whoâs going to help? Her motherâs working. Her dadâs a deadbeat. Gavinâs dad is too. They canât afford to pay anyone. Even the doctors donât do much good. Jade says they just tell her to be careful about what he eats, make sure he gets enough sleep and give him a headache pill as soon as the migraine startsâitâll only last a few hours. Lot of help that is. Someone still has to look after him. I donât see any solution.
I closed her textbook and put it on the coffee table. One thing she didnât need to be doing was studying on a Friday night. That much I knew. I started folding towels. It was the only thing I could think to do for her.
She went âAwâ¦â and patted my arm.
She shifted a little closer to me. I didnât think much about it. She might have just been getting comfortable. Then she pulled her legs up onto the couch. Then she leaned her head on my shoulder.
I could see where that was going. I panicked. I did this really lame, âOh, would you look at the time?â thing and took off as fast as I could.
Quinnâs wrong about Jade. She didnât make the problem up. But I get the feeling she