“Have you taken any medicine? Since when have you been sick? Last night you went to bed early. Were you sick then? Have you gone to the hospital?”
“Juliette …” she interrupts me mid ramble with an amused smile on her face, “I told you it’s just a cold. I’m fine.”
As soon as Kai told me she was sick I went to every single one of her classes and picked up her notes, along with some chicken noodle soup, a hamper of her favourite snacks and some medicine.
Fine? Fine? Her voice sounds nasally obstructed and there’s a box full of tissues near her. In my mind, that’s no worse than being on her death bed!
“It’s not fine!” I say to her. “Answer my questions please.”
“I took some medicine a few hours ago—”
“More than four?”
“Yes?”
“Well then you need to take some more.”
“You’re cute when you’re worried,” she smiles softly, sniffling, “but let’s focus on more important things, I have to tutor you—”
“You’re not Tutoring me Addie, you’re sick!” Is this girl serious? She’s bundled up under her bed covers, but she wants to talk about tutoring?
“It’s fine. You have your final biology exam soon. We need to revise.” She tries getting up, but I put a stop to that straight away.
“I’m gonna pass and if I don’t, I’m sure Mr Khalid will still send your letter off.” I try and alleviate her tensions, tucking her securely into her bed. That’s obviously why she’s so worried, she thinks her letter isn’t going to get sent off.
“Yeah well, I don’t want to take any risks, with the letter that is.” She coughs, avoiding eye contact with me.
“I said no. You’re sick,” I repeat, a little more sternly this time. I rummage through the hamper—which she told me was not necessary—and fish the notes I compiled from her classes. “Here, I know you still want to study, so I got your notes from your English class today.” I hand them to her.
“Really?” she asks astonished, she takes the notes and stares at them and back at me rapidly.
“I can do that for you, you know that right? If you’re sick, I can bring you class notes,” I grumble, a little annoyed that she’s so shocked.
Her eyes crinkle, her dimples deeper than I’ve ever seen them before. “God, I adore you.”
Not love though, you don’t love me.
I smile back at her, disregarding the ache in my chest. “I forgot to get some nasal spray. Do you have any?”
“There should be some in my drawer,” she says through her sniffles as she gets comfortable in her bed.
I take note of the painting I bought her hanging right above her bed as I open her draw. I can’t help the butterflies that swarm my stomach at the sight. I open her bedside draw, rummaging through the incessant biology accessories and packets of condoms—which I’m going to have to remind myself to throw in the bin because she won’t be needing them. Finally, I find the nasal spray, but underneath it is something more interesting.
“Wait, what’s this?” I question, grabbing the two golden pieces of card.
Her gaze drops to my hands. “Adam’s wedding invites.” She yawns loudly. “They’re for next Friday.”
“Why do you have two?”
Suddenly her face morphs into a mixture of anxiety and blush. “Yeah, Adam sort of invited you, but I swear I didn’t tell him anything.” The quick manner in which she adds the second part of the sentence makes me feel guilty.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I ask, confused.
“I knew you wouldn’t come.”
My chest aches at her resolute words. “Why is that?” I ask, while taking a seat on her bed.
“It’s a small wedding, Juliette, but people talk and they’ll know you were there,” she explains gently, clearly noticing how irritated I’m becoming.
