by E. Walsh
The only problem was Steve. The brat was annoying him as usual, only this time, he wasn’t doing it on purpose, which only made it worse. Right now, Steve was in between two beautiful girls, both of whom clearly wanted to go to bed with him and Steve didn’t look like he was dissuading them in the least.
Stupid Steve.
Or maybe he was the stupid one because he was feeling annoyed for no reason at all.
“Ice cream?” a voice interrupted his thoughts.
Jonah turned his head to find a girl standing over him, a dark-skinned, dark-haired girl wearing a gray university sweater and denim shorts, her arm outstretched as she offered him an ice cream cone.
Pretty, just like most of the girls at the house. But she failed to sustain his attention.
“No thanks,” he said, setting down an empty bottle he could barely remember finishing.
“You look like you need it.” She sat beside him without an invitation. “Looking at you, I almost thought we’d lost the game.”
Jonah’s eyebrows furrowed. He looked that bad? “Just thinking about the next game,” he lied. “After all, the season has just begun.”
“Relax.” She touched his arm. “You don’t have to worry about that right now. If you want, I can help you forget. I might not be a basketball player, but I have some moves of my own.”
She gave her ice cream a long, slow lick.
Jonah opened his mouth to refuse, but he heard Steve laughing and he turned his head to look. He shouldn’t have. One girl was now licking Steve’s ear and the other was fawning over him with her arms around his waist.
“So, what do you say?” The girl beside him licked her lips.
For a moment, Jonah was tempted to give in just so he could forget about Steve, but just as he was about to say yes, his phone vibrated in his pocket.
He took it out and looked at the glowing screen. Mom.
“Sorry, I gotta take this.” Jonah got up and headed upstairs, answering the call on the way. “Hey, Mom. What’s up?”
“Oh, Jonah. Something’s happened. Is this a good time? You don’t have an exam coming up or something?”
“No, Mom.” Jonah went inside his room, closed the door, and sat on his bed. “What happened?”
“Oh, sweetheart, it’s about Meg.”
Jonah felt his chest and his throat go tight. Meg was the oldest of his three younger sisters, currently a senior in high school. “What’s wrong with Meg?”
“She has to have her gallbladder removed,” his mother explained.
“Huh?” He wasn’t even sure what the gallbladder was.
“She has stones in her gallbladder, so it has to be removed.”
“Can’t they just remove the stones?”
“I’m afraid not,” his mother answered.
He bit his tongue to keep from crying. Meg wasn’t just his sister. She was his best friend back home. He couldn’t imagine life without her. He said, “Well, is she going to be okay?”
“The doctors are pretty confident that she’ll be fine, though. It’s a pretty common surgery, they said.”
Jonah felt a lump form in his throat as he heard the fear in his mother’s voice. He stood up and walked towards the window. “I’m coming home.”
“No,” his mother told him quickly. “I just wanted to let you know you about it. There’s no need for you to come home. Just stay there and… and study. And play. Isn’t the season starting soon?”
“But you need me right now.”
“We’ll be fine. Your Dad’s here and your Aunt Lisa is taking care of the younger girls.”
“What about the hospital bill?” Jonah asked, knowing his family didn’t have health insurance. He could only imagine how much it was going to cost to get Meg well. “And the doctor?”
“We will cross that bridge when we come to it,” his mother replied. “We’ll be able to pay for it somehow.”
Jonah knew his mother was trying to be optimistic, but he could still hear the worry in her voice. Without a single concern for himself, he said, “I’ll come home and get a job.”
“You will do no such thing,” his mother said firmly. “You’re already studying and playing basketball. You can’t handle work, too.”
“Yes, I can.”
“Jonah, listen to me.” His mother’s voice grew serious. “I will not have you putting your education in jeopardy.” She took a deep breath. He could hear his father in the background, telling his mom that they had to leave. “I have to go, but I’ll keep you posted. Just stay put and keep your fingers crossed. We love you, son. Take care.”
With those words, the line went dead.
Jonah stared at his phone until it went blank, leaving him in darkness. Then he threw it on his bed before sitting on the floor, his hands on his head.
Meg, sweet Meg, who he’d taught to ride a bike and play basketball, was in the hospital and there was nothing he could do to help her. Nothing.
He had never felt so helpless in his life.
* * *
Chapter Five
“Snap out of it, West,” Coach Henson scolded Jonah three days later. “I don’t know what’s distracting you right now, but you need to get your ass in the game.”
Jonah nodded half-heartedly. What was he gonna say? Everything Coach Henson said was right. He should leave his feelings out of the game just like he did last time. He should focus. But how? How was he supposed to just shut down his emotions when he knew his sister needed him?
Meg was fine now. The operation had been long, but successful. She was recovering well, too. She was still in the hospital with tubes stuck to her and she felt like hell, or so she told Jonah the last time they’d spoken, in spite of their mom telling her to quit complaining. That eased Jonah’s mind, but there was still something else bothering him.
The hospital bill.
