My Plushie (SeaChaos)

Part 10 - Sickness

~Chilled's POV~

"Have you guys seen Nanners around?" I panic at the question, feeling a bit of guilt for having the sick man holed up in my house but I keep the panic contained. Gassy glance between me and Ze, seeming suspicious since we all know Nanners loves to hang out at the shop more than anywhere else.

"Are you sure he's not just at home?" Ze asks curiously, the one oblivious one out of all of us. Gassy must have forgotten to tell him about it, though it's understandable. How do you just go up to one of your friends and bring up the fact you had a fight with a good friend to the point of kicking them out of your home? Gassy sighs and leans his head on his palm, seeming as tired as Nanners was with the entire ordeal. Hopefully he doesn't just explode right here and becomes as sick as Nanners suddenly became yesterday.

"We - uh - we had an argument. He...broke a deal so he had to move out," Gassy explains quickly for Ze who seems shocked while I just look at the two, unsurprised. Gassy notices my lack of surprise and eyes me suspiciously.

"I know where he is," I announce before I have any wild accusations thrown at me. "He's staying at a hotel but he's actually sick right now so I doubt he'll be coming for a few days. Don't worry about him," I explain making htem both stare at me seeming to be shocked. I don't understand why they have to be so shocked when they knew I was good friends with him.

"So you've been around him? Just..." Gassy pauses, seeming to need to think about what to say. Both Ze and I wait for him to finish but the door to the shop opens, distracting us all as Tom and Mrs. Pennington walk in, Mrs. Pennington talking loudly like always.

"Good morning boys! Oh I was hoping to find Adam here," she says in disappointment looking to us all. I hesitate before shaking my head.

"He won't be here, he's sick," I explain slowly, watching as the old woman's face morphs through several different expressions from worry, to realization, to anger, and now at panic. Every one of us can automatically tell what exactly is going through her mind.

"Don't worry Mrs. Pennington. I promise if Nanners isn't better by the time of the festival I'll be his replacement," I explain before she can say anything and go on a rant about how irresponsible us young people are. Immediately Ze opens his mouth and starts to say something but stops himself although it's clear to everyone here with his dissatisfied expression that he wants to say something to me badly.

"I will hold you to that Anthony." Mrs. Pennington turns away gracefully and leaves the room, clearly up to something bad by the smug and devious smile on her face. I stare after her, hoping she isn't off to go poison the banana man so I would have to take his position, though she has no idea where he is. After last year the giant mess we had of dodging Mrs. Pennington and trying to prevent the changes I'm pretty sure Mrs. Pennington is out for some sort of revenge on me by making me it again this year. At this rate I just might be with how terrible Nanners' condition seemed to be in earlier today. Or at least I think earlier today, I lose track of time easily having changed once already today, no where near Nanners but still a bit close. I guess now that I have a roommate I have to actually be cautious about that thing in my own house now too.

"Why did he go to you?" Gassy suddenly asks, bringing me back and making me glance to him as he stares at me with a serious expression. "Did he... say anything to you?"

"Well yeah he said a lot, but I'm pretty sure he was just going delusional because of his fever," I note, recalling the couple of things he said to me that made no sense at all. "Don't worry too much about him. I'll check up on him late-"

"Is that really a good idea?" Ze interrupts making us both look to him. When we meet eyes I can immediately tell he's annoyed with me, pissed even. Then again, I am suddenly making all of these declarations in front of him without discussing with him like we usually do for my sake. "You know what happens when you get sick," Ze explains and for a second I have no idea what he's talking about. I hadn't even thought about the possibility of getting sick from staying around Nanners. I was more worried about his well being to worry much about mine. That combined with the fact I hardly ever get sick, although when I do it really is terrible and typically worse than others'. That plus the fact I change into a hot plushy doesn't really make sickness my favorite thing in the world. Definitely not my favorite thing in the world. Nothing can beat popcorn.