I’m getting mad now. “Well, my family’s a bit of a sore point. I’m not soft and girly enough for my mum, but I’m too soft and girly for Dad and my brother. And my friends back home don’t get why I even like snowboarding. So you’re right. Winning is more important to me than all that stuff right now. But I’m not good enough.”

“Know what my dad says to me? ‘Do your best, that’s all you can do.’”

“Know what my dad says to me? ‘Try harder, Milla.’”

“Fuck your dad. You should be doing this for you, nobody else. If you fall and smash yourself up, you’re the one that’s going to suffer.” Brent reaches for me but I shake him off. “This is you at your peak, so enjoy it. In ten years, you’ll look back and wish you could still do all this.”

“You don’t get it, do you? This is my last chance. If I can nail a Crippler here, I can try it in the pipe tomorrow and do it in the Brits the next day. If I can’t, that’s it. I’ll have to go and find a real job.”

“So you’re going to keep trying until you break your neck?”

If I stand here arguing about it for much longer, I’m going to lose my nerve. “Have I ever told you to go easy?”

Brent sighs. “I know, and I’m sorry, but I care about you.”

“Well, don’t. Okay? It wasn’t part of the deal.”

He’s quiet for a moment. “Look, I don’t know what we have but we have something. And I care. Simple as that.”

“So let’s call it quits. Whatever ‘it’ is. We’re just friends. Now you don’t have to help me. You don’t even have to watch. I just need you to stay around for ten more minutes because if I have a bad fall I’ll be stuck here and nobody will know.”

“Let me get this right.” His voice is small. Hurt. “You’re breaking up with me over this? Because I care?”

I look up the slope at the jump, exasperated. Fear is setting in now. “It’s hardly breaking up. It wasn’t even a relationship.”

“I can’t stop caring, Milla. And I actually thought you cared about me, too.”

I haven’t got time for this. “What am I doing wrong? Do I need more speed?”

Brent shakes his head and straps his board on.

“Brent!” I shout.

He rides off.