How Do I Love Thee by Lurlene McDaniel

mistake.” Bobby's fingers dug into her shoulders, but she welcomed the pain because it kept her from screaming. Bobby said, “Steve told me himself. He wants me down there, soI'm going right now. I only stopped long enough to tell you.”
    “But isn't there anything the doctors can do? Anything at all? “
    “That's what I'm going to go check out for myself. How can his doctors not be able to help him? He's only twenty years old. He's too young to die!” Bobby looked down the hallway anxiously. “I've got to go, all right?”
    “Go,” she said, and watched him jog to the stairwell and disappear downward. Shaking, she flattened her back against the wall and felt the cool, smooth surface through her clothes. She blinked back tears, her mind spinning. She gathered her strength and returned to the classroom with tears streaming down her face.
    “Dana, what is it?” her teacher asked, alarmed.
    She didn't answer. Aware that every eye in the room was on her, but not caring, she scooped up her books and fled.
    “Is it true? Is Bobby's brother really dying?” Terry asked. She had come straight over to Dana's house the minute school was out.
    Dana was sorry she'd gone to the door. She wasn't up to conversation. She had come straight home from school, darkened her room, and lain on her bed and cried. Now, hours later, she still felt like crying. “I'm waiting to hear from Bobby again,” she told the inquisitive Terry.
    “Oh, man—this really sucks. It's all over school too.”
    “Who told?”
    “Are you kidding? It's major news, Dana. Everyone knows.”
    Dana was still unclear how that could be, but she was too devastated to dwell on it.
    Terry asked, “So do you want me to hang around till you talk to Bobby?”
    “I'll be okay. You don't have to stay.”
    Terry looked disappointed. “Um—can I say something?”
    “Can I ever stop you from saying something?”
    Sheepishly Terry said, “Point taken. Listen, I can understand your being upset about this, but, well … it isn't like this is happening to Bobby, you know. It's his brother, not Bobby, your boyfriend.”
    “What's your point?”
    Terry shrugged and looked uncomfortable. “You're just taking it awfully hard, that's all. I mean it's a bad thing and all, but it isn't Bobby who's got cancer.”
    First her mother, now Terry. This was the second time her reactions concerning Steve had been noticed. Dana steadied herself. She couldn't blurt out her secret. “Maybe I am overreacting,” she told Terry. “I can't help it. I know how much Bobby loves his brother, and I don't know how he's going to handle it. Or how I'm going to help him through it. I—I'm scared.”
    Terry nodded sympathetically. “I guess you just have to hang tough. Bobby doesn't need you falling apart, does he?”
    Terry made perfect sense, but Dana wasn't positive she could stand on the sidelines playing the observer. She wanted to see Steve. She wanted to be with him again. “I'll try to keep my composure,” she said to Terry. “My piano teacher's always telling me that. ‘Dana, keep your composure no matter how badly a recital is going. Nobody likes a messy scene,’ “ Dana quoted Mrs. Sherrill. “So that's what I'll do.I'll keep it together for Bobby's sake,”
And for mine
, she added silently. It would do no one any good if she fell to pieces. Questions might be asked. And Dana knew she could give no plausible answers as to why Steve meant so much to her when everyone knew she belonged to Bobby.
    The news hit tibe paper and the newscasts the following morning. Hank Harrod was furious and even took a swing at a reporter who tried to corner him to get his reaction on Steve's diagnosis. “How do you think I feel?” Hank yelled, and then aimed a punch at the reporter's face. His move was captured on camera and shown on the six o'clock news.
    “Dad's mad at the world right now,” Bobby told Dana over the phone that evening. “He's forbidden us to talk to anybody about