“Thank you.” I took the cereal and perched awkwardly on my bed to eat.
“What’s up with you?” Conrad asked Jasper. “Everything okay?”
“No.” Jasper shook his head. His eyes were red and his shirt and hair damp, like he’d splashed a lot of water on his face. “It’s April.”
“Shit.” Conrad whistled low. I was missing something—it was June now, not April. And Jasper looked despondent. Even I could sense his misery from the way he kept twisting his hands and his somber tones.
“What?” I didn’t like being out of the loop, and my question came out a little demanding.
“April is his younger sister.” Conrad’s voice was more patient than I probably deserved. “She has some sort of rare blood disease.”
“Yeah.” Jasper nodded. “And she’d been doing really good the last few months. But now she’s back in the hospital. The local one just transferred her to the big children’s hospital, so I know it’s serious, even though my mom is telling me it’s not.”
“You need to get home.” Imagining myself in his place was easy—I had sisters. I knew how I’d feel if one of them was ill.
“Yeah.” Jasper’s expression was pained. “But Professor Tuttle is counting on us taking this trip. I can’t ask you guys to turn around for me.”
“It’s your sister.” My mind was locked on that fact. My own might drive me nuts with how perfect their lives could be, but they’d also stood up for me for years, even when it wasn’t the most convenient, and there wasn’t a lot that I wouldn’t do for them.
“Exactly. You’d do it for us.” Conrad clapped him on the shoulder.
“But if we turn around, who will send content to Professor Tuttle? I hate the thought of him disappointed that all of us had to go back.”
“What if we keep going, but you take a bus or plane back?” My mind was racing, considering and discarding scenarios that could get Jasper back to April quickly. I got what he was saying about Professor Tuttle, but I also knew that I couldn’t let Jasper soldier on when his family needed him.
“Same-day airfare from Columbus is crazy expensive. My mom looked. She says to just keep on the trip, and she’ll update me.” Jasper groaned. “God, I can’t even think right now. My brain is mush. Last time, we almost lost her. And I hate leaving you guys with all that driving between just the two of you.”
“It’s your sister, man,” Conrad said firmly, his conviction so strong that he had to have at least one sister himself. “You need to be there. I don’t have much cash—”
“I do.” I fished out my wallet. Conrad might be better at the emotional support, but knowing that there was something I could offer made my voice stronger, more decisive. “I have an extra credit card for emergencies. I’ve never had to use it, but this counts. I can explain to my moms later if you use it for a plane ticket.”
“You’d let him use your credit card?” Conrad gaped at me. “For real?”
“It’s his sister.” My face heated. I didn’t like him looking so intently at me. And I truly did not like the idea of continuing on the trip without Jasper, but I couldn’t deny that splitting up was probably our best option. Keep Professor Tuttle happy and distracted while he recovered, get Jasper back to his family, and get Conrad and me to the convention as planned. It was only practical, but my heart still pounded like the bass tracks that always seemed to filter out of the frat houses on Saturday nights. Glancing away from Conrad’s inquisitive eyes, I fished out my phone. “I’m going to look up tickets.”
We quickly ruled out the bus—all the options we could find that weren’t already sold out were like fourteen-plus hours to get back. Airfare was several hundred, but it would get Jasper there a lot faster. I found a flight that worked, used my credit card, and figured out how to forward the boarding pass to Jasper’s phone.
“Now let’s get loaded.” While Conrad said all the right words as he sat next to Jasper on the bed, I gathered up Jasper’s things and packed them back into his backpack before hustling us out to the car.
I made sure Jasper ate one of Conrad’s doughnuts, letting go of my no-food-in-the-car rule because him not getting sick from lack of eating was more important. As I rushed around, I was a little surprised that my anxiety was strangely at bay. Unlike when Professor Tuttle had fallen, I wasn’t frozen. Here there had been an urgent need, and I’d been able to meet it with a clear plan that helped all of us meet our goals—get Jasper home, get us on our way, keep the professor happy. And having that plan accomplished made me feel great, buzzed almost as if I’d had too much soda but without the racing pulse.