A Tiny Favour

Chapter 21

It takes almost everything in me to drag myself out of bed. I started feeling like my body was giving in yesterday afternoon and completely ignored it.

It's incredibly rare that I get sick, I can remember only two occasions I felt half this crappy. Once when I was seven and ate some bad aeroplane food on my way to visit the states. And the other was when I caught a bug from some kid in my high school and had to take four days off and miss the U16 tennis tournament.

Those combined weren't nearly as misable as this current situation. I'm sweaty one second, frozen another. Every muscle aches more than after the hardest workouts of my life, I woke up and couldn't force myself out of bed. On top of it all I have very low energy and next to zero will to eat anything.

The worst part is it is Wednesday, Isabelle and I were supposed to go to her club and I was going to try golfing for the first time. She was so excited, and now I'm the jack-ass who gets to cancel something she was looking forward to.

I don't even know how I got this sick, I haven't seen anyone other than the people I'm normally with and haven't shared food or a fork with another person. It must have been a late night movie, I was out in the cold later at night then I normally am pushing it to the max at the gym the next morning.

Smart move, me.

I moved to grab my phone from the sofa downstairs where I had tossed it when I had basically crawled into my apartment. Thank god it's at least the winter break, I can't afford to be catching up on assignments outside of my class or checking through piles of lecture notes.

I don't remember much of last night, another sign i was feeling down, but i know i was too lazy to put a shirt on and now my body thanks me. Sweat drips down my back and I know it's only a matter of time until I'm shivering again. I'm in dark grey jogging pants that are a little big around my waist and sit lower on my hips. I don't care since I'm home alone.

I take the phone into my hand and turn on the screen. Several messages from Isabelle litter my home screen and I swipe them all open.

Isabelle: I'll see you tonight! Ahh can't wait to be better than you at something!

Isabelle: Collared shirt and shorts, the sun is shining.

And then another message from several hours after the first two:

Isabelle: How are you not up yet? It's ten... aren't you a gym rat and done half your day by now?

I groan into the nearly empty space and Sadie comes jumping down the steps to my legs. I know I have to walk her but I really, really don't want to. Since it's easier than composing myself and leaving the air conditioned apartment I am currently lazing around in and walking my dog I call Isabelle. I could text her but I think it will be better if she can hear the sickness in my voice and doesn't think I'm lying to her.

She picks up on the second ring, "hey!" she squeals, I can hear her walking around.

"Hi," I croak, another thing to add to my list of symptoms: Loss of voice.

"Oh god Adam you sound horrible! Are you okay?" she sounds concerned and the footsteps on her ends stop.

"Not really," I groaned, falling into the sofa, "I'm really sick and can barely move. I'm going to have to cancel on golf". She goes quiet for a brief moment and I can sense her disappointment. "I'm so sorry, I was looking forward to it."

"No, no reason to apologise for your sickness and there's nothing you can do about it," I yawn and Sadie takes advantage of me moving my arm to wiggle into the crook of my neck. "Is anyone coming to check on you?"