Chapter 12|You look like hell

I woke up the next morning feeling like hell. I was cold, shivering even, but my face was a sheen of sweat. My hair was sticking to my forehead, I felt dizzy and nauseous.

The whole reason I woke up in the first place was because I heard a knock on the door.

I groaned, rolling off the couch with a thud. I half stumbled half crawled to the door, managing to haul myself up to a semi standing position. I yanked on the handle, which was unsurprisingly unlocked. I tended to forget to lock the door at night.

The opened door revealed none other than my beautiful neighbour. I was a little surprised, considering I thought it would be Tara, telling me to hurry my ass up and get her to school.

"Hey sunshine, I thought I should apologise for being-" He stopped when his eyes reached my face. "Woah, you look like hell."

"Thanks," I said sarcastically, but it came out funny, due to my stuffy nose. He was right too, I did probably look like hell, actually I probably looked like I was about to start a zombie apocalypse.

"Are you okay?" He asked seriously.

"I'm fine," I replied, trying to convince him, as well as myself that I was okay. That didn't exactly work out the way I'd wanted it too because a few moments later I started to get dizzy. My eyes glazed over and my head started to spin. I had that scary sensation you get when you're falling, if he hadn't caught me I would've hit my head on the wooden floor.

"Well that confirmed my suspicions that you're actually not okay," he said, steadying me with his arm. He brought his spare hand up to my face, pressing his palm to my forehead.

"Dammit sunshine, you're forehead's burning," he grumbled. "Look, I'm no expert, but my mom will know what to do."

He scooped me up bridal style, and I clung onto his neck for dear life as he briskly walked the short distance between our houses. Once inside he gently set me down on the couch in the living room.

"Don't move, I'll be right back."

That was a pretty easy command to follow, seeing as I wasn't sure I could move anyway.

Ryan returned a few minutes later with his mom. She was dressed like she was about to leave for work.

"Oh you poor thing," she said upon seeing me.

The first thing she did was take my temperature, which turned out to be one hundred and three. Apparently That's too hot. Then she ordered Ryan around, telling him to get stuff like blankets, pillows and towels.

I was made to lie down and a pillow was placed under my head. My hair was smoothed out so that it was no longer plastered to my face, a lukewarm towel was placed on my forehead, and a light blanket was draped over me.

I had my eyes closed, but I was vaguely aware that Ryan and his mom were still there. Their conversation went something like this;

"I have to go now, blah blah, keep her hydrated, blah blah, give her soup, yada yada, check her temperature every hour, yada yada, call me if you need anything, love you bye."

Well that's what I heard anyway, my accuracy probably wasn't exactly on point.

I heard a door slam, and then a loud sigh. The couch dipped next to my shoulder, as Ryan tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and began stroking my hair soothingly.

I hope it was Ryan. Maybe they have a pet ghost. Casper? Is that you?

"What am I going to do with you?" He whispered. Then I fell asleep.

~*~*~*~*~

The next time I woke up there was a second person in the room, I couldn't recognise the voice.

"Dude! Why is your booty call in our living room?"

What booty call? Wait, wait, wait, hold on a second. Is he talking about me?

"She's not a booty call, you asshole."

"I know. I just wanted to see her reaction."

See my reaction? You've got to be kidding. That boy is asking for it.

I cracked both my eyes open, blinking a couple of times to adjust to the light.

"You wanna see my reaction?" I asked croakily.

The guy, who looked quite similar to Ryan, but with less defined facial features and about a weeks worth of beard on his chin, grinned.

"C'mere then," I said, smiling weakly.

He stepped closer to me, and I almost grinned when he stood exactly in the right place.

He looked at me expectantly.

I pointed my toes and ballerina kicked him in the family jewels. He groaned, doubling over in pain.

"Sunshine, that wasn't very nice."

I looked up to see Ryan, who was trying very hard to keep a straight face.

"He had it coming," I mumbled, yawning, and closing my eyes again.

"Wait, stop, you can't go back to sleep yet."

