UNDER EDITING 𝐺𝑅𝐴𝑉𝐸 𝐷𝐴𝑁𝐺𝐸𝑅 | 𝐴𝑃𝑂𝐶𝐴𝐿𝑌𝑃𝑆𝐸 ✔︎

Catching Colds

(Noah's POV)

I hesitantly raise the cooked meat to my mouth and take a bite. Maybe I wouldn't be gagging if I didn't know this was a skunk. All of us are seated at the dining table, eating the fresh cooked meat. Skunk and ground squirrel meat, that is.

"Skunk is so much better than I imagined it!" Cooper exclaims while taking a giant bite of the meat. "You're right! It only smells a little bit now!" Jasper agrees. I gag a bit at their enthusiasm. This is skunk.

I push my plate forward, as if saying 'I'm done eating'. Lexi ate her food nonetheless but still seemed a bit grossed out as well. My mom was holding her nose during every bite of her food.

"Not hungry Noah?" Jasper says through a mouthful of his dinner. I nod my head and turn away from him, as if keeping myself from puking.

"To think that this meal was just covered in blood and smelled like the back end of a-"

Okay that's enough. I quickly stand up, interrupting Cooper's sentence. I rush towards the bathroom and once I reach it, I spill my guts into the toilet.

This continues for a few minutes. I hear the door creak open but I don't look up from the inside of the toilet bowl. "You alright, Ashwell?" Jasper. "Oh yeah! I'm absolutely wonderful. You and Cooper stuffing your faces with skunk helped my appetite tremendously." My sarcastic voice echos into the toilet bowl a bit.

I hear Jasper scoff in a joking manor. "Noah c'mon, it's not my fault you have a sensitive stomach. Here..."

Jasper stands me up a bit while pulling me away from the toilet. He examines my face a bit. "I wonder if something else is going on..." He reaches a hand out to my forehead and feels it. He over exaggeratingly removes his hand quickly and waves it around. "Holy shit Noah, you're burning up!"

I roll my eyes. "Whatever, Jasper. I just got grossed out is all. There's no need to-"

I stop mid sentence when meeting my face in the mirror. My face was a dark shade of red, my eyes were puffier than usual, and I had goosebumps all over my body. "Oh..."

"Yeah. You need to go to bed." He says firmly. I cross my arms. "It's not even late yet." Jasper rolls his eyes. "No dummy, so you recover from whatever this is."

I nod my head slightly. "Oh... right." Jasper grabs my hand quickly and leads me out to the dining table. "Hey guys, Noah's not feeling-"

"SWEETIE?!" My mother interrupts. She stands up quickly and grabs my face. "You're burning up! Let's get you into some warm clothes and into bed!"

"But Mom, I don't even feel—"

"Shh, save your voice." She takes ahold of my arm and leads me up the stairs as my coughing continues.

My vision is a bit fuzzy, which causes me to trip up on a few steps. Once in bed, my mother covers me with my blanket. "Mom what-"

"Don't speak honey.. I'll be right back."

(Jasper's POV)

Ms. Ashwell emerges from Noah and I's room with a worrisome face. "What's wrong with him?" I question immediately. She sighs. "Uh... Noah gets like this sometimes when his anxiety is peaking. Stress induced nausea is what his doctors called it. I just need some medicine and he should be fine." She then walks down the stairs and into the kitchen with me following behind.

"Wait, hey." My eyes widen. "He's anxious? Why would he be—"

"It's usually hard to tell. He never really likes talking about it." She hums, looking through a bag. "Last I remembered... the medicine was in- oh." Her voice stops as she looks inside of a plastic bag placed on the counter top. "What's wrong?" Ms. Ashwell turns to me. "It seems we've run out of medicine. How convenient."

"Denise. He's never mentioned this before." I shake my head. "What would he be stressed about? Can I help? I—"

"Jasper." She cuts me off, resting a hand on my shoulder. "The best trick I've used is to just try and distract him from how he's feeling."

Cooper and Lexi suddenly join us in the small kitchen. "Out of medicine? Already?" Cooper questions. Ms. Ashwell nods worriedly.

Lexi runs a stressed hand through her brunette hair. "How bad is he?" "Well, if we don't get him the medicine soon then he's only going to get worse from here. Don't you remember him vomiting for an entire day last year, Lex? He nearly starved himself because he couldn't even manage to eat anything without—"

Cooper must've noticed my worried expression, because he holds up a hand at Noah's mom. "Jesus, maybe use a filter?" He gestures toward me, and I slump my posture in fret.

"Oh." Her eyes widen. "I'm sorry. I'm so used to talking about this stuff like it's a normal occurrence. I didn't mean to make anyone uncomfortable." She sadly smiles, rubbing her neck.

Lexi changes the subject. "So... what do we do?" Cooper lets out a groan. "Well, we obviously have to go get him medicine." Ms. Ashwell's eyes widen. "We can't just leave him here! If he wakes up and sees we're gone then he'll have an anxiety attack!"

Cooper holds up his hands defensively. "One of us will have to stay here then. I will need to go for protection reasons, Denise needs to go because she knows the medicine he uses, Lexi can help find his prescription, which means..."

All eyes shoot to me. "What?! Why me?!" I groan. "You have no reason to come with whatsoever. Besides, you would probably be the best at calming him down if he got upset that we left."

I contemplate my job. "What if someone comes here while you're gone?" Cooper shrugs. "That's really unlikely. If that did happen though, then you would just need to use one of the guns. All else fails, just hide."

I roll my eyes and mumble an 'ok'. The trio begins to pack up bags of supplies and things for the trip. I can't help but notice how distant Cooper and Lexi are from each other. Seems a bit hostile. I wonder if Noah knows anything about it. "We shouldn't be gone long, Jasper. You will be careful won't you?" Ms. Ashwell worries. I nod.

"Thank you for worrying Ms. Ashwell but we should be fine." She smiles. "It's Denise. And no problem."

Before I know it, Cooper is walking toward me and waving an item in front of me. I take it in my hands and tilt my head to the side. "A walkie talkie?"

"Yeah. May or may not have stolen some from a supply room back at the bunker. They're supposed to reach each other from miles away, but who knows if it will work. Anyway, if there's any trouble, at least try to get into contact with us."

I nod and let the trio continue packing.

This can't be too bad.

A/N- this is an obvious filler chapter for upcoming drama but i hope you enjoyed it nonetheless. stay posted <3