how did this happen. . ?

04 - chills with hot soup

Another week had passed before the first cough hit.

It was early in the morning on a Tuesday when you woke up with a pounding headache and your throat screaming in protest as you groaned. You reach over the bed to turn your lamp on and check your phone for the time.

"Class is in three hours..." Your throat burned as you mumbled to yourself. Giving yourself a mental head start, you forced yourself to roll out of bed to take some medicine. There was a bunch of talk about a bug going around campus as the weather began to get colder, but you figured you would be fine since you didn't hang out with anyone.

Boy were you wrong.

It was still technically the beginning of the semester, but you couldn't miss class. And you didn't have any friends to get your notes from.

You ignored the pang of hurt in your heart as you remembered the situation with Tim several days ago. He hadn't been to class since. Maybe he caught the bug? You were hoping that was why he was missing class and not because of what had happened between the two of you.

You still took notes for him. Speaking of which, you turned to look over to your desk where the papers lay next to your laptop, now dead. You had stayed up late studying before heading to bed.

A sharp pain traveled through your temple as your hands rushed to your head. A ringing sound traveled in your ears. You didn't even notice your knees hitting the cold floor before your head did the same. Little black dots danced around your vision before you decided that you were taking a nap right here on the kitchen floor.

~ ~ ~

It wasn't long before the loud beeping of your alarm woke you from your very uncomfortable slumber. Your head was the same, if not hurting worse than before. Your hand reached up to grab the countertop and pull yourself up. Forcing yourself to walk back to the bedroom and get ready for class. And to turn that damn alarm off.

Thankfully your alarm was set for forty minutes before class because you were struggling to prepare. Even worse, you had to walk to class.

Chills were going down your spine as every piece of fabric tickled your skin. Your face was burning as your dark eyes poked out. You looked like shit. You felt like shit more.

Quickly before heading to class, you looked up your symptoms.

Nausea. Chills. Body aches. Runny nose. Sore throat.

"Alright. I either have a cold, the flu, strep throat, or cancer. Great!" That left you feeling better. The headache intensified as you rolled your eyes.

Taking a deep breath, you opened your door and started the trek to class.

Today is going to suck.

Your brain was in a fog, you didn't even remember most of the walk to class but eventually, you walked into the classroom to see your desk buddy.

You stumbled your way over to him as he raised an eyebrow at your awful state.

"Tim!" You rasped out, trying to seem as healthy as possible. Spoiler, it didn't work. "Welcome back. I was so sorry about our thing last week. I'm not the best at making friends so I had just assumed that we were friends but it's okay! Anyway- I have your notes for class. I didn't know if you were sick or just skipping class so I-" Perhaps you were nervous about embarrassing yourself in front of your only potential friend or the fever making your brain malfunction, but you couldn't help but ramble. Tim cut you off by standing up and walking you into the hallway. "Ah- where are we going? Class is going to start."

Once outside the classroom, he let go of your hand. When did he grab your hand? "Are you feeling alright?" A cold hand touched your forehead as you leaned into the cold. Feels nice.

"You're burning up. You're sick." You frowned at Tim's hand that was now by his side. Standing up was becoming more of a chore every second. Little stars were dancing across your eyes as your stomach did flips.

"Well yeah. It was bound to happen. Weather change and all that. Plus, first time away from home, no medicine or healthy food and stuff." You waved your hand in front of you to dismiss the subject. "Any who, class is getting ready to start so-"

Tim interrupted you by grabbing your wrist and pulling you away from the classroom.

"You are not going to class. You are sick." He momentarily let go of your wrist to open the door, pushing you outside.

"Okay, doctor." You scoffed and walked outside. The breeze pushed your sweater against your skin causing shivers. Every step you took felt like a thousand broken bones. God. You hated being sick. "So. Where are we going?"

He quickly turned his head back to you before looking forward again. "Well, you live on campus, right?" Turning back to you, you nodded. "I'm bringing you there. You are going to rest and take medicine."

"What medicine?" You laughed, "I already said I didn't have any."

"I had assumed you weren't being serious."

Before you knew it, you were in front of your dorm door. You unlocked it as Tim pushed you inside. "Go rest."

You didn't feel like arguing. The thought of sleeping within the next few seconds felt so nice. You kicked off your shoes and climbed into bed.

Tim stood by the door and waited to hear your breathing even out before he grabbed your keys and left. He locked the door and went off on his new mission. Get you some fucking medicine.

You confused him a lot. He shouldn't be doing this. He assumed he was doing this as thanks because you are taking notes for him when he missed class. Not like he is even a student here. He was just bored one day. Not his fault that it just so happened to be the first day of classes and this random ass girl got attached. He tried going away for a bit to hopefully get you to break off contact. Much to his surprise when you showed up to class with a stack of papers labeled 'Notes for Tim.' And a fever.

It pissed him off. And yet, he didn't know why. How dumb do you have to be to not know how to take care of yourself? How sheltered were you?

Tim huffed as the bell rang over his head into the local drugstore. He grabbed some cough drops, day and nighttime medicine, headache medicine, and just some random medicine that one may need. Walking out of the aisle, he saw containers of chicken soup and crackers. Tim groaned and grabbed that as well.

He dropped the stuff off at self-check-out and began scanning. As he paid, he pulled out his phone and made a call.

"Hey, Brian. Can you do me a favor?"

~ ~ ~

Your head was pounding as you peeled the covers off of your sweat-soaked form. Sleeping helped a little bit but damn you felt like shit still. You squinted your eyes at the clock sitting on your desk to see it was almost seven. You had slept for almost twelve hours. Making a mental note to call your parents to let them know about your struggles and to email your professors, you slowly climb out of bed. You were starving and in need of energy.

One foot in the kitchen, the bright neon sticky note on top of a plastic bag and a stack of papers caught your attention. Stepping closer, you realized it was written notes from your class. You dug into the bag to see different kinds of medicine. Some for your symptoms and others you had assumed for future use. You grabbed the note to read it.

"Soup is in the fridge. Text me if you need anything. XXX-XXX-XXXX – T."

Maybe you did have a friend after all.

sorry I wrote this out and forgot to post it haha

anyways hope you enjoyed it :)

drink some water <3

Mar 21. 23.