Page 258 of Finding Us

“Can you guys sit down? I need to say something.”

Ryan looks at my stomach.

I roll my eyes. “I’m not pregnant, Ryan. Would you stop thinking that every time I say I need to tell you something?”

He shrugs. “One of these times it’ll be true.”

“Anyway.” I take a deep breath and let it out. “I’ve decided I’m not going to med school.”

They both stare at me, not saying anything, then Frank finally says, “Was that it?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Oh. Okay. I thought you were going to tell us bad news.”

“Yeah, me, too.” Ryan gets up and goes to the kitchen. “You should’ve seen your face, Jade. I thought you were going to say someone died. You got any soda in the fridge?”

“Wait. You’re not mad about this? Or disappointed?”

Frank shakes his head. “No. You never acted that excited about med school so I wasn’t really sure why you wanted to go.”

“Ryan doesn’t act excited about med school and he’s still going.”

“Yeah, but I’m excited about a being adoctor,” Ryan says. “Nobody’s excited about med school. It’s a ton of work. So you have to be sure you really want to be a doctor before you suffer through all that.”

“Ryan’s always wanted to be a doctor,” Frank says. “He’s been talking about it since he was a kid. He even tried to perform surgery on the neighbor cat.”

“I wasn’t gonna cut him open,” Ryan says, returning to the living room with a can of Coke. “I was just pretending.”

“He was 8 at the time,” Frank says. “I knew then that he’d either be a veterinarian or a doctor.”

Ryan sits next to me. “I just always knew that’s what I wanted to do. It’s one of those things where you just know.”

“Really? I never felt that way about being a doctor. I just wanted to do something to help people.”

“You don’t have to be a doctor to do that,” Frank says.

“I know. I’m just not sure what else to do.”

“You’ll figure it out. I started college thinking I’d be an engineer. After a year of sitting through classes I had no interest in, I finally changed my major to journalism. My father wasn’t happy. He was an engineer so he wanted his son to be an engineer, but it wasn’t right for me.”

“You never told me that story.”

“It was so long ago, I don’t even think about it.”

“Did you drop some classes?” Ryan asks. “Because if I were you, I’d drop organic chem. I don’t know what you were thinking taking that at the same time as chem 2 and advanced calculus.”

“Yeah, I dropped it. And the lab. And it’s too late to sign up for another class so my schedule’s pretty open until next semester.”

Ryan’s phone rings. It’s Chloe calling to wish me a Happy Birthday. And just like that we’ve moved on from the med school discussion. I worried myself sick all week for nothing. Frank and Ryan weren’t even the tiniest bit mad about it. That’s a huge relief. Now that I’ve told them, I can relax and enjoy my birthday.

At 12:30 I hear Garret’s car outside. He comes in the front door. “Hi, Frank. Hey, Ryan.”

They say hi and Garret motions me to the door. “You have another guest. Come here.”

As I walk to the door, Garret moves aside and Grace walks in.

“Grace!” I hug her. “I can’t believe you’re here!”

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