Page 103 of His Secret Gift

Everyone is silent.

“Alright, great. I’ll distribute your tickets.”

From there, he hands them off one by one.

Once I get mine, I pause in front of Jack. He seems out of it and like a zombie.

“Is everything okay?” I ask in a hushed tone.

“Uhhh,” he grunts.

“Are you sick or?”

I’m met with even more moaning. Part of me feels a little hurt that he’s acting like this, but I reason he must be feeling really bad.

“Okay, well. Let me know if I can get you anything.”

After that, he doesn’t say anything or even indicate that I’d offered to help him.

“What’s wrong with Jack?” Callie asks after I walk away with her.

“I have no idea. I assume he’s sick.”

She punches the air and kicks the ground. “Dammit! That means we’re going to be sick!”

“We’re?” I wasn’t aware of her kissing him.

“Yeah, dummy. We shared a room. Any germs you got from him, I’m sure you passed along to me.”

Oh, right.“I’m sorry.”

She sighs but then reaches in her little backpack. “It’s fine. I prepare for events like this.”

We then walk over and fill our water bottles up.

“Here.” She offers me a packet of Emergen-C, and I pour it in before shaking it all up. “Hopefully that will help. Trust me, being sick at sea is absolute hell.”

“I can imagine.”

We eventually board, and I can’t help but look over at Jack, who is closer to the front with Captain Bryant.

He’s facing away from me, so all I can see is the back of his head resting against the seat.

“I hope he’s okay.”

“Who?” Gwen asks.

“Oh. Um, Jack.” Again, I don’t see the harm in telling the truth. Everyone could see him earlier that morning.

“Oh, I know. He looks awful. Hey, Cal? Do you have one of those immunity booster packets?”

“Yep.” She gets another one out and hands it over to our other friend.

“Thank you. Honestly, I feel kind of bad for telling Harper we were in Morocco.”

I stop in my tracks. “I’m sorry what?”

She’s shaking her water bottle now. “What?”

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