It All Started With An Apple

Chapter 38

“You know,” Kyla drew out, smiling hugely, “you could have, you know, refrained yourself from kissing him.”

I glared at Kyla.  I opened my mouth to answer her, but my stupid throat decided that it wanted to itch as well as burn.  I coughed viciously, my throat burning even more now—if that was even possible.  It didn’t help that my nose was as stuffed as hell, and I was sweating up a storm without even moving. 

Stupid Dannon had gotten me sick.

That must have been his plan.  Tell me he loved me just so that I would kiss him and I would get sick too.  He knew that I wouldn’t be able to resist kissing him after he said something like that.  Blech.

“There was no possible way around it,” I informed my friend.  “Stupid Dannon knows my weaknesses.”

Kyla laughed lightly, leaning against my bedroom wall.  We were sitting on my bed—well, she was sitting, I was more like lumped into a huge pile of blankets—alone in the house excluding Garrett who refused to even so much as step into my bedroom.  “I don’t want to get sick!” he’d yelled when I’d moved toward him.  “Stay away from me, you evil beast!”

Such a nice brother.

I scowled at the ceiling.  Sure, I’d wrapped my arms around him and crashed my lips to his whilst saying that I loved him too, but I’d stood my ground.  When we got back to his house he had to gurgle saltwater.  Dannon tried to get out of it, saying that he had only talked in order to proclaim his undying love for me, but nope.  I mixed the salt in the water, and Dannon proceeded to do what he was told.

“Everyone knows that it’s pretty much certain that if you lock lips with a sick person you’re going to get sick.”  Kyla stuck her tongue out at me.  “Or did you skip that health class?”

Instead of answering, I leaned forward and coughed into Kyla’s face.  Kyla shrieked, swatting me away frantically.  I sat back smiling smugly.  Ha!  Now she was going to get sick.  Served her right.

“You know, I came here to take care of you because your brother wouldn’t, and this is how you treat me?”  Kyla glowered, attempting to wipe my germs from her face with her hand.  I smiled mischievously.  We both knew that she was going to end up like Dannon and I.  There was no hope for her. 

“You didn’t have to take care of me.”  I shrugged, the smile remaining on my face.  “You just wanted to get out of your math test.”

Kyla shrugged as though that would show me I was wrong.  But I wasn’t.  In fact, she’d told me just that when I called her and told her that I wouldn’t be attending school today.  She’d said, “I’m coming over to take care of you!  I have a math test that needs ditching anyway.”

See?  Her motives were delightful.

“Do me a favor and go make out with Oliver so he can get sick too,” I mumbled, collapsing back on my bed.  I moved too fast, and, as a result, I went light-headed.  Despite all this I didn’t regret a thing that happened the other day.  Nope, sacrificing my health to show Dannon that I appreciated what he said was all right with me. 

Gosh, I was such a girl.

“I’ll get right on that,” Kyla replied after a moment.  She stood up, fixing her shirt and eyeing me carefully.  It was as though she was waiting for me to cough in her face again.  And I would have too—if it hadn’t been for the sudden urge to throw up.

Throwing my hand to my mouth, I kicked the layers of blankets off of me and rushed out of bed, running full out to the bathroom down the hall.  I barely made it to the toilet and lifted the lid before the puking began.  Gosh I hated puking.  Especially when your throat hurts and you can’t breathe through your nose.  Not only was I going to die from the pain this was causing, but from suffocation.  Thank you, Dannon, I thought bitterly.  I really appreciate this.