"Rise and shine!" Nick yelled, busting into the guestroom the next morning.
Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I looked over at the alarm clock beside the bed. 6:15. I threw the pillow over my head in a desprate attempt to get back to sleep.
Come on girlie! We gotta go to school!" he whined, letting himself fal to the bed beside me.
"I’m not going."
"Why’s that?" he asked, pulling my hair out of my face.
"Don’t feel good…at all."
"Well, to be quite honest, you don’t look so good."
"Do I look as bad as I feel?"
"Nah, you just look extremely tired. Lemme go call Mom, she’s already at work because she had to go in early. Be back in a second."
"Okay," I yawned. I hadn’t got any sleep that night. I couldn’t shake all the sympathy I got and the things I saw the other night. It was all still surreal. Every part of my body ached, I was stopped up, I felt like I was going to upchuck, dizzy, and not to mention dead tired.
"Okay," he said, sitting on the edge of the bed, "here’s the deal. Mom said stay home, and since she wont be home until around 11:00 tonight, I get to stay and take care of ya!"
I nodded.
"Well, I’ll let you sleep. I’ll be in my room, and if you need anything whatsoever, just holler."
"Alright, thanks." I heard the door shut and I was out like a light. I didn’t wake up again until 11:15. I stumbled into the bathroom and took a long hot shower. When I got out, I slapped on some makeup where I wouldn’t look AS bad, and threw my hair up in a sopping wet pony tail. I walked over to Nick’s room and knocked on the door, just in case he was changing or something. He yelled at me to come in through the door, so I opened the door slowly. He was doing what he was always doing – playing Nintendo.
"Good morning!" he smiled, putting the game on pause and getting up. "How ya feeling?"
"A little better I guess," I answered.
"Well, that’s a start. Lets go downstairs and get some drugs in ya and then we can lay on the couch and watch TV."
"Sounds good to me!" I agreed. So I followed him down the stairs, took some Tylenol and a bunch of other stuff I can’t even begin to remember much less list, and we crashed on the couch.
"This is the life!" he laughed, throwing himself on the couch and grabbing the remote. "I say you get sick everyday!"
"I hear that!" I replied back with one of those puny, my-nose-is-stuffed-up voices.
He laughed. "You’re so cute when you get sick!"
"That’s always good to know!" I replied sarcastically, sitting down beside him on the couch. He flipped through the channels until he got to HBO. Ghost was on, so he made me watch it for the four hundredth time in my life. I ended up falling asleep in the middle of it. It’s literally IMPOSSIBLE to stay awake during a movie you’ve seen more than three times, no lie.
I didn’t wake up until 5:45. I had managed to sleep all day, practically. As far as Nick goes, he was asleep to. Dead asleep. Snoring, grunting, the whole nine yards. Ghost had been long over, and now Grump Old Men was on, so I preoccupied myself by watching that for a while until he woke up at 6:30.
"I’m awake, really!" he yawned, rubbing his eyes. "Uh, yeah!" I laughed, rubbing his head and messing his hair up even worse than it had been. "When’s you’re mom supposed to get home, do you know?"
"She said probably not until around eleven," he answered. "So we’ve got the house to ourselves until then."
"What about the rest of the Carter clan?"
"Grandma’s got Aaron and Angel for the night, and Leslie and BJ are at rehearsal for the play at school."
"Ohhh, okay, gotcha!"
"So, feeling any better?"
"Actually, yeah."
"Good. You need any more Tylenol or anything?"
I shook my head. "Nope, thanks. I’m fine."
"Alright. Hey…how ‘bout we get some fresh air out on the dock?"
"Sounds good. Do I need shoes?"
"Nah…I’ll give you a piggy back ride out there!" he laughed.
"Man…you are EVIL!" I joked, not being able to hold back a laugh.