“No, I’ve realized that, if what everyone in his family says about Dave is true, he’s a good person. He’ll give me part of his liver, and my life can become a little more normal again. His family’s life could become normal again.”

“How?” Michael pushes back. “You’re a smart guy, Dre, but really? This is stupid. It’s a half-cocked plan, it doesn’t make any sense, and it hinges on the most unreliable of factors: people.”

“I have to do something,” I argue.

“You are doing something! You’re here, you’re learning how to time travel. It’s not like you’re wasting away and drinking his liver to death.”

“No,” I say, shaking my head. “I have to do something to help him. To fix this.”

“Why?!” It’s the first time I’ve ever heard Michael yell, and it makes me jump. His voice drips with urgency, and his body is shaking slightly with desperation. “Why do you have to do anything? Why do you have to try to save someone who…?”

And then he stops, his face shifting from anguish to smoothness, like everything has clicked into place.

“It’s not just about him,” he says under his breath.

“What?”

“This Dave guy, it’s not only about him. It’s not only about righting some cosmic wrong. It’s about…what’s his name? His brother’s name?”

“Blake?”

“Yeah, Blake. Are you doing this for him? Is he putting you up to this?”

“What?” I shake my head. “No, absolutely not. Blake’s not like that.”

“Is he forcing you to do this?”

“No, Michael. Again, you don’t know him, but he would never ask me to do this. He understands time travel; he knows how dangerous it is. He’d probably punch me for doing this.”

“Then I really don’t understand,” he says, looking away from me, like he’ll find the answer in the twisted pattern of fabric and blankets.

His gaze moves up, settling on my eyes. Deep within his face, etched like it’s been there since the dawn of time, is something that makes my stomach churn.

Hurt.

“You like him. And, clearly, it’s more than you like me, because you’re willing to risk us never knowing each other to help him,” he says.

“Oh my God, Michael, you’re…”

“Stop. I think that’s why you’re really doing this. Maybe you don’t realize it yet, maybe you think it’s because you’re doing it out of the goodness of your heart, but all of that comes back to one thing. You want to make him feel better, to fix him and his family.”

Something hot and heavy burns inside of me.