Dear Valentine

IV

I end up sick the next day. I am burning up with a high fever, making it unlikely that I will survive the day at school. It feels like I am dying with coughs and sneezes.

Aiden drops by in the morning at the usual time that he would normally pick me up. He hands me soup that his mom prepared just for me and I am thankful. His mom is the best cook I know, after all.

"See. If I hadn't given you my coat when I did, you couldn't ended up worse," he scolds. He sits on the sit of my bed and watches me eat the soup he has given me.

"It was just my luck. You should be the one sick, since you only wore one thin layer," I playfully fight back, not that I needed to fight anyways.

"It was a sweater, dummy."

Aiden leaves the house after I finish the soup. I thank him and tell him to tell his mother my thanks to her as well, while he walks out of my room.

I am left alone in the house. I haven't been alone in my house in so long. It feels nice. I am free to do as I please without any scolding involved. The seconds seem to move slower on the black clock hanging on my wall.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

It feels like an eternity passes by with each second. I am left alone to doing nothing. I can't risk missing another day of school if I decide to tire myself. Instead, I fall fast asleep for hours.

The clock reads two o'clock in the afternoon by the time I wake up. I have slept for eight straight hours. My body feels numb as I try to get up. I guess I slept a bit too long.

I reach to my nightstand next to my bed for my phone. I check to see if anyone has tried to contact me.

(2) Missed calls from Mom.

(1) Missed call from Dad.

(1) Missed call from Aiden.

I receive a text from my mom:

Are you dying? Do you need me to call 911? Call your father or I because we are worrying. -Mom.

Told my mom your gratitude for the soup via text and she told me she made three days worth of the soup just for you, but you know her. She's crazy. -Aiden.

I heard you were sick today from Aiden. I hope you're feeling better. Aiden and I will visit you after school! -Corrine.

I guess being MIA for eight straight hours causes people to worry. I make sure to call both my mom and dad to calm down their nerves, to tell them that I am still alive and surviving, and that they need not worry.

I swear I could hear my mom's heavy breathing until I tell her I am okay. My call seems to have calmed her down a lot. She's always worrying about me.

My dad on the other hand replies with a simple "Okay, good," and hangs up the phone soon after because I had called him at a bush time at work.

I text back Aiden:

Your mom earns the "Best "Best Friend's" Mom" Award. -Valentina.

And to Corrine, I text:

I hope you didn't swoon over too many guys today without me! -Valentina.

The high school lets students out at exactly three o'clock. I have almost an hour to kill before they get out of school for the day.

I settle down with an old gossip magazine I found that dated many years back. I'm surprise I even found it. I remember from my middle school days, I was crazed about every new singer and band that came out. I must've annoyed everyone.

I take the quizzes just for the fun of it. It didn't hurt to try them. The answers I end up getting make me laugh and I wonder why I liked them so much back then.

After an hour passes, the doorbell rings. I wonder why the person at the door would even ring the bell. If it were Aiden or Corrine, they would've used to hidden key to unlock the door themselves.

I lazily get out of bed. I had half expected that I wouldn't need to get out and that they would come in themselves instead. The person starts banging on the door, not stopping until I finally reach the door. I take a peek through the peephole installed into the door. Aiden and Corrine.

"Knock it off, Aiden. It's giving me a headache," I complain as I open the door, holding a hand to my forehead.

Innocently, they smile as if they had done nothing wrong. "The knocking and the ringing of the bell is necessary to wake you up and out of bed," Aiden says, cheerfully.

"It was either this or scaring you half to death. Be glad I convinced him to do this," Corrine comments, slapping Aiden on his arm. She lightly shoves Aiden out of her way to make a path into my house. He looks offended but he shrugs it off, as per usual, and walks in after her.

As they both walk in, Aiden hold up a bag filled with yet another container of the soup his mother has made me. "It was either this or scaring you half to death. Be glad I convinced him to do this," Corrine comments, slapping Aiden on his arm. She lightly shoves Aiden out of her way to make a path into my house. He looks offended but he shrugs it off, as per usual, and walks in after her.

"I stopped by my house next door and got you more of the soup," Aiden says, holding up a bag of soup in a medium-sized container.

I thank him yet again and grab the bag from his hands. It seems like a lot, but I know that this is not even all of it. "You know, I'm not too sick. I could probably go back to school tomorrow," I state. Ever since this morning, the sleep I got has helped me recover graciously.

"My mom is a worrier. Plus, she made extras just so I could have some as well," he replies. I laugh at him. Of course he would ask his mother to make extra so that he could have some for himself. That itself is a selfless and selfish act at the same time.

The two of them stay for a little while. I decide to warm up the soup while they are here and place three empty bowls onto the kitchen counter. Once the microwave timer dings to let me know it is finish, I take the hot container out and scoop them evenly into the bowls. The aroma of it is strong. The noticeable smell of the chicken noodle soup begins to surround the room.

Corrine is the first to speak up as I set the bowls in front of them, "Valentine, you should come to the pool with me on my next shift. The blonde and his crew finally talked to me and one of them has been dying to meet you."

I nearly choked on my soup then. Me? No one, let alone a guy, has ever been excited to meet me. "Why me?" I question.

She giggles as if I was saying a joke. "He has always seen you with me, so he want to meet you. I think he likes you."

Aiden begins to smirk. "That's out of the ordinary. A real guy actually likes Valentina?" he jokingly asks.

I swat my hand at him, being that he is sitting next to me. He rubs his arm as if it actually hurt. Although that is true, I didn't want to admit to it. "Whatever," is all I say.

"So, will you come tomorrow?" Corrine pleads, dropping her spoon so that she could fold her hands together and place it under her chin to beg.

I think about for a moment. Not that I want to, but because this guy is expecting something out of me. What if I am not who he hoped I would be? I've never had a guy want to meet me, unless it was forced or it just happened. I definitely do not want to disappoint him.

I eventually sighed. I nodded, promising to her that I would show up. I will look like a nervous-wreck, but I would show up.