Like To Be You ✓

forty one

Here's a pic of a beautiful doggo for you as a thank you for 50K+ reads and 3K votes❤️

o-o-o

The sound of a handy-vacuum wakes me up. 

The weather outside is shit. A layer of sludgy ice covers the balcony deck and slides off the glass doors like slime. In the other room, my mother leisurely uses the vacuum at 9 in the fucking morning.

I groan and twitch and stretch in bed, and turn over to bury my face into a weird-smelling and rather hard pillow. When I open my eyes, I notice my nose is right up against Tyler's armpit. I gag and fold his arm down, then snuggle into his bicep. He makes a small noise and pushes me off, then turns to the other side.

I take offense at his sleepy dismissal of my affection.

"How dare you," I whisper in his ear and throw my leg over his, hooking it so I can scoot closer and closer, until I'm fully pressed up against him. Then I hiss, "You can't escape me now."

He makes another sleepy noise and continues to softly snore.

In the other room, the handy vacuum switches off. Then everything is eerily silent, until I sneeze so loudly Tyler wakes up.

"What the---" he blinks, confused, and slowly reaches up to wipe whatever my sneeze consisted of off his ear.

"Bless me." I say, and press a kiss to his cheek. "Good morning. I feel like shit."

He squints at me groggily and mumbles something incomprehensible.

"What?" I say.

"Your leg's very heavy." He repeats, now with more clarity.

"And what should I do about that?" I say. My face scrunches up as another sneeze prepares to launch itself out of my system. Tyler shields himself under the blankets.

"Oh my," My mother says after I sneeze for the eighth time in a row. "Seems like you've caught a very bad cold, baby."

From under the blanket, I can hear Tyler whisper bless you after every sneeze.

"They're not stoppi--- ichhee!"

"Bless you." Comes a tiny voice.

"I'll go get you some Tylenol." My mother says, rushing out of the room.

Tyler peeks his head out from underneath the blanket. "Is your throat sore too?" he asks.

"I think so," I say, rubbing the spot over my vocal cords.

"Oh." Tyler says, and I catch a tiny, victorious smile on his face. I narrow my eyes.

"If you think it's because of me giving you a---"

"Oh, absolutely not." Tyler says, pulling the blanket up to his nose.

"You little---"

"Here." Mom enters the room again, holding a bottle of Tylenol in one hand with Gregory tucked under her arm. Gregory leaps forward and bounds towards the bed, coming to a stop above Tyler. He mewls and purrs as Tyler showers him with undeserved affection, and I pull a face as I down the tablet with a glass of water.

"You could've just got some from my bathroom," I tell my mother, handing her the little plastic bottle.

My mother ignores that and presses a kiss to my head.

"You're warm." She tells me, and presses the back of her hand to my forehead. "I'll get the thermometer. What would you like for breakfast, Tyler?"