Bennett is there, gently lifting my head and putting another pillow behind me. “Good girl,” he says. “I need you to take one of these before you fall back asleep.”
I nod as he turns the cap on an orange pill bottle. “I can’t have amoxicillin,” I tell him.
“I know,” he says in a soothing voice that feels like a pat on the head. “Our moms made us memorize each other’s allergies before we went on that trip with my dad to Ontario, remember?”
I do, vaguely. They didn’t trust his dad to know the important details, I think.
The pill takes two tries to swallow because my throat is so dry, but once it’s down, the water feels so good. I gulp until there’s nothing left.
“Eat a cracker for me,” he says. “It’s the buttery ones you like.”
He laughs softly and I think I’m frowning again.
“What are we supposed to do with all this shit?” he asks.
“You told me to be thorough.” I think it’s Julian.
“That bitch loves shopping,” I mumble.
The next time I wake up, I am dizzy and hot and everything feels too close and too much.
I sit up and manage to swing my legs over the edge of the bed.
“Clo?” Bennett asks somewhere behind me, but nowhe’sthe sleepy one.
“I’m going to take a shower,” I announce.
I use the wall facing my side of the bed to stand up, but my legs feel a little like jelly.
The room is suddenly brighter.
“Not the big light,” I tell him as I squint against the harshness of the overhead light.
He’s at my side with an arm around my waist. “Let’s save the shower for when you’re feeling a little better.”
“I need it now. It’s too hot.” And it is. I want the feeling of a cold drink of water, but all over my body.
I move toward the door and use the bed to steady myself.
“So fucking stubborn,” he mutters.
Some drawers open and close behind me.
The hallway is quiet and still until he runs up beside me with his arms full.
“You know you don’t have pants on, right?” he asks.
“They were in the way.”
The bathroom is gender neutral, so the showers are little stalls with doors instead of curtains.
Bennett leaves me to sit on a bench while he runs into the first free stall with some of my things.
He comes back out and helps me up. “I’ll wait just out here.”
I nod and close the door behind me. The shower is already going and I reach my fingers out to find that it’s nice and cool but not freezing.
It takes some wrestling, but I’m out of my shirt a few moments later. The effort makes me dizzy and I step into the shower’s spray with my underwear and bra still on. My legs are tired of being legs, so I let them take a break and plop myself onto the wet tile, taking down some bottles in the process.
