It took me a minute to process what she was saying. She’d been nervous? She’d felt weird? She’d been trying to be careful? All that added up to was that she cared.

“This is stupid,” I said. “We’re both being stupid.”

Jasper nodded. “Agreed.”

“Look,” I said, “I am going to tell you the very big true thing, and if it’s too weird, you can ride away into the sunset and never talk to me again, okay? But please don’t laugh?”

“I promise.”

I took a deep breath and said, “Ever since my brother died, I have been lonely and it has been awful and I haven’t known how to make it better. I haven’t had any clue how to begin.”

“Well, sure,” said Jasper. “It sounds incredibly hard.”

“Yeah, but, like, lonely in a really bad way. All alone. Like I told you before, everyone has been weird with me. Even Tess. We’d walk to school each day together like always. Not really talking. We’d eat lunch at our usual table. But only eating. Like strangers. After being friends all our lives. And then my parents . . .” I took a breath.

“I’m so sorry,” Jasper said.

“No, don’t be!” I said. “Really, don’t. Because last week, with you, I had fun, and felt okay, and normal. Normal for the first time in a year.”

“I’m glad,” said Jasper. “That’s good, right?”

“Right,” I said. “Of course it’s good. But the thing is . . . it felt so good that all I have thought about since then is seeing you again. Hoping that maybe I can feel normal more often. Maybe someday, I can even feel normal all the time again. You see? I felt . . . hopeful. Like maybe I wasn’t going to be totally a mess forever.”

Jasper nodded.

“So the truth is that you can come over anytime you want, and I will never mind, I swear. Not ever. You are my favorite person in the world right now, even though I just met you and I don’t even know you.” Then I stopped a moment, because it was like I could hear an echo of my own words inside my head. I don’t even know you.

“Is that sad?” I asked.

Jasper was looking at me now, staring right at me. Intently. “Yes, Leah,” she said quietly. “It is sad.”

I shrugged. “Sorry,” I said.

“No, dummy,” said Jasper, flipping around to face me fully on the plastic seat. “Not sad in a way you should be sorry for. Sad in a way that means I wish you could feel better.”

“Oh,” I said.

“Leah,” said Jasper. “Your brother died. It’s just sad. Of course it’s sad. How could anything not be sad? If you weren’t sad, you’d have to be a crazy person.”

I shrugged again. No one had said that to me before.