Page 152 of Jaded

His eye flutters open again. Glaring again. “Not your business.”

“Maybe not.” I keep talking, so maybe he’s not paying as much attention as I slowly slip his T-shirt up. “But it’s Syd’s business, asyour girlfriend. And Syd’s my business. So, transitive property, it’s my business.”

“That’s bullshit.”

“Sure is.” I get the shirt up high enough to note the sea of bruises across his abdomen and chest. Shit. “But what can you really do about it? You needhelp, and it looks like I’m the one here.”

Don’t see any jutting bones or blood or anything crazy, but I’m not a doctor.

“I don’t need—”

“Shut up, Avery.” I tug his shirt back down, then lean down a little closer so he has no choice but to look me in the eyes. “Stop bullshitting me, and I’ll stop bullshitting you. Did your dad do this?”

His eye flicks sideways. “No.”

“That’s why you don’t want to go to a doctor.”

“I said no—”

“So you were at the Ice Out, then?”

“No.” He snarls like a feral dog again, lips pulled back, eye squinted. “Just leave me the fuck alone—”

“No can do, kid. ’Cause if something happens to you, that’s on me.” I tug another hank of dirty hair off his cheek. “Let me at least get you cleaned up, okay? We can assess the damage.”

“No.”

“It’s either that or I just pick you the fuck up and put you in my car.” I set a hand on his shoulder, anticipating his retaliatory twitch. “And before you try and fight me, remember who I am.”

I’m a whole lot of things, aren’t I? I’m Jesse Taylor’s pathetic little brother who died in the shadow of his greatness. I’m a blue-collar guy just trying to make a better life for his family. I’m the Dingoes’ lucky skate sharpener. I’m Syd’s dad and Brenda’s son and the pathetic punching bag of once-legend Rey Taylor.

“I’m Number Forty-Seven,” I say, because I’m that too. “I don’t think you want to try me right now.”

Avery’s blue eye stares back up at me, unblinking. But slowly, slowly, his tensed muscles relax under my hand and he eases back against the bed. Like the fight’s gone out of him.

“I know what it’s like to want something so bad you’ll do anything to get it,” I murmur, sweeping more hair off his face. “And I know what it’s like to live in a family that doesn’t recognize your dream.”

He stares at me. Stares and stares and it feels like an eternity, but it can’t have been that long, because Syd still hasn’t returned.

“I went to the Ice Out,” Avery says finally, his voice so low I barely catch the words. “I got an invite, and I couldn’t say no.”

The words catch painfully in my chest, but I don’t interrupt.

“My dad found out this morning.”

We stare at each other, Avery and I, in a shared moment that feels like so much more. I’ve always thought he was just like me, that I saw so much of myself in him. But I think maybe I’m wrong—or at least off.

It’s not myself I see in him. It’s Day River that I see in both of us. As much as I am therepresentation of this town, as Olli said, so is Avery.

And that is what makes us the same.

“I found a first-aid kit.” Syd slips back into the room, to my side.

“Good.” I take the kit from Syd’s hands, but my eyes never leave Avery. “Let’s get you cleaned up, kid. After that, we’re going to urgent care.”

It’s time to do for Avery what I never had the balls to do for myself.

Chapter 39

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