Covered In Ink

Chapter 12|You look like hell

I woke up the next morning feeling like hell. I was cold, shivering even, but my face was a sheen of sweat. My hair was sticking to my forehead, I felt dizzy and nauseous.

The whole reason I woke up in the first place was because I heard a knock on the door.

I groaned, rolling off the couch with a thud. I half stumbled half crawled to the door, managing to haul myself up to a semi standing position. I yanked on the handle, which was unsurprisingly unlocked. I tended to forget to lock the door at night.

The opened door revealed none other than my beautiful neighbour. I was a little surprised, considering I thought it would be Tara, telling me to hurry my ass up and get her to school.

"Hey sunshine, I thought I should apologise for being-" He stopped when his eyes reached my face. "Woah, you look like hell."

"Thanks," I said sarcastically, but it came out funny, due to my stuffy nose. He was right too, I did probably look like hell, actually I probably looked like I was about to start a zombie apocalypse.

"Are you okay?" He asked seriously.

"I'm fine," I replied, trying to convince him, as well as myself that I was okay. That didn't exactly work out the way I'd wanted it too because a few moments later I started to get dizzy. My eyes glazed over and my head started to spin. I had that scary sensation you get when you're falling, if he hadn't caught me I would've hit my head on the wooden floor.

"Well that confirmed my suspicions that you're actually not okay," he said, steadying me with his arm. He brought his spare hand up to my face, pressing his palm to my forehead.

"Dammit sunshine, you're forehead's burning," he grumbled. "Look, I'm no expert, but my mom will know what to do."

He scooped me up bridal style, and I clung onto his neck for dear life as he briskly walked the short distance between our houses. Once inside he gently set me down on the couch in the living room.

"Don't move, I'll be right back."

That was a pretty easy command to follow, seeing as I wasn't sure I could move anyway.

Ryan returned a few minutes later with his mom. She was dressed like she was about to leave for work.

"Oh you poor thing," she said upon seeing me.

The first thing she did was take my temperature, which turned out to be one hundred and three. Apparently That's too hot. Then she ordered Ryan around, telling him to get stuff like blankets, pillows and towels.

I was made to lie down and a pillow was placed under my head. My hair was smoothed out so that it was no longer plastered to my face, a lukewarm towel was placed on my forehead, and a light blanket was draped over me.

I had my eyes closed, but I was vaguely aware that Ryan and his mom were still there. Their conversation went something like this;

"I have to go now, blah blah, keep her hydrated, blah blah, give her soup, yada yada, check her temperature every hour, yada yada, call me if you need anything, love you bye."

Well that's what I heard anyway, my accuracy probably wasn't exactly on point.

I heard a door slam, and then a loud sigh. The couch dipped next to my shoulder, as Ryan tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and began stroking my hair soothingly.

I hope it was Ryan. Maybe they have a pet ghost. Casper? Is that you?

"What am I going to do with you?" He whispered. Then I fell asleep.

~*~*~*~*~

The next time I woke up there was a second person in the room, I couldn't recognise the voice.