The antibiotics that Jesse had made Ale’s skin break out in a rash. As he burned up with fever, and itched at the bumps that had sprung up, I walked over the window. I couldn’t breathe. Jaden tried to put his arm around me, and I flew off, telling him to leave me alone. The line of cops was gone, but would be back, I was sure. What I wasn’t sure of was why they had left in the first place. It might have had something to do with the news camera crew that had shown up. There was a silver police fence surrounding the building, the kind they put around places where they want to pen lots of people in. Tomorrow or the next day, the fight would go on, whether Ale was sick or checked or what.

Checked. With the rash all over his skin, it suddenly seemed like a possibility.

“He’s allergic to it,” Jesse said. The kid was like a walking pharmacy. “He needs a different kind, and that’s all I’ve got.”

“Fuck,” I said. I punched the wall next to the window, but not hard enough to break my hand. I didn’t care about me, not so much. But Ale needed me. I tried to get my head together.

“Somebody has to see the Red Cross,” I said, “get some medication for him, bring it back.”

“Nobody can go out there, Makayla,” Jaden said. He had been sitting at Ale’s side, cleaning up his puke as best he could, taking care of him. He loved the kid as much as I did, I knew that. But it didn’t stop me from flying off.

“You could go out there, Jaden,” I said. “You can ride your goddamn bike faster than anybody, you could be gone and back in no time. You could save the kid’s life. But you’re a goddamn ori, a fucking numptie who’s too worried about his own self to save a little boy’s life.”

Jaden stepped back, like my words had punched him in the face, and he was stunned. He stood next to me and looked out the window.

“The cops aren’t here,” he said softly. “They could be back any minute, in bigger numbers than before. But there’s a chance.”

“So stop goddamn talking and do it,” I said. While I was saying it, I had this moment of remembering our first night together. How gentle and kind he had been, how being with him had felt like the home I hadn’t had in so long. I wanted him to put his arms around me. But I wouldn’t allow it. I couldn’t. Not now. Not ever again. He had hurt me so much that day he walked away.