“I’ve only just started.”
“Maybe you should focus your energy on something else.”
I get up, annoyed.“I’ll leave you with your bunch of losers.It’s your team, so that tracks.”
“Does that make you feel better?”Nick calls after me as I walk away.
“What?”
“Cracking jokes.Poking at people so you don’t have to admit how scared you are of taking anything seriously.”
I turn towards him.“Are you really trying to analyse me?”
“I don’t need to,” he replies, standing up and stepping closer.“There’s just something familiar about you.You were the one who brought it up a long time ago.”
“I told you so many things…”
“True, and every one of them was useful.”
“Glad to have been helpful.”
“I wish I could be of some use, too.”
“Go out there and break your fly-half’s leg so you’re forced to find a replacement.”
“Jamie…”
I huff.
“You don’t have to do this with me.”
“I know.You’re a dickhead.Not even trying to open your head and sort it out would help.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Actually, no.I regret coming here and wasting my time now.”
“If you came to me, it means you’re in really deep shit.”
“I’m grand.”
“Yeah, I can see that.”
“I don’t need your advice or your bullshit.I don’t need anything.”
“That’s probably true.You definitely don’t need my advice or my bullshit — not mine or my brothers’.But there is one thing you do need.”
“What?”
“A doctor.”
Maybe if I don’t breathe, it’ll hurt less.
“And we both know I don’t mean just any doctor.”
Fuck.That hurts just the same.
“There’s only one doctor who can really understand what’s wrong.He’s the only one you’ll ever let in, and the only one who can heal you.”
