And, Love

Part 3

You rolled over to grab your phone. Pausing and moaning, groggy. Head stuffed. Your arms ached and your eyes were burning.

"'Lo?" You grimaced at the sound of your voice, how much talking hurt. You moaned, the sensation of swallowing felt like glass on your tonsils.

Silence on the other end. You sighed, throwing a hand over your forehead. You hurt. You shivered, rocking your hips to help ease the ache in your bones.

"He-" you winced, putting a hand over your tonsils.

"It's Mikey." His voice was soft, concerned. "I was going to invite you over for Christmas. But it sounds like you're sick."

You hummed.

"Okay!" You smiled at the Golden retriever energy, heart hurting a little. "Give two hums for yes, one for no. Ok?"

You hummed. And again.

"Good!" You tried to suppress your laugh at Mikey's glee. "Okay. Are you home alone?"

You looked to the other side of the bed, heart dropping. You had encouraged Josh to go out with his friends, to go visit his family. You kicked yourself for encouraging him to leave. You kicked yourself for dating a guy who'd willingly leave you when you were sick.

You hummed twice, closing your burning eyes, regretting this.

"Do you have medicine and things to distract you?"

You frowned, hating that you knew where this was going. Hoping that you knew where this was going. You hummed once, immediately devolving into a coughing fit.

"Okay." He whispered, as though his voice could heal you through the phone. "I'm gunna grab some stuff from Donnie, send me a list of what's wrong. Can I come over?"

You frowned. Donnie, was, like barely twenty. How the fuck would he know how to treat you? You sighed, swallowing hard, a mew of pain escaping you. You hummed twice.

Who gave a fuck what Josh thought, who gave a shit that you'd been avoiding Mikey since the kiss two months ago. You were hurting, miserable, and didn't want to be alone.

Mikey assuring you he'd be over soon, to text him the address, was white noise in your ears as you mindlessly agreed, hanging up. You turned over, pulling the blankets tighter, shivering. It was Josh's fault for leaving you on an important holiday. You wrapped your face inside the blanket, too dried out to cry.

But your nose still stung.

You inhaled slowly, but the coughs still burned your throat, scratched your tonsils. You grunted, swallowing. Feeling like your jaw was on fire. Hips rocking still, teeth nearly chattering.

A noise at the window summoned you from under the blankets. Blinking, needing time to adjust.

Slowly, painfully, you crossed the mattress, opened the window.

"You may," Mikey beamed, arms loaded. "Be wondering why I'm at the window?"

You really didn't care, head shaking as you backed away to let him in.

"I," he grunted, arm flailing. "Uh, help?"

You bit your lip to stop from laughing at the scene before you; Mikey wedged in the window with all his cargo. Rolling your eyes you pushed against him, popping him back out.

"Right." Bags toss through the window, landing on your bed. "Stuff first, then me." He pulled off a bag you didn't notice was slung across his chest, snug against his back. "Okay!" A little wiggle, a little grunt. And Mikey was sprawled across your bed. "Flawless!" He pumped a fist into the air.