AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It was official.
God had done the whole ‘I smite thee’ by striking me down was a nasty case of the influenza virus. How had I caught it? Did that matter? Hell no. Nothing mattered as I lay on the cool tile floor, my cheek smashed and mostly likely now carrying the pattern of the floor. There was no concept of how much time had passed. I knew I needed medicine, something from the store. Yes, the store would be a good idea. Chicken soup. TheraFlu. Pepto…
Stumbling to my feet, I shuffled back into the living room. The walls seemed funny to me, fuzzy and a little warped, like they were waving to me. After a minor adventure, I found my purse and keys and made it to the front door. Just as I unlocked it, I felt the ominous stirring in my stomach.
I dropped my purse and keys and spun. The walls danced. Not good. I made it a couple of steps and my legs did the strangest thing. They just stopped working. Done. Nothing. I cracked them off the floor, but really didn’t feel it. Crawling toward the kitchen, because I had enough sense left to not want to do this on the carpet, I made it to the sink. I hauled myself up and leaning over the sink, my stomach heaved until tears leaked down my cheeks.
Oh man, this sucked.
Finally, when the storm seemed to have passed, I slid down, leaning back against the cabinets under the sink. Okay. The store was out of the question. So was bed. I’m not sure if I stretched out or sort of fell over, but I was back against the cool floor again. At least the kitchen floor had more space.
A deep ache settled into my muscles and bones. My head throbbed so badly it hurt to open my eyes or to concentrate on anything other than the fact it hurt. It felt like someone had shoved a wool brush down my throat. My brain felt like it was trying to run through muddy waters. Nothing really made sense to me. I heard the phone chirping from somewhere and then sometime later, it rang and rang… and it rang. I wondered if it was my parents. Maybe they remembered that yesterday was my birthday.
I think I might’ve fallen asleep, because there was a banging that sounded far, far away. And I thought I heard my living room door open. I was to the point that I didn’t care if it was a mass murderer. I’d welcome anyone willing to put me out of my misery.
“Avery?” There was a pause and then a, “Oh, my God.”
The murderer knew my name and was the praying type? Lovely.
Cool hands touched my forehead. “Avery, oh my God, are you okay?”
The murderer sort of sounded like Brit, so it was obviously not a murderer. I forced my eyes open into thin slits. Her face blurred together for a second. Worry etched into her features and then her face warbled.
“Flu,” I mumbled. “I have the flu…”
“So that’s why it smells like there was a vomit party in here.”
I winced. “Ugh.”
“Yes, ugh, all of this is ugh.”
I heard something drop on the floor and then the cool hands were gone. My fridge door opened and wonderful, beautiful, cold air washed over the floor and me. I was in heaven, freaking heaven.
The door shut and Brit returned, water in hand. “You need to drink water. Come on, help me help you sit up.”
Mumbling under my breath, I got my hands on the floor but my arms felt too weak. She got an arm around me and had me leaning against the cabinet. A water bottle appeared by my dry lips.
“No.” I tried to knock her away, but I couldn’t lift my arms. “You… get… flu…”
“I got the flu shot, so no. Drink this water, Avery. Drink it.” She put it to my mouth again, and the water eked in, scorching my throat. “It probably hurts, huh? If you drink this water, I’ll go to the store and get you some stuff, okay? I think you have a fever.” Her hand pressed against my forehead. “Yep, you have a fever.”
I think I drank the water and then I think I face planted the floor afterward. Everything blurred. Brit was talking to me and I think I responded. No idea what was coming out of my mouth. She left me on the floor at some point and then I heard her again, out in the living room, speaking in a low voice. The pain in my head was too much to open my eyes.
Arms slipped under me and for a second I was floating. Then I shifted, resting against something warm and hard. I moaned, turning my head toward it. There was a familiar, soothing scent that tugged at me, lulled me under until I was lying on something much more comfortable and there was something cool and damp pressed to my forehead.
I slept on and off, waking every so often to realize I wasn’t alone. Someone sat beside me on the bed, holding a cloth to my cheeks. I murmured something before falling back asleep. I’m not sure how long this lasted, but finally my eyes opened, and it was like coming out of a coma. The light filtering through the window was too harsh and the throbbing was still in my head but duller than before.
I opened my mouth, but immediately started hacking.
Footsteps pounded from the hall and suddenly Brit was in my bedroom doorway, a glass of water in one hand and a mug in the other. “You’re alive! Thank God, I was beginning to think I accidentally killed you by forcing meds down your throat.”
I looked at her dumbly. “I took medicine?”
“Yep.” She bounced over to me and sat on the bed. “You’ve taken medicine twice and you’re about to take it again. You need to drink all of this water. And then you need to drink this—more medicine. My mom, who’s a nurse by the way, said that since it seems like your fever broke last night, you should be fine. Well, you should be better.”
“Last night?” Covering my mouth with my hand, I started hacking again as I took the water from her. We had to wait for that to pass. “What… time is it?”
Brit sat on the edge of the bed, holding the steaming mug. I could already smell the lemon. “Time? Honey, day would probably be the better question. It’s Saturday.”
