Polaroid (A Phan AU)

Chapter Five

I have been made redundant before and it is a terrible blow; redundant is a rotten word because it makes you think you are useless.

~Billy Connolly

The next few weeks followed without much incident. Chris and I continued our bizarre friendship, I took many more photos, Cassie argued relentlessly with our parents. Life went on as normal, despite my admittance of fondness of the male gender to my sister and best friend.

One morning, I woke up and wanted to go straight back to sleep. My stomach was churning, my head pounding, my throat burning. I felt the fever before it was diagnosed by my mother, who urged me to take the chance to stay off school, insisting that I was far to ill to move.

Unwilling to miss learning opportunities, I declined and stumbled around getting ready, almost fainting when I finally made it out of the door and the cool air hit me.

I walked straight past Chris at our meeting point, my blurry vision overlooking the brown head of hair and reproachful gaze.

"Phil!" I heard his footsteps running after me, crunching on the salted ground. "Wait up! Are you okay? Have you been drinking or something?"

I opened my mouth to answer him and then clamped it shut when I felt the bile rising up my throat. No, I couldn't miss school! Turning hastily to a nearby bush, I emptied the contents of my stomach, shuddering and retching. When it got to the point that I was literally throwing up air, nothing left in me to release, I felt a timid hand rubbing small circles on my back and struggled to catch my breath, steadying my respiration level to a healthy pace.

"Dude," Chris piped up when he was sure I was okay again, "You need to go home. C'mon, I'll walk you."

"N-no," I mumbled, wiping my lips with the back of my hand, "You'll b-be late - I'll go m-myself..."

Chris just smiled, rolled his eyes, and slipped his arm under my armpit and around my shoulder, supporting me with his weight and setting off in the direction of my home.

Once we reached my front door, Chris gave me a quick hug and wish of 'get well soon' and I tumbled almost drunkenly into my house. My mother would have gone out on her usual errands, Cassie would be at school, and my father would be at work, which guaranteed me peace and quiet for at least a few hours before everyone began returning home.

I dragged my bag behind me and made my way sluggishly towards the living room to dump my stuff. What I was not expecting to find, however, was my dad sitting upright on the sofa, with his head in his hands. Unsure of how to react, I swayed awkwardly in the doorway, my spinning head making it difficult to think clearly.

"D-dad? Why are you here? S-shouldn't you be at work?"

Dad snapped his head up and stared at me in shock. Within seconds of processing my obvious state of illness, he flew up from the sofa and hurried to my side, wrapping an arm around my waist to keep me from falling.

Seemingly intent on depriving me of an explanation for as long as possible, he led me gently to my bedroom and lowered me onto my impossibly soft and cushioned bed.

"Don't worry, Phil. Just go to sleep, okay? I'll explain properly when you wake up, but... Look, I've lost my job, but its nothing to fuss about. Just rest up."

The words alarmed me, but I was in no state to object to my father's instructions. The last thing my brain acknowledged before I fell into feverish slumber was a quiet, shaky sigh as my bedroom door clicked quietly shut.

A/N

Surprise update whoop whoop
Storyline, yay
I FINISHED GIRL ONLINE EARLIER TODAY AND OMFG IT IS BEAUTIFUL
No spoilers but there are tfios and frozen references soooo
Now that my school production of Grease is over (it went wonderfully thanks- all five shows!) I'll be updating definitely every Saturday and maybe surprising you with chapters in the week too
Songs I listened to:
Lucifer by Shinee
Fun by Troye Sivan
Brave by Sara Bareilles

Cheerio, chumps

~Georgina

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