Seabrook, Hadley

I Need to Carry a Tranquilizer

"Take a mental health day," Sarah suggested. I sighed.

"I just don't want to look like a coward," I said, rolling over in my bed to face her.

"You are officially the first teenager I've met that is willing to turn down a mental health day." I smiled.

Ever since Luke had gone missing, about a week ago, I hadn't been at my best. My friends were trying to convince me that I wasn't to blame, but Bree's glares and Elliot's ignorance said enough; they knew I was the reason he was gone. And it killed me.

It was already bad enough that he was gone and we had no idea where he was, but even my friends looking at me differently because of it was horrible.

For the first time in my life, I actually wanted Luke to pester me and annoy me, or tell me something that would make me so unbearably angry that I wanted to punch his smirk right off of his face.

"Hadley, you really don't look well," Sarah said, standing up and putting her hands on her hips. "I'll be right back."

I didn't look well, and I sure as hell didn't feel well either. I was stuffy, and I had a headache, along with a sore throat and occasional chills.

But I was sure it wasn't as bad as I had made it out to be. I was just so occupied with thinking about Luke that I had weird reactions.

Sarah came back in my room with a thermometer, and stuck it under my tongue. She sighed when she read the number, and tilted it down so that I could see it.

101.7.

Fever.

"Sarah, I really don't feel bad at all," I said. I hated lying to Sarah, since her hospitality meant the world to me. But this wasn't like lying about being at my friends house when I'm actually at some party. I was lying about being sick, more like not being sick.

But it was a lie nonetheless.

"The thermometer suggests otherwise," she said, smiling sympathetically. I winced at the aching pain in my head. i massaged my temples for a while. "Do you have a headache?"

"Yes," I said with a sigh. "And a stuffy nose. And a sore throat."

"I hope it's not the flu," Sarah said, folding her eyebrows and looking at me concernedly.

I sighed. "Me too."

She smiled sympathetically. "Get some rest. I'll dismiss you from school today."

I sighed and closed my eyes, not wanting to think about anything. It hurt my head.

A few minutes later, Sarah came up with a plate of breakfast that looked nothing shy of amazing, with eggs and toast and bacon, with a fruit smoothie.

"Thank you, Sarah," I said, smiling at Sarah as she placed the tray on my bedside table.

"No problem, dear. I unfortunately can't get out of work to stay with you, will you be okay?"

"Oh, of course, I really just want to sleep today," I said with a smile.

"Alright, sweetie, well I've got to get going." She smiled at me before walking out of the room. I heard the door shut downstairs, and I closed my eyes to rest.

~*~

I was woken with a start when there was a crashing noise downstairs. I sat up straight in bed, looking over at my phone, which sat, charging, on my desk next to my laptop.

I quietly got out of bed, closing the bedroom door, and locking it too, before walking over to my phone. I decided it could have just been something that crashed to the ground, so I sat on the desk chair to wait for another sign that it could be an intruder.