Page 26 of Always Us

This is one of the downsides of being rich. You can’t share stuff with people. I don’t mean material stuff, but experiences. Like the orange juice thing. I grew up drinking fresh squeezed orange juice, so I can’t really share in Ryan’s excitement over a carton of brand name orange juice. And even if you do show excitement, the person doesn’t believe you. I’m sure Ryan thinks I’m just playing along, pretending to be excited about his car. The truth is, I am excited. The car is brand new and I haven’t been in this year’s model and I love cars, especially BMWs. So I want to take it for a drive. But even if I tell Ryan that, he won’t believe me. He’ll think I’m just being nice.

“I’ll take it on the interstate,” he says, “but I can’t speed because there’s always cops sitting there.”

I glance around the inside of the car. “I like the interior. Newly designed this year, right?”

“Yeah, and part of the outside, too. They narrowed the front and changed the hubcaps.”

He turns onto the on-ramp and hits the gas. We take off, merging onto the interstate.

“Nice acceleration, huh?” Ryan’s beaming. He loves this car. I love mine, too. So that’s an experience we can share. Doesn’t matter what car you have. If you love it, you get that same feeling. That same excitement from driving it.

“You better slow down,” I tell him. “I see a cop up ahead.”

“Shit.” He taps the brakes. “Thanks.”

“How’s school going?” I figure I should talk about more than just the car since Ryan and I don’t get to talk much.

“It sucks. I’ve got really hard classes this year. Seems like I never stop studying. But at least the semester’s almost over.”

“So what do you think of Karen?”

“She’s great. She takes really good care of my dad. I can’t remember anything about my mom, but my dad said Karen’s like her in a lot of ways.” He merges into the left lane. “So how’s Jade doing?”

“She’s fine. Why? What do you mean?”

“I mean, does she ever like, hear stuff anymore?”

He means the voices. Ryan and I are the only ones who know about Jade hearing her mom’s voice in her head.

“No. She doesn’t.”

“Do you think she’d tell you if she did?” He turns the vent so the heat isn’t blowing on him.

“Yeah, she’d tell me. She’s going to counseling now. You knew that, right?”

“Dad told me she was. But she’s been to counseling before and it didn’t help.”

“It’s different now. She wants to go. Nobody is forcing her.”

“Good. She needs to deal with that stuff.” He pauses. “When I first met Jade, she was so skinny I thought she was anorexic. Her face was all sunk in, her bones were sticking out everywhere. Then I found out she was skinny because she didn’t have any food at her house. She was 12 when I met her. She saw me moving into the house with my dad and came over and said hi, a big smile on her face. She was desperate to make a friend. I invited her for dinner that night, and before she came over, my dad told me about her and her mom.”

Part of me wants to hear more about Jade’s past, but the other part of me doesn’t. I don’t want to think about her not having food or friends or anyone to take care of her. It’s the past, but it still breaks my heart.

“Anyway,” Ryan says. “I love her and I just want her to get past all that.”

“We both do, Ryan. It’s just going to take some time, but I’m doing everything I can to help her.”

He shrugs. “I’ve decided you’re not so bad. Jade could’ve done worse.”

I laugh. “Thanks. That means a lot.”

“Speaking of Jade, I better turn around or she’ll yell at us for being gone too long.” He gets off at the next exit. There’s nothing out here but farm fields and an old gas station. “You want to drive back?”

“Sure.”

“I’ll pull over at the gas station.” Ryan turns right, heading toward it just as my phone rings. It’s Jade.

“Garret. You need to get home.”

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