Page 148 of Slew Foot
“No,” Mickey said. “Not really.”
He set his phone down and started to pace as he talked.
“Dude, a pediatrician?” Tanner asked when he paused. “Did you get a lollipop?”
Mickey reached down to scoop up a pillow and toss it at Tanner’s head. Rafe knew the feeling. He wanted Tanner to stop interrupting so Mickey couldget to the fucking point.
“No, asshole. He didn’t give me alollipop.”
Tanner’s face fell. “Oh damn. I was hoping he did, and you’d share it. I fucking love those things.”
Rafe snorted, despite himself and even Mickey looked a little amused.
But then he started talking about the ear infection.
“Oh, shit, I feel so bad,” Tanner said, a horrified expression crossing his face when he realized the bug he’d brought home had started the whole issue. “It’s all my fault.”
“It’s not your fault,” Mickey said because he was nicer than Rafe was.
Itwaskinda Tanner’s fault, honestly. Well, and Rafe’s … Ugh. If Mickey hadn’t been looking out for him when he’d gotten so sick, this probably wouldn’t have happened either.
“No, it’smyfault,” Rafe said with a sigh.
“It’s notanyone’sfault,” Mickey argued. “It’s just a thing that happened. I mean, Tanner, maybe you could chill on screwing around with every single person in the area and learn to use hand sanitizer and cover your mouth when you sneeze sometimes, but I don’tblameyou. And I don’t blame you either, Rafe. It’s something I have to deal with now though.”
“But that’s good, right?” Rafe said. “You can treat an infection with antibiotics.”
“Well, no, it’s a virus and that’s only for bacteria,” Mickey said.
Rafe stared because he wasn’t sure what the difference was. Maybe he should have paid better attention in biology class? But like, there’d been hockey to think about which was way, way more interesting.
Tanner looked confused too.
Mickey waved a hand. “Look, it doesn’t matter. They can treat me with other stuff like steroids.”
“So that’s good news, right?” Rafe said again, because he wasn’t sure why Mickey didn’t seem happier.
“Well,” Mickey said slowly. “Maybe. This is just a theory of what’s happening. They have to do more scans to be sure it actually is what they think it is before they start treating it.”
That still seemed like good news to Rafe. Annoying, because it would take a little while, but treatment equaled good, right?
“Uhh,” he said, not quite getting the problem here.
Mickey hesitated. “But even once they treat it, we have to hope there’s no permanent damage.”
“Oh shit, dude,” Tanner whispered. “Now Ireallyfeel bad.”
“We don’t know anything yet,” Mickey said and even from across the room Rafe could see how hard he was trying to be brave and hopeful about it.
Rafe walked over to Mickey and put his arms around him, hugging him tight. “It’ll be okay,” he promised, kissing his temple, even though he didn’t know if it was true or not.
“Yeah, totally,” Tanner said, cheerful even though it kinda sounded like something was stuck in his throat. He flung his arms around them both. “We just gotta hope for the best.”
“I’m trying,” Mickey said, sounding a little watery, and all Rafe could do was squeeze him tighter.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Rafe felt like he was going to lose his mind while they waited for the test results. Tanner didn’t seem much better, and Rafe could only imagine how Mickey was feeling.
