Page 85 of The Best Friend Power Play

"Really?" Hannah chimes in beside me. "Because person does have a nice ring to it." Maddie giggles, and the awkwardness vanishes. "Hi, I'm Hannah. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too."

I rest my hands on my knees to admire the bedspread. "This is amazing," I say, blowing out a soft whistle.

"Do you like it?"

I look up at Maddie and smile. "I love it. Did you make this?"

She nods proudly. "With my grandma."

"Grandmas are the best, aren't they?" Maddie nods, and I can feel her nerves melting away. "Hey. I don't suppose…nah, forget it."

"What?" she asks, inching forward. "What were you going to say?"

"It's silly."

"Most things he says are," Hannah adds, prompting another giggle out of Maddie.

"What I was going to say was, if you had a sharpie, I could sign it for you. If you want me to, that is?"

"I would loooove that."

She doesn't have a sharpie, but Nurse Melanie gets one for us. After I sign her quilt, the three of us sit and talk about hockey, Maddie's favorite movies, how she doesn't like school but now that she can't attend, she misses it.

We gather in closer so she can show us some of her favorite TikTok videos. They all feature animals doing funny or crazy things—she's a huge animal lover.

We spend almost an hour with her, and it flies by.

"How old are you, Maddie?" I ask.

"Thirteen."

I steal a glance at Hannah. "That's a good age," I say around the lump forming in my throat.

"I'm really sick, Culver." She grabs my hand and blinks a few times. "I'm scared."

"It's okay to be scared. We all get scared."

"Even you?"

I smile. "Yeah, even me. You'll get better." I stop myself. It's natural to want to comfort someone who's sick, but I don't know what her condition is, so I shouldn't have said that. I change tack. "Things that hurt us or are really hard make us stronger. Better. But we have to keep fighting, keep pushing. Even when it's hard."

"Especially when it's hard," Hannah says, taking Maddie's other hand.

"That's right. The important thing is to keep going. Use your fear to your advantage. It's okay to be scared, but don't let being scared be the reason you quit trying."

"I'm going to remind you of that next week when we go to karaoke," Hannah teases.

I turn to Maddie. "Unless it's karaoke. It's perfectly fine to quit that."

Maddie grins. "I like your girlfriend."

"She's not my…" My eyes land on Hannah, and she smiles. "Yeah, you're right. She is pretty cool."

"Not to mention fantastic at karaoke," Hannah throws in, unable to help herself.

I let out a pained groan, which makes them both giggle.

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