a dream that you wish | kasey winslow |

Chapter 52

A few days after her date with Jace, Kasey woke up feeling even worse than she'd felt on Frozen's opening night. She had an awful headache and her nose was stuffy.

"Kasey, if you're going to your matinee, you're going to need to get up," Carleigh called through Kasey's bedroom door.

"Noooo," Kasey whined, stuffing her head into her pillow. "Go away."

"You okay in there?" Carleigh asked.

"No."

"Can I come in?"

"I guess," Kasey said, her voice muffled.

Carleigh stepped inside, sitting on the edge of Kasey's bed. "Are you sick?"

"I think so, I don't know where I would have picked it up," Kasey replied, sitting up, wrapping her arms around her knees.

"You probably have a cold. You just went through a stressful week, you got dumped into a waterfall, so I'm not surprised," Carleigh reasoned. She gently touched Kasey's forehead.

Kasey moved away from Carleigh's touch. "I'm not sick, I'll be fine."

"You have a fever, you're not going to do the show. You'd probably pass out onstage or something," Carleigh said firmly. "I'll call your stage manager, and then we'll sit in here and we'll watch Netflix, okay?"

Kasey sighed. "Okay."

"Good, I'll be right back."

Carleigh disappeared for a few minutes, during which Kasey turned on her phone and checked her messages.

Kasey: I'm not doing the show tonight

Jace: what happened?

Kasey: I got sick

Jace: i'm sorry, kase, that was probably my fault. do you want me to come over?

Kasey: No, Carleigh's here, and we're having some girl time

Jace: haha okay, as long as she's there that's cool. feel better love :)

Kasey: thanks haha, i'll be fine soon

Carleigh returned holding a cup of chai tea, a fluffy blanket, and a bag of Ritz crackers.

"I called your stage manager, they said that Victoria Allen is going on as your understudy," she said. "And Sebastian's back but you won't be there."

"Ugh, as soon as he comes back I get sick," Kasey complained. Carleigh flipped open one side of Kasey's covers.

"Scoot over," she commanded. Kasey obliged. "I wasn't sure if you felt like eating, but I brought you some of your tea."

"Thanks, Carleigh," Kasey said gratefully.

Carleigh propped her iPad up on the covers. "What do you want to watch?"

"Beauty and the Beast?"

"Sure," Carleigh agreed.

They both snuggled in. At first, Kasey was jittery knowing that her cast members were performing soon, but eventually, she let herself relax. She occasionally took a sip of her tea.

After the movie ended, they switched to watching Grey's Anatomy. It was warm under the covers, snuggled up next to Carleigh. Kasey quickly felt herself drifting off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Kasey woke up, the sun was higher in the sky. Carleigh was on her phone, scrolling through Instagram, she assumed.

"Feeling better?" Carleigh asked.

"Not much better, maybe a little," Kasey said.

"Do you want anything? I can leave, if you want," Carleigh offered. "I could get you tea or soup or something."

"No, it's cold, don't leave," Kasey answered.

"Okay, but if you get too warm, just tell me, okay?"

"I've done nothing to deserve a friend like you, Carleigh," Kasey said.

"I could say the same thing about you," Carleigh replied. "I'll put on Tangled, if you want to watch it."

"Yeah."

This time, Kasey didn't fall asleep. It was mostly because she felt so congested that she just couldn't get comfortable.

The light streaming through the windows slowly dimmed until the room was lit with a few lonely shafts of sun. It was about five o'clock in the afternoon when Kasey finally decided to get up.

"Did you fall asleep?" Carleigh asked as Kasey rolled out from under the covers.

"No, I'm too stuffed up."

"I'm sorry, Kasey, that sucks."

"I'm going to see if we have any medicine that might help," Kasey said, heading to the bathroom.

"There's some from when I got sick in rehearsals for Bandstand," Carleigh said. "That was a few months ago but I think they should still be okay."

Kasey found the medicine, and after washing her face and brushing her hair a little bit, she flopped back onto the bed beside Carleigh.

"I don't know what to do, I'm bored but at the same time I don't feel like doing anything," Kasey complained.

"We could take Buzzfeed quizzes," Carleigh suggested.

"Yeah, let's do it."

"Maybe there are some more Hamilton ones that we can take," Carleigh added thoughtfully. She went to get her laptop and returned, balancing it on her lap.

"There's one- 'Which Hamilton cast member should you date?'" Kasey said, pointing at the screen. Carleigh groaned.

"Do we have to?"

"Yes, yes we do," Kasey laughed.

Carleigh went first. She had to select her gender and answer a few questions about her favorite musicals (other than Hamilton), her favorite song from Hamilton, and her favorite flavor of cake. Because apparently that was relevant.

"'You got: Thayne Jasperson! Energetic, quirky, and caring, Thayne is the ideal partner for you!'" Kasey read off the screen. "That's actually hilarious."

"That's so weird," Carleigh said, crinkling her nose. "Thayne and I are just friends."

"When I first joined the cast, I honestly thought you were dating until I talked to you for a while," Kasey confessed. "I don't know, you two seemed really tight."

"Well, if that were the case, then people would think that you and I were dating," Carleigh said.

"I mean, they did," Kasey reminded her friend.

"True," Carleigh mused. She handed over her laptop. "Your turn."

Kasey marked 'Satisfied' as her favorite Hamilton song, her favorite musical as Wicked, and her favorite flavor of cake as vanilla.

"My ideal date is apparently Oak," Kasey said. "It says 'You need a strong, dependent, loyal guy that will stick with you even when it's hard.'"

"I mean, you do," Carleigh agreed. "Jace is all of those things, so that's kind of accurate. Don't even pretend it isn't."

"Oak is like my big brother, though," Kasey commented. She grabbed her phone and texted Oak a picture of her results. "He'll think it's hilarious."

They took some more quizzes, and then Kasey decided she felt well enough to eat some dinner. She sat on a stool while Carleigh darted around the kitchen, making pasta for herself and soup for Kasey.

It had been nice to spend some quality time with Carleigh, even if it meant that she had to be sick for it, Kasey decided.