"Wha...why?"

"I have to take your temperature," he said, grabbing the thermometer.

I pouted. I don't like thermometers.

"Don't make that face sunshine, it's not gonna help your case."

I pouted more as he stuck the thermometer under my tongue.

He sighed, taking the thermometer back and studying it.

"You're too adorable for your own good," he murmured. I probably wasn't supposed to hear that. "But you still have a temperature."

He waved the thermometer past my face, it said one hundred and one, which I guess was an improvement.

Ryan removed the towel from my forehead.

"I'll be right back, try not to kill my brother, sunshine."

"What? Why would I try to kill Archie?"

He stopped, spinning around with a smirk. "Not that brother, that one," he pointed to the guy struggling for breath on the floor.

"You've got to be kidding me," I sniffed, as Ryan retreated to the kitchen.

"Nice to meet you too, I'm Evan" he grunted, rolling to sit on his butt.

"Hazel."

"So who are you?"

"I'm Hazel, pretty sure we already established that." Like, duh. Is he deaf?

"I know that. But how do you my baby brother?"

Baby brother? Wow really?

"I'm your neighbour, and we're friends...I think."

I frowned thinking about it. Were we friends? I was friends with Tara and my relationship with Ryan was nothing like that.

"You think?" Evan questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know... it's complicated."

Evan studied me. "Sounds like you're scared to me."

"Scared? Of what?"

"I don't know, you tell me."

I shook my head in disbelief. Who does this guy think he is?

"Look, I'm not scared, I just have baggage."

He laughed. He flat out laughed at me.

"Everyone has baggage, Hazel, even my baby brother has a few things he prefers not to share with people."

I had never felt like Ryan was hiding anything before, and now his brother was making me doubt myself. Maybe some of the things he said about me were true though. Maybe I was scared. But what was I scared of? Rejection? Maybe a was scared that people would start to distance themselves from me once they knew my full story. Could it just be people in general that I was scared of? The people in my life usually tended to exist but never mean anything, or make an effort to mean something to me. They tended to just not care. The only people who I could always count on were Tara and Caleb. Tara was always there, although Caleb couldn't be. Not even my dad was reliable because he was practically my moms wingman and way too passive. All my life people had just come and gone as they pleased, maybe I was scared that if I ever got involved with someone, they would just leave.

It didn't occur to me that Evan was still in the room, and watching me like a creep as I mentally processed everything that he just said.

He cleared his throat, snapping me out of my daydream.

"That was a good chat, Hazel Harper, but I'm going to go and ice my balls now."

I stared at him as he exited the room.

I didn't tell him my full name did I? Then how did he..? Nope, I'm just not going to even ask. Talking to him seemed create more questions than it gave answers.

Ryan returned with the towel, and a glass of water. He placed the towel back on my forehead.

"Sorry I took so long, I stubbed my toe, then I had to find a band aid. The only ones we had were Spider-Man, see," he lifted up his foot to show me his big toe, wrapped in a bright red and blue band aid with a cartoon Spider-Man on it.

"Oh, wow that sure is something."

"Blue is definitely my colour," he winked, causing me to roll my eyes. "So I see you didn't kill Evan."

"Yeah, he was too far away, and there was no way I was moving. Do you know what he reminds me of?"

"What?"

"A caveman."

"He's ugly as hell when he doesn't shave. It's a wonder he doesn't scare his clients away."

"Clients?"

"Oh yeah, he's a psychologist."

"That actually makes a lot of sense."

"Jesus, what did he say? Do I need to kick his ass?"

I shook my head. "No, he just seems..."

"Psychologist-y?"

"Psychologist-y," I confirmed.

He nodded, "I know what you mean. Are you thirsty?"

I shrugged, so he passed me the glass of water anyway. I took a sip, which was fine until I had to swallow.

I covered my mouth with my hand, shaking my head frantically. Ryan seemed to get the message because he was quick to his feet, steering me in the direction of the bathroom.

