Memories

Chapter 17

"How are you feeling today?" She shrugs. "I'm sorry that it's been a couple of days: I was sick, and I didn't think that it would be right for a sick person to visit a hospital." A slight laugh escapes Savannah's lips. "No, seriously, I was puking everywhere. You wouldn't want to see it; it was that gross." It seems that ever since she's moved up here to the recovery ward, she's more chipper. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that she's closer to going home or just being away from the constant hustle and bustle of ICU. "I haven't actually planned something to talk to you about, but I suppose the first time I was sick, and you looked after me seems relevant." I look down at my hands, something I've done a lot in the past couple of weeks. "Well, it was a Thursday, I think, when I first had a slight headache, rather like a couple of days ago, then it got worse."

***

"Ugg, shut up!" Someone was yelling right in my ear. It didn't sound like they were shouting, but it was loud enough. "Alex, can you stop the alarm?" they yelled again. I groaned in response. "Alex?"

"Yeah?" I whispered, trying to be as quiet as possible, hoping the shouting would go away.

"Can you stop your alarm?"

Then I remembered: it was a Friday morning, and I was lying in bed with Savannah, who was telling me to turn off my alarm clock, which was making an evil screeching noise in my right ear. I reached out to turn it off, but my arm wouldn't move. "I'm sorry, but I can't," I whispered again.

"What do you mean you can't?"

"I can't move my arm: it ways a ton."

The bed shifted as she sat up and leant over me so that her lips were a few centimetres away from mine. If I just lifted my head... "Alex, are you feeling alright?" Her shouting, I knew she wasn't shouting but it sure sounded like it, brought me out of my thoughts.

I shook my head hoping that it would hurt less than the noise. Big mistake: it felt as if my brain were being dragged across the new cheese grater in the kitchen (Long story short, Savannah had decided that we needed a new one as the old one we had wouldn't even cut through cucumber) with each movement. In the gloom, I could just about see one of her arms come up and she pressed the back of her hand on my forehead. How was her hand so cold after spending the night wrapped around my waist under the blanket? Whatever, I didn't mind, it was cool against my burning skin and felt nice, soothing even.

"I think that you have a fever. Wait here whilst I get you some drugs."

I could feel my eyes go wide at the mention of drugs, but then it clicked that she referred to medicines as drugs, good or bad. I nodded my head slowly, trying to reduce the amount of pain it would cause and failing miserably. Waiting in the dark room for her to bring me some paracetamol felt like forever. When she returned, I tried to sit up, but my vision clouded, and I nearly passed out. I could hear the scuffling of her feet on the carpet as she rushed over to me, but when I sensed her face in front of mine, I couldn't see her.

"Here have these and then you need to lie down." She placed the pills in one hand a glass of water in the other. My vision steadily returned as I lifted the hand with the pills to my mouth and then the glass. I swallowed the medicine, which felt like swallowing a Malteser whole and then let her manoeuvre me back down so that I was lying on my back again. The bed creaked as she sat down on the edge. "You're not going to school today. I have to take Maisie to nursery and then I can skip class as well and we can have a veg-out day, just us. How does that sound?" I nodded as slow as I possibly could. Oh, how I couldn't wait for the painkillers to kick in! She must've noticed my grimace more than my nod because she then took back her offer. "I can go out if you want me to. That's also fine." I could tell that it wasn't.