“Did you take the Advil and eat a snack?”
He nods.
“Good.” Making my way to his bed, I stick my hand out. “Open your mouth and lift up your tongue.”
He looks at the thermometer like it’s a foreign object, but manages to follow my directions. We wait until it beeps, and when I check it, I’m happy to see it’s at normal temperature.
“Is it high?” he asks with a hint of worry.
“No. If you had a fever before, it’s gone for now.”
He sighs. “Great. So that means that you can leave now, right?”
My head rears back. “Are you kicking me out?” I don’t let him respond. “I swear you act like nobody has ever helped you when you’ve been sick.”
“Only my mom. Besides, I haven’t been sick in years.” He shrugs.
Laying a hand on my hip, I debate whether or not to come clean about my little secret. It’s time I take credit for what I did all those years ago.
“There’s something you should know, something I never told you back in high school.”
“Uh-oh. Sounds serious,” he says, looking worried.
“Nothing bad, just a tiny secret I kept from you.” My index finger and thumb are high up, showing how small it is.
Cam shifts uncomfortably. “Okay?”
Slumping down in his chair, I recall the memory. “Remember when you had to miss classes for a week because you had the flu?”
He takes a moment and grimaces. “Yeah, that was bad. What about it?”
Sitting and placing one leg over the other, I rub some hand sanitizer over my palms.
“Remember the chicken soup Ana sent you?”
He snaps his fingers. “Yes. She came to drop it off every day till I got better.”
“That wasn’t Ana, it was me.”
His eyes widen slightly while his mouth opens and closes again and again. I’m shocked that he never noticed sooner or even at the time. Ana hates being anywhere near people who are sick.
“I knew you’d be stuck in your room upstairs the entire time because of your bitchy attitude, so I only ever saw your mom. I asked her to please tell you it was Ana who was coming by. She did tag along once or twice because I forced her to that way when you texted her to say thanks for the soup, she wouldn’t be confused or jealous of me.”
His facial features soften. “Why didn’t you tell me it was you?”
I shrug while tying my hair up into a high pony. “It seemed like something your girlfriend should’ve been doing, not me.” His mom knew why I’d asked her to lie. Elizabeth was always so kind to me, but I don’t think she ever liked Ana, in all honesty.
“Did you have a crush on me back then?” Cameron blurts out.
A loud snort escapes me. “No.” I open one of the three containers of soup I brought over from Astor Café. “I mean, I thought you were hot, everyone did. The first day we met, I kind of believed maybe there could’ve been something there, but I really needed a friend at the time.” My eyes spot his. “WhenAna and you got together, all those thoughts evaporated and stayed that way. Until a couple of months ago when, well, you know.” Cameron responds with a nod, looking absently at the wall.
“Aren’t you going to ask me ifIhad a crush onyou?” he says from the bed.
Carefully, I carry the heated soup over and sit next to him while he straightens. “I’m pretty sure I know what the answer is going to be.” My hands reach out to him, offering the container and he shakes his head. “Stop being a fucking baby and eat the damn soup.”
“I don’t like soup,” he says like a bratty child.
I huff out a breath. “Did you like the one I would bring you in high school?”
