Page 231 of Finding Us

Jade’s now crumpled in a heap on the bathroom floor. The place reeks and I need to get her out of here. I take her back to the bed, then wet the washcloth again and place it over her forehead. Her skin is scorching hot and yet she’s shaking and shivering and her teeth are chattering. Lilly was never this sick but I’ve heard the flu can sometimes be worse for adults.

I get her pajamas from the drawer and put them on her. Then I cover her with blankets and keep watch over her. She gets sick every hour for the rest of the night.

Now it’s 9 in the morning and she’s gone almost two hours without a trip to the bathroom. She can’t possibly have anything left in her stomach. During the night I kept trying to get her to drink water so she wouldn’t get dehydrated but the water came right back up.

The alarm goes off. I don’t know why it’s going off on a Sunday. I reach over and turn it off.

“Garret?” Jade’s voice is hoarse. She reaches over trying to find me.

“I’m right here.” I move over a little.

She rests her head on my stomach, and curls herself into a ball. “Thank you. For staying.”

“You don’t have to thank me.” I move the damp strands of hair off her cheek. “I’m taking care of you. I’m not going anywhere.”

“She always left.” Jade says it softly, in almost a whisper. “She never stayed.”

“I know. But I’m not her.”

Jade’s talking about her mom. The last time Jade had the flu was when her mom was alive. Her mom used to get mad at her for getting sick, like it was Jade’s fault. She’d force Jade to stay in her room with the door closed until she was better. And if Jade had the stomach flu like she has now, she had to clean the bathroom if she made a mess. Her mom would yell at her until she did it.

I guess that’s why Jade didn’t come and get me on the couch last night. She probably thought I’d get mad at her or yell at her. Jade still has irrational thoughts like that. She thinks I’ll treat her like her mom did. It makes no sense, but then again, I didn’t have that kind of traumatic childhood so I can’t really understand where her head is sometimes.

“Will you stay here until you have class?” she whispers.

“I’m not going to class. It’s Sunday.”

She lifts her head. “It is?”

“Yeah.” I feel her face. It’s still burning hot. “And if you’re like this tomorrow I’m not going to class.”

She mumbles something, then her head drops down on my stomach again and she falls asleep.

Her phone is on the nightstand and I pick it up and see several messages from Sara. I normally wouldn’t check Jade’s phone but Sara doesn’t usually send this many messages so I’m wondering if she needs something. I check the first message. It says she’s sick and that it might be contagious. The next message says the flu was going around at Caleb’s day care and that he’s sick, too. Then the other messages are all Sara asking Jade to call her because she’ll feel terrible if Jade’s sick.

So that explains it. Jade must’ve got sick when Caleb and Sara were here the other night. It takes a few days before it hits so the timing is right.

I put the phone back on the nightstand and let myself sleep a little.

When I wake up three hours later, Jade hasn’t moved, which means she hasn’t been sick for a few hours now.

I need to use the bathroom so I try to gently slide her head off me but she wakes up. “Are you leaving?”

“Just to go to the bathroom. I’ll be right back.”

The bathroom is a mess but I’ll clean it up later.

When I get back in bed, Jade lays her head on my chest and says, “I really wanted pancakes today. And now I can’t have them.”

“We’ll have them next week. I won’t even charge you for them.”

“That’s why I wanted them,” she says weakly. “I wanted to pay for them.”

I smile. “You did?”

“Yeah.” She tilts her head up and looks at me. A tear’s running down her cheek. “I miss you.”

I wipe the tear away with my thumb. Her skin is still so hot. “Jade, why are you crying?”

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