Each day Meg stayed at the hospital, the bill grew. His mother had insurance, but Jonah knew it wouldn’t cover much, especially when his father was just in the hospital two months ago with a bad case of pneumonia. His father was a mechanic and his mother a teacher, so they didn’t make much, and between the two of them, they had hardly any savings. They could barely pay the mortgage, the utilities, and the credit card bills as it was. How on earth were they going to be able to pay for Meg’s hospital bill?
The thought had kept him up nearly all night, and now it was making him miss his shots. He kept thinking about quitting college so he could work and help his parents. So what if it meant giving up on his dream? His family was more important.
Every time he tried to sink a shot, the hoop just seemed a blur. The player he was defending seemed too fast for him, and the ball appeared to be mad at him, constantly slipping from his fingers.
He was a complete mess.
The moment Coach Henson realized Jonah wasn’t going to clean up his act, he angrily pulled him out of the game.
Jonah sat on the bench, a towel over his bent head. He watched the game with little interest, not even cheering or smiling as Steve made up for his lackluster performance, shooting one basket after another. He didn’t care about the game, or about Steve. Even when the Jackals pulled off a win, Jonah didn’t budge. Everyone around him jumped and cheered. Still, he didn’t care.
“Hey.” Steve sat beside him. “What’s up? You weren’t yourself out there.”
Jonah shook his head as he got off the bench. “Nothing.”
Lazily, he dragged himself to the showers. There was no way he was going to tell that rich boy anything about his problems.
* * *
Chapter Six
“Thank you, sweetie! You know, you didn’t have to!” Jonah’s mother gushed on the phone the next day.
“Mom, I don’t—”
“I know I told you not to worry about us, and that your Dad and I were going to find a way to make things work, but the truth is I’ve been agonizing over where to get that money for Meg’s hospital bill. I was so relieved when I got that envelope.”
“W
hat envelope? What are you talking about?”
“The one your team—the Jackals, right?—gave,” his mother answered.
“Huh?”
“Now, don’t act so innocent. I know it was your idea to ask your coach and your team manager for help. And I want to thank you. Really, I do. You’re the best son a mother could ever hope for.”
At his mother’s voice, filled with joy and relief now instead of fear and worry, Jonah’s lips curved up into a smile. “I’m glad you’re all right now.”
“I’m so sorry I worried you. Don’t worry anymore, okay? Meg’s fine and like I said, everything’s fine. You just think about your studies and your games. Remember, we’ll be watching you when you get to the championships.”
“The season just started, Mom.”
“Well, good luck. Go for your dream, honey. Remember, I’ll always be right behind you.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
“Gotta go. Meg’s fine, but if you ask me, she got just a tad more cranky.”
“I heard that,” Meg said in the background. “And you’d be cranky, too, if you had a tube sticking out of your guts.”
“Oh, shush,” Jonah’s mother scolded.
Jonah chuckled. “Go easy on her, Mom. She’s been through hell.”
“You still have that soft spot for her.”
“And take it easy, too. It must be even tougher for you.”
“I’m fine now,” his mother told him. “Well, I have to go fix Her Royal Highness her lunch.”
“I heard that, too!” Meg shouted.
“Bye, Jonah.”
“Bye, Mom.”
Jonah let out a sigh. An envelope from the Jackals, huh? It certainly didn’t come from him, so who sent it? He could only think of one person.
* * *
Chapter Seven
“It was from you, wasn’t it?” Jonah asked Steve as soon as Steve walked into their room.
Steve set his backpack down and gave him a puzzled look. “What are you talking about?”
“You know what I’m talking about. You sent my Mom money, didn’t you?”
Steve didn’t answer as he took off his jacket.
“Didn’t you?” Jonah repeated.
“I only did it because the team needs you,” Steve finally answered. “We were able to win without you, but we just got lucky. The other team wasn’t having a good day, either. If they were, we’d have lost for sure.”
“We didn’t win because of the other team’s weak performance,” Jonah told him. “We won because of you.”
“But I can’t do that every game. I can’t do it alone.”
Jonah fell silent.
“The team needs you,” Steve reiterated. “Besides, you’re my roommate. How could I just ignore that something was bothering you?”
“How did you even know?”
“Anyone could tell something was bothering you.”
“I mean, how did you find out what was bothering me? I didn’t tell you.”
Steve took off his shoes. “It would have been easier if you did. I had to find out the hard way. You know, make some calls. Do a bit of investigating.”
“You what?”
“Thankfully, it wasn’t too hard to find out that your sister was in the hospital.”
Jonah exhaled. “You rich people can do anything, can’t you?”
“Well, we can’t stop stupid people from wanting to run the country or Hollywood from making lousy remakes,” Steve said. “I’m sorry if I snooped around. I just…couldn’t leave you alone.”
Jonah shook his head. “I’m not mad at you. I’m…thankful, actually. But hey, I’m going to pay you back someday, understand?”
“You can pay me back with interest when you’re an NBA superstar.”
Jonah grinned.
“Promise me you’ll tell me what’s bothering you next time?” Steve added.
“Why do you care so much? What’s with you and this whole brotherhood thing? Don’t you have a brother?” Jonah asked.