He held my hair as I emptied the contents of my stomach into the toilet. It wasn't a one hit wonder either. No, I vomited until tears were streaming down my cheeks and all all I was bringing up was stomach acid which burned my throat.

When I finally stopped throwing up, I was already sitting on the floor, leaning against the bath. I wiped my mouth with my sleeve. I was exhausted, and shaking. Ryan came and sat next to me, and I leant my head on his shoulder.

"Lets never do this again," he said.

"Deal," I replied.

We sat in silence for a while, but the air was kinda tense, like Ryan wanted to say something.

It must've been clawing at him for long time because eventually he just came out with it.

"I shouldn't have dropped you in the water like that."

I stared in disbelief. "You seriously think this is your fault?"

"Of course it is. If I hadn't dropped you, your head wouldn't of gotten wet, and you wouldn't be sick right now."

"Look, it was my idea in the first place, and if you hadn't dropped me in the water I would have probably dived under anyway, so stop beating yourself up about it."

"It's still my fault."

"You're just too stubborn. But here, if you're that hung up about it then, yes it was your fault but I forgive you because you're taking care of me and holding my hair while I puke. Happy?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Because that didn't make you better."

I sighed. "You really are stubborn, you know that?"

"I've been told."

"You know you're probably going to get sick from looking after me, right?"

"Good. Then you can take care of me," he wiggled his eyebrows.

My eyelids started getting heavy, and I yawned loudly. "You're unbelievable."

"So are you," he whispered, before I was completely in dreamland.

The next time I woke up I was back on the couch again. I actually felt a lot better than I had before, which was a relief because I was starting to think that curling up in a ball and dying was a better option than continually throwing up.

"Hey there sleepy head, how are you feeling?" It wasn't Ryan's voice. I looked up to see Mrs Martinez.

I smiled. "Better."

She returned my smile. "Good, you feel up to joining us for dinner?"

"I guess."

~*~*~*~*~

After dinner I decided to go home, even though Mrs Martinez protested, I thought it would be best to be there if my parents miraculously appeared. Not that I actually thought they would, but I would rather not explain to them why I was hanging out with our hot neighbour, instead of going to school.

I didn't get much sleep that night because I lay awake thinking about things that Evan had said. What could Ryan possibly be hiding? was he adopted? No, that wouldn't make sense, mainly because he looked a lot like his mom. Did he smoke? Probably not, I'd never smelt smoke on him, plus I still had his hoody which should've smelt smoky if he was a smoker. It was safe to say I could rule that one out. I had my own perception of who Ryan was, but a few things remained clouded. Why was he so protective? He hadn't known me for that long, yet he looked after me when I was sick, and practically had a heart attack when he couldn't find me in the water. He said that he was scared that the people he loved would die, that he would lose them. Well, I guess we're all scared of losing our loved ones, but it's not exactly like we can predict or prevent it, so we usually don't think about it until it happens. Had something happened to someone in his past? Something traumatic maybe? And what about his father? He was clearly a great man, and a great influence on Ryan, but where was he? I'd never seen him in person, I'd never seen him enter or leave the house, so where was he? Then there was Erika. How did she fit into all of this? She seemed perfectly incompatible, unreliable, dishonest. Lets just be honest here, she was a bitch. Why did Ryan date her for so long? Something about her gave me the chills, and consequences, she said that Ryan would have broken up with her no matter the consequences. Did she gave dirt on him? And if so, what? Maybe she was blackmailing him.

All the questions swirling around in my head only made me more curious.

I will figure out the puzzle that is Ryan Martinez, just watch me.

~*~*~*~*~

I'm a little bit horrified right now because my story has just been added to a reading list named 'boyxboy'. It definitely doesn't belong under that category, otherwise I would've stated that at the beginning of the book. I do appreciate all of your support, but I don't appreciate my story being labelled as something it's not.

Sorry about that rant. I do believe on happy endings, so we must end on a happy note.

I just wrote another chapter. Whoop, whoop!

Until next time.