And Then it Happened

23

The minute I felt my throat start to feel funny, I knew I was getting sick. I knew it was coming and yet I didn't want to admit it to myself. Unfortunately, despite doing everything I could to keep myself from getting sick, I still feel like shit.

It's February 15th, the day after Valentine's Day. Lucky for me, today is a Saturday so I don't have school. I am currently curled up in bed like a burrito, my long brown locks twirled up into a messy bun, wearing my biggest and ugliest sweatshirt, and I was downing water like you wouldn't believe.

My parents, being the kind souls that they are, had been doing everything they could for me in the last 24 hours; constantly checking in on me and asking if I needed anything else or wanted take out. At the moment though, I was perfectly content just staying in bed and sleeping all day. I had lost my appetite and I was becoming grouchy.

After finishing my third rom-com movie in a row, I check my phone to occupy myself. I have 2 missed calls and 5 texts from Cameron, and 3 texts from Sydney. I roll my eyes seeing all the missed messages from Cameron; at this point, it was just getting annoying. I wasn't quite sure why I hadn't blocked his number yet; I guess if I was being completely honest with myself, it was kind of nice knowing that he still cared that much. Deciding to ignore Cameron, I begin to text Sydney back.

As I begin typing my texts, I hear a small knock on my bedroom door.

"Knock, knock," I hear my dad say, as he opens my bedroom door to peer inside and talk to me. His dark black hair had some strands of grey peppered in, and when he smiles, the wrinkles around his eyes become more pronounced .

"Hey dad," I say with a half-smile on my face; that was about all I could muster with my lack of energy.

"Hey kiddo, are you still doing okay?" he asks, pushing his glasses back up his nose when they fall slightly.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Well as okay as I can be for being as sick as I am..." I say as I sniffle slightly.

He nods empathetically. "That's good, Hey, listen, you have a visitor. What do you want me to do?"

Hearing him say that I have a visitor makes me perk up a bit. A visitor? Who would be visiting me right now? I assume it's just one of my friends, it's probably Sydney. Sydney has always been that friend who goes above and beyond when you're sick and brings you soup, movies, Kleenex, and all that jazz.

"Oh, um yeah, you can send her up I guess," I say. "I look terrible, but I'm sure Syd won't mind. Not like she hasn't seen me like this before."

My dad suddenly looks troubled. His lips turn downward into a frown, and his eyebrows scrunch together. "Uh...well, it's not Sydney actually," he mumbles. "It's some boy."

Hearing him say that it's a boy immediately causes my heart to drop. A boy? That could only mean one thing...Cameron. I start to grow angry and flustered. I ignore him for a few weeks and suddenly he thinks it's okay to show up to my house unannounced and un-invited? The gall of this boy! I feel my hands begin to form into balled fists and it takes nearly everything in me not to scream profanities. Clearly, he was not going to leave me alone until he got his answer.

My dad, who had stayed quiet for some time now, continues to stand in my doorway looking apprehensive and nervous. I would laugh at him if I weren't so angry and annoyed that Cameron was here.

"Look sweetie, if you don't want him here, I'll go out there and tell him to-"

"No, it's okay" I cut him off. "He's a friend, I'll be down there in a second." I mentally cringe when I say that's he's a friend, but I don't want my dad to become more suspicious than he probably already was. It's not like I had random boys showing up to my house to talk to me all the time.