Shortcake - A Richpez Story

Chapter 17

Lauren's POV

I wake up to the sound of a steady heartbeat. And some nausea. Not wanting to be blinded by the light any longer, I close my eyes again, not ready to leave the warmth that is my bed.

Wait, who's heartbeat am I hearing?

I attempt to recollect the memories from last night, and I finally realize that Joey had come over. And I kinda pulled him into bed with me. Oops. Now I can feel his arms around me, and the pillow I have happens to be Joey's chest. Our legs are entwined, his arms are wrapped around me, and his chin rests on my head.

Unlike Joey's steady heartbeat, mine seems to speed up at the realization of this contact. A chuckle from Joey startles me, making me jerk a little.

"Nice to see you're up, sleeping beauty," he murmurs, kissing the top of my head softly.

"Mmm," I say in response.

"You still feel warm, Lo," he points out.

"I am warm, but in a good way," I mumble into his chest. Not warm enough, though.

"I'm gonna go make breakfast for you and Jaime, okay? She's in the shower, by the way," he informs me.

"Mkay," I respond. And then I realize that she was up before us. Which means she most definitely has pictures of us cuddling.

God dammit.

I feel Joey untangle himself from me and the bed shift, indicating he had gotten up. I wrap the blankets around me, the absence of his warmth causing the cold to attack once more.

~Two Weeks Later~

"Lauren, c'mon, let's go inside," Joey pleads as we sit in the parking lot of the hospital.

"Fine, but it'll probably be the common flu Joey, nothing to worry about, they'll send me home after we get in there and tell me to just wait," I sniffle.

Joey shakes his head as he steps out of the car, making me smile a little. After much of his begging and a almost three weeks of throwing up, he convinced me to go to the hospital. True, this was some serious ass flu, but I'd get over it sooner or later. The only reason I allowed him to take me was because I didn't want him, Jaime, or anyone else to get sick, nor did I want to miss any more days of rehearsal because I was puking my guts out and make Joey even more worried.

Sure enough, Joey and I sit patiently in the beige waiting room, get called in, and the doctor diagnoses me with some type of the flu. A influenza. Just great, exactly what I needed. She gives me antibiotics, a shit ton of them, and explains to me when I should take them.

I yawn as we pile back into the car, already exhausted from the only trip I've taken today. Hey, it was the only place I've been in two weeks, and I've been bedridden for a long ass time. Well, more like bathroom-ridden.

Joey puts his hand to my forehead, almost a habit for him at this point.

"JoJo, I'm fine. Honestly. Like Dr. Cullen said, I'll be fine after a while, and the medication should help," I reassure him, but my voice sounds thick and not convincing.

I hear Joey say something but I can't quite focus on what he's saying. I close my eyes, just for a second, and when they open again Joey is in front of me. I ride on his back as he fumbles with the keys to his apartment and grips the bag of pills in his other hand. Luckily, Joey doesn't have to try and search for the right key, because Jon opens the door for him. Still half asleep, I let go of my grip on Joey and give him a salute. I don't know why, it just kind of happened. Jon laughs a little and gives me a small wave back.

He and Jon are talking a bit before Joey makes it into the apartment and gently lets me slip off his back and onto the couch. I wonder why we're here. Honey doesn't have a key to the motel, I know that. Jaime must've gone somewhere, probably to rehearsals or something.

"Lo, you gotta take your drugs now," Joey murmurs softly, resting his hand on my shoulder.

That causes a small, weak smile to appear on my face, and I sit up, forcing my heavy eyelids open. Joey hands me a glass of water and I happily take the pills that will hopefully relieve all of this sickness I've somehow contracted at the worst possible time. I swallow all fifty of the pills.

"How are you not sick?" I croak, my throat starting to give out on me and burn again.

"I'm fucking magical that way," he replies.

I give him lazy smile, and that's the last thing I hear before sleep claims me once again.

A/N: At one point in the story I kept trying to type something and I kept spelling 'Joey looks ew' and I was dying.

Also, did anyone elses school catch really bad A Influenza last year or a couple years ago? Like, almost all of my school got it and everyone was constantly gone. I caught it too, and since I'm weird and would rather be at school than go home, I missed only one day, while everyone else was gone for a week. Minimum. Anyways, moral of the story, fuck A Influenza.

I have no clue what Lauren and some of the other cast members caught, other than Kendall getting strep throat. All I know it that her dresser thing was covered in bottles of pills. She pointed that out on her Insta story. Yeah. OK. I'm done now. Anyone catch the Twilight reference I put in for fun? No, okay. Bye bye, hope you enjoyed!

Also, send lots of love to Australia!!!

Word Count: 994