Four Doors Down(35)

A look of surprise crossed his face, almost as though that thought had never occurred to him. He turned to his right and Mason had shaken his head. “They said we’d be in the way and upset his parents.”

Ryan turned to me helplessly, almost as if asking me what to do. I sighed and shrugged. “We could be there in like twenty minutes and leave as soon as we know how he is.” That seemed to be all the confirmation Ryan needed. He jumped up and followed us out of the cafeteria, walking so fast we had to run to catch up with him.

Well, that was it; it was like a tsunami effect. Suddenly everyone was jumping up and heading to the parking lot. We all arrived at the hospital around the same time and none of us were told to leave.

Turns out Jake had bacterial meningitis and that nine hours I sat in the waiting room were the most terrifying of my life, waiting to know if he would make it or not. Somehow I ended up sitting next to Ryan, and for once I didn’t immediately distance himself from him. When I briefly got up to use the bathroom, I came back to see that someone had taken my seat so I sat in an empty seat across the room. Ryan immediately moved and came to sit next to me. It was like he didn’t want to be apart from me. We barely spoke, but I think it was the memory of the young friendship he, Jake and I had shared that made him want to be close to me. He knew I loved Jake just as much as he did. A lot of the students left after a couple of hours, but I couldn’t leave without knowing he was okay, and when my mom arrived with Mrs. Jackson bringing food and offering their sympathies to Jake’s parents, I refused to leave. Finally, when they told us he’d gotten through the worst of it, I let her take me home.

The next couple of weeks were pretty shitty for Jake. It was a really slow recovery and he was totally exhausted. I visited him every couple of days and he seemed to be returning more and more to his normal self. Then summer was here and I was off to Sam’s childhood summer camp to work as a junior counselor. I spent eight weeks away from home, calling and texting Jake to check in with him but really just getting on with my summer.

I got back from camp a week before school started and my dad took me to get my driver’s license (I turned sixteen over the summer). I drove over to Jakes to see him and was delighted to see he had made what looked like a full recovery.

“You look good,” I told him leaning against the doorframe that led to his family room. He turned around in surprise at my voice and grinned when he saw me. I returned the smile and walked in to meet him, leaning down to hug him tightly while he sat on the sofa. “Really, really good,” I whispered. I still couldn’t believe how close we had come to losing him.

He hugged me back, and then we sat and talked about our summers and he told me how much better he was feeling. I pulled my car keys out of my bag and dangled them in front of him like a prize.

“I got my license. Want to go for a ride? We could drive down to the beach?”

He nodded in agreement. “Only if Jackson can come, he’ll be here any minute.”

“Ryan Jackson?” I asked, annoyed that he was coming over. “Isn’t he still at camp?” Ryan went to a football camp every summer to work on his game; Jake usually went too. As soon as I said it, I regretted it. I hated admitting I knew anything about Ryan’s life, but it was impossible sometimes not to pick up on what my mom and his mom would say when they were over at my house.

Jake shook his head. “No. He didn’t go.”

“He didn’t go?”

“No. He said he wanted to stay here with me this summer. He’s been here every day.”

My jaw fell open. Ryan Jackson could be that selfless? That good to his friend? Wow.

Jake chuckled at my reaction. “I know, nice, right?” When I didn’t respond, he laughed again. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell him you don’t think he’s not a complete *.”

I rolled my eyes and followed Jake outside, and sure enough, there was Ryan, strolling up the drive. He stopped short when he saw me and nodded a greeting in my direction, looking surprised and a bit flustered. He didn’t look particularly thrilled when Jake announced we were going for a drive in my car, about as thrilled as I felt about taking him, but he didn’t put up any arguments. I don’t think either of us wanted Jake to pull the “I nearly died” card out and he obediently climbed into the backseat of my new car.

As I was checking my mirrors and pulling away from the curb, Jake turned to me. “So, Becca, you hook up with anyone at camp?”

“Like I’d tell you two,” I replied but blushed bright red, which Jake didn’t fail to spot.

“That means yes,” he told me triumphantly, which I didn’t argued with since it wasn’t a lie. Jake turned to Ryan in the backseat who was looking stonily ahead, paying no attention to the conversation. “Tick tock, Jackson, tick tock,” he said to him, smirking.

I shot him a dirty look. Tick tock? I didn’t care how long he thought it was taking me to get to the beach, I was not crashing my new car by rushing.





Sometimes I think my mom is the best person in the world. I mean, she’s fearless. When she was eighteen years old, she backpacked around the world on her own. She explored the globe for eighteen months, going off the beaten track, working in orphanages in South East Asia, walking the Inka Trail in Peru, learning Spanish in Mexico and how to ride horses in Australia. She didn’t care that she was alone; she took off and made friends for life along the way who she still keeps in contact with today. Then she came back to America and went to college.