Reality || L.H.

Chapter 30

Hanging up with Celeste, I go back inside. Calum shoots me a relieved look when I shut the door behind me. He gets up from the couch and rushes over to me, his brown eyes full of worry for his friend. "Luke keeps asking for you," he says, leading me over to the sick boy. "And what did Celeste say?"

"She's on her way." I take a seat back on the couch and Luke stops arguing with Ashton, relaxing when I grip his hand in mine. It's hot to the touch. Biting my lip anxiously, I play with the fingers on his hands, giving myself something to do.

Luke reaches up to cup my cheek with his hand, bringing my face up to his. "I know that look," he murmurs, frowning at me. He runs his thumb slowly over my cheekbone. "Kat, please don't worry about me. I don't like seeing you sad."

I give a little laugh, tears coming to my eyes. Throwing my arms around him, I bury my face in his neck, clutching him close. He smells like those familiar smells I've come to realize mean home. Because wherever he is, is my home. Without him, I don't know what there is to live for.

Calum helpfully sets a trash can next to Luke's leg in case he has to throw up. I sit back, looping my arm through his as we sit and wait for Celeste to get here. Ashton taps out a nervous rhythm on the arm of the couch and Michael reaches over to still his fingers, scowling. Cal's leg bounces anxiously as he stares at Luke with concern. I know all their nervous tells, but I don't know how to calm them.

Luke bends over suddenly and vomits into the trash can, groaning miserably. I rub comforting circles on his back, biting my lip. He leans against me as he grips the sides of the trash can. Ashton silently gets up and rummages through the drawers in the kitchen for medicine. He comes back with another glass of water and Pepto and Ibuprofen clutched in his hands. Setting them down on the coffee table, he takes a seat and gives me a tight smile that I return with a nod.

"I don't feel good," Luke moans as he leans heavily against me, done with throwing up for now.

I stroke his hair gently. "I know, baby. Celeste is on her way to help you. She'll be here any minute now."

He feels too bad to even care that his ex who cheated on him with his own brother is coming. That makes me wish that she would get here faster. I wish he would complain, would make a big scene of not letting her help him. But he doesn't.

Calum and I share a look, obviously thinking the same thing.

Swallowing hard, I turn back to Luke. Rubbing a hand up and down his arm, I ask gently, "Do you think you can take a little medicine now?"

Luke makes a face. "No medicine," he whines.

"You have to take it," I say, bringing his eyes up to mine. "You need the medicine. Please take it, Lu."

He shakes his head.

I open my mouth to argue with him, but there's a knock at the door. Relieved, I start to get up to let Celeste in, but Luke holds on tight to me, keeping me in place on the couch. Michael moves to answer it for me, trying to smooth the worry off his expression.

Celeste walks right in without waiting for an invitation, on a mission. She ties her light brown back as she grabs the thermometer and checks Luke's temperature. 104.7 I try not to panic, but how can I when my boyfriend has a high fever and there's no way to make it to any hospitals with all the snow coming down?

Luke's sister-in-law wets the rag Calum got again, placing it back on his forehead. Sitting back on her heels, she notices the medicine still resting on the coffee table. "He didn't take any?" she asks me. I shake my head, tightening my grip on Luke's arm. "Did he throw up?"

"Yes," Ashton answers for me, gesturing toward the trash can.

"If he doesn't feel like he's going to throw up right now, he has to take the medicine. There's only so much we can do. The medicine makes a big difference."

I lock eyes with Luke and he shakes his head. I try to smile as I lean in to kiss his forehead. "Come on, you have to take the medicine," I murmur under my breath to him. "You're not going to get better if you don't, and right now, your fever is high enough that we'd have to take you to a hospital if it wasn't snowing."

Michael picks up the medicine and the glass of water, holding it them out to me. I take the medicine from him one by one, making Luke take them. I help him hold the water to swallow the medicine, passing it back to Mikey.

We all look to Celeste for what to do next. She's the only one with a clear, level head.

"And now we wait to see whether he gets better or worse," she says firmly. "If the fever gets higher, then we can put him in an ice bath and see if that brings it back down. Short of that... I don't see what else we can do for him except hope that it goes away all on its own."

Luke curls back up on the couch, resting his head on my shoulder sleepily. "Can we finish the movie?" he mumbles.

Ashton wordlessly grabs the remote and everyone settles back in on the couch to watch the remainder of Top Gun. But we're not invested in it anymore and it becomes more background noise than entertainment. Celeste takes a seat on Luke's other side and he hardly reacts to it except for tightening his arms around me.

I watch him out of the corner of my eye for the rest of the movie. His eyes close after a few minutes and he falls asleep against me, his breathing soft and even in my ear. I absentmindedly make slow circles on his arm while he sleeps, trying to calm down. Luke's going to be ok, he'll be fine. It was just a little fever, nothing to worry about. And yet, I can't seem to stop anxiously glancing over at him every five minutes to make sure that he's still sleeping peacefully.