Speak Up // Lams

Chapter 7

• Johns POV •

"Oh, Alex, you poor thing..." I said upon seeing him. He was ghostly pale, sweating and shivering, with bright pink cheeks. He was buried under tons of blankets and had a box of empty tissues and a trash can full of them next to him.

Wow. Can't be that bad, can it? He signed to me, closing his eyes and rubbing them. His deep purple bags stood out more on his pale fact, showing how obviously exhausted he was.

"Alex, do you even know how to take care of yourself when you're sick?" I asked him. He shook his head, which I wasn't really surprised about.

"Well, when I was sick, my mom used to take care of me really well, so I learned from her. You're in good hands." I walked over to his bed and pulled the desk chair over next to it for me to sit in. I put all the stuff I had brought on the ground next to me, then leaned over to touch his forehead.

After feeling how hot he was, I put a cold, wet cloth on his forehead, and took all his blankets off. He immediately started to shiver harder and squirm around, freezing, but I shushed him as I put one blanket on him. My mom told me that even though you feel cold when you have a fever, being under tons of blankets makes it worse. She had this weird blanket that was heavy enough to keep you warm but let the air in to make sure you wouldn't overheat.

"Ok, Alex, are you hungry?" He nodded his head a little bit, eyes still squeezed shut tightly.

I pulled out my big bowl of chicken noodle soup I had brought with me and began to feed it to him. I didn't let him do it because I saw his hands shaking out of sickness, anxiety and coldness earlier and knew he'd probably spill burning soup on himself.

Yeah, that'd suck.

Halfway through the bowl, Alex somehow fell asleep. I decided to stay and watch over him to make sure he'd be ok. I occupied myself with stupidly addictive games on my phone for a while, until I saw him waking up.

"Hey, are you feeling any better?" He nodded a little bit.

Still feel pretty much terrible though. I hope you don't catch this because of me. He signed. I shook my head.

"I don't get sick all that often. But if I do catch it, you can take care of me too. Repay the favor." I️ laughed a little and he smiled back, looking a little pained.

"Alexander, are you hurt? You look kind of in pain." His eyes filled with fear and it made me suspicious, even as he shook his head.

"You sure?" He nodded as to say he was fine and I let it go. For now, at least.

God, even sick, he was gorgeous. And already asleep again. But still, gorgeous. I just wanted to kiss him.

And I did.

Right on his lips as he slept. I really, really hoped that he wouldn't feel it and wake up, but I did it anyways. And even though he didn't kiss back, even though I'd probably catch something from doing so, I kissed him. And it was nice.