Warm

20

"Your fever is getting better."

Mateo spoon feeds me as I lay wrapped in blankets on Keanu's couch. The chicken soup Esperanza made is so refreshing and warm, I feel it go down my throat and rest in my stomach.

"Can you get up?" Mateo asks.

I shake my head. 

"It's been two weeks, Aurora. And your fever is going down. Can you really not get up?"

I shake my head.

"What hurts?"

Everything. "My stomach."

Mateo rolls his eyes. "No, it doesn't because if it did, you wouldn't have eaten two whole bowls of caldo." Mateo pats my head like he wishes we could trade places.

A soft knock on the door is followed by Laura carrying two bags. "Hey, is she feeling any better?"

Mateo gets up from beside me. "She's fine, she's just acting up now."

Laura nods, bringing over the two bags. "She should still rest. You saw how sick she was, she couldn't eat or even get up. Give her a break." Laura soothes my hair, petting my head. "You're feeling better?"

No. "A little," I croak out, my voice hoarse from the cold I caught.

She purses her lips before asking. "What happened with Keanu?"

Mateo throws her a look. "What does that idiot have to do with any of this?"

Laura sharply turns to Mateo. "She's obviously distressed over it too."

"She is just sick with a fever and a cold. Don't be dramatic."

"It's more than that. A moron like you wouldn't understand."

"Oh I wouldn't understand?"

They start bickering with one another, throwing insults to hurt the other's pride.

I haven't spoken about him. As far as these two know, Keanu is gone and I've been too sick to leave his apartment. There's something about speaking it that solidifies everything in place. Of course, his actual departure was solidifying enough but speaking it out-loud admits that I'm affected. But Mateo and Laura, although they didn't say it, are worried about me. The more I keep my mouth close the more they wonder if I'm really sick or heartbroken. Or both. 

"He left me," I say bluntly like ripping off a bandage. "He tried breaking up with me the day of your wedding but I wouldn't let him. Then he brought me here and the next day he was gone. It's been two week since"

Laura's mouth drops open but she's not as shocked as she would normally be. She must've already had her suspicions. "But Keanu's not that type of person."

Mateo laughs harshly. Anger bubbles in my throat. At who? I'm not completely sure of that myself. "This is what you wanted right? Happy now?" I spit out.

"No," he says bitterly. "It's not. That guy's an asshole. The least he could've done is leave a note or something." Here it comes. The over-protectiveness I received from him and Santiago. As if being weird wasn't enough, having two stoned faced boys walking behind me scared any chance of a friendship. "Don't worry. I'll find him and once I do I'll--"

The doorbell resonates throughout the house. 

I have a quick, fleeting hope that maybe it's Keanu. "I'll get it." Suddenly, I am cured. I jump off the couch and scurry my way to the door. But when I opened it, there's such disappointment that I could cry.

"You look terrible," Alex says as she pushes past me into Keanu's apartment.

As usual, she's covered head to toe in clothes that could buy a country. I'm too tired to fight with her.