Shae

Chapter 7

Third day of school and I was sick. What. A. Life. No one would even come to visit me, because no one liked me anymore. I had woken up feeling nauseous and I had a pounding headache. My mom came in after I had fallen off my bed moaning trying to turn my dumb alarm off. She flipped it off for me and looked at me like she was disappointed but not surprised. I looked at her and her expression softened.

"Oh honey are you ok?" She said, crouching to me and lifting my chin with one slender finger. I fumbled around on the floor for a while before pointing tiredly to a handheld mirror I'd left on the ground. Mom handed it to me and I grimaced at my appearance. At about three a.m. I'd woken up and had trouble falling back to sleep because of my stomach, but when I did get to sleep, I was completely under the spell of my mind. My eyes that morning were red and puffy, my nose was running, I looked like I'd been punched once in each eye, and my mouth was open to let me breathe.

I groaned and rolled onto my side. Mom stood me up and sat me on my bed. "Greg!" She called, "I need some help in here!" My dad came out of his room and down the hallway toward mine. He stepped in and around the cluttered mess that was my floor. He stopped and winced at my face. "Ooh, ok, let's get you downstairs." He picked me up and carried me baby style downstairs and onto my favorite couch, the one I had practically claimed and had sat on since we got it, spreading out like a star so no one could steal my precious. He placed the remote in my hand, oh my parents knew me too well, and my mom brought me some cookie dough.

I laid there for like half an hour staring at the ceiling before I touched either the remote or the spoon in the dough bucket. I raised my arm slowly and tiredly to turn on the tv, remembering how sad and lonely I was, and my back door opened behind my couch. I couldn't look who it was or really talk, so I just painfully slowly pressed my finger down onto the power button.

"Here, let me get that for you," a deep voice said. Kade's voice. I turned my head and breathed in through my mouth. I looked into his eyes, and he pursed his lips. "I was going to tell you to get your butt to school, cause your car was still in the driveway, and I was planning on making you feel like crap about yourself, but now I see you've done it for me, so what can I do but help?" He took the remote and turned on my little pony. I gave him my best eye roll and smiled ever so slightly, so that the mucus running smoothly from my nose didn't feel like it was about to become a fire hydrant.

He sat on the arm of my couch, near my head, and watched my little pony with me, half smiling and chuckling every time Pinkie Pie started running at top speed while dressed as a chicken hanging in mid air from balloons. He took my cookie dough and lifted the spoon toward his face, then he remembered how he didn't want to look like I did and put the spoon into my mouth instead. I chewed lethargically and swallowed. He laughed and fed me another spoonful. He went faster, so that I didn't have time to chew between servings and my mouth filled up like I'd just gotten my wisdom teeth pulled, my cheeks bulging out like a chipmunk's. No matter the amount I told myself I hated him, I was happy he was here. He eventually said that he had missed den, his least favorite class, his teacher being a turd, and decided to get to school.

"Yrphnod hummnr grrr frrphttt nvrr shrldrr, hrr yhhhh?" I mumbled, mouth still pretty full.

"What?"

I gulped and beckoned slowly. He came closer as I grimaced, swallowing another painful chunk of cookie. "Yur nt gn flhr wuth nrr chrldher rit?"

He laughed. "No, I won't flirt with another cheerleader. I've got you under my thumb now so there's no need. You were jealous, and you just admitted it." I frowned and pouted as he winked at me and walked out of my front door. I did not. I was not. Wasn't I?