“I do, but he’s eight years older than me. And he’s a jerk. He’s always hated me.”
“Well, you can be annoying.”
“I think it’s because I’m more good-looking.”
Jonah laughed.
“I’m not as good-looking as my sisters, though,” Steve went on. “I have twin sisters, Tiffany and Tasha. They’re both fashion designers, although everyone mistakes them for the models.”
“They should have been actresses. Then they could be each other’s doubles.”
“Tiff wanted to be an actress, I think, but Tasha didn’t. And either they both agree on something or they don’t do it.”
“Doesn’t that suck?”
Steve shrugged. “I guess you can’t blame them. They were stuck with each other before they were born. You know, I used to wish I had a twin.”
“One of you is more than enough.”
Steve chuckled. “I decided, though, that it’s more fun when there’s only one of you. No one to measure up to, no one to compare yourself with—no one to compete with all the time.”
“No one to share clothes with.”
“Yeah, that’s true. Tiff and Tasha only have one closet. A big one.”
Jonah nodded. “Girls and clothes. Even my ten year-old sister has more clothes than me.”
“So you have two sisters?”
“Meg and Abby,” Jonah answered.
“They’re lucky they have a brother who cares for them as much as you do.”
Jonah looked at Steve. “Was that a compliment?”
“Anyway, to answer your question about brotherhood, I guess it’s just because I’ve never really had friends. I mean, I had friends, but I never felt like I belonged with them or that we had a real bond. I just want to experience that while I’m in college, since someone told me college is where the real friendships start.”
“I guess that’s true.”
“Friends?” Steve extended his hand.
Jonah gripped Steve’s hand. “Friends.”
They shook hands. The gesture hung in the air just a moment too longe before Jonah pulled his hand away. Now that his mind wasn’t occupied with Meg’s hospitalization anymore, he was noticing Steve again. His presumptions, his attitude—it no longer annoyed Jonah, though.
“Wanna play ball?” Steve asked.
Jonah nodded. “Yeah, sure.”
* * *
Chapter Eight
For the next several games, Jonah and Steve played seamlessly. Their plays work, they made their shots, and they racked up assists. Their Coach and teammates were proud and the other teams in the league began to keep an eye on them. They were truly a dynamic duo, working together to outwit the defense, disrupt the other team’s offensive rhythm, and inspire and energize the team. Some people even nicknamed them “Mc-West”, describing them as the most impressive pair the league had ever seen and the main reason why the Jackals made it past the elimination round in the regional playoffs.
Off the court, Steve and Jonah became inseparable. They no longer argued. The resentment was gone. Steve’s kindness has challenged Jonah’s preconceptions, and he took it in stride, glad to have a new friend. Instead of bickering and threatening to draw a line down the center of the room, they listened to music together, bought food for each other, and sometimes they stayed up just talking to each other in the dark. They even helped each other with homework. At least, Jonah did.
“Seriously, Steve, you should go get a tutor,” Jonah told him once. “I’ve got a lot of stuff to do, too, you know.”
“But you’re the only one who can make me understand all these letters and numbers. Seriously, how can letters mean numbers and how do they all make sense?”
“You know what I’m wondering about? How you got through high school. Don’t tell me you paid off your math teacher.”
“Shut up. My math teacher was a woman and she liked me.”
“Oh. So you slept with her?”
“No.” S
teve gave him a look of disgust. “Man, your image of me is so inaccurate.”
“What? She just passed you because she had a crush on you?”
Steve shrugged. “Whatever effect I had on her, I definitely don’t have it on Professor Jenkins.”
“Tough luck. She doesn’t think twice when it comes to failing students. She thinks education is our responsibility, not hers.”
“Which is why you have to help me,” Steve told him. “I can’t fail.”
Jonah glanced at the book Steve was reading.
“Please?” Steve begged. “I’ll buy you pizza, two pizzas if you want.”
“I’m getting tired of pizza.”
“Steak then. I’ll buy you steak.”
Jonah paused. Tempting.
“You can borrow my car for a week,” Steve added.
Jonah’s eyes grew wide. “You’d lend me your Porsche?”
“Why not? I can have another one sent over.”
“Braggart.”
“Are you gonna teach me or not?”
“Hmm…”
“What? Do I have to blow you, too?”
The image fleetingly crossed Jonah’s mind, but he pushed it away before his body could react to it.
“Fine. Steak and the Porsche, then.”
Steve frowned. “You drive a hard bargain. You should be a businessman.”
Jonah ignored him. “Do we have a deal?”
“Deal.”
Jonah grinned. One of them was rich, but not so smart, the other had brains, but no money. They were a perfect pair, all right. At this rate, they were going to be best friends.
And Jonah was beginning to think there was nothing wrong with that.
* * *
Chapter Nine
“Is something wrong with Steve?” Duncan asked two weeks later.
Jonah sighed. Steve had missed practice. Again. This would be the third time in a week. Not good.
And the worst part was Jonah didn’t even know why.
He shrugged. “He hasn’t been telling me anything.”
All Steve had told him was that he was taking care of something important. He wouldn’t even give a clue as to what it was. So much for being best friends.
