Page 28 of The Rocker

“What is it, Walker?” It came out harsher than intended, but I wasn’t happy about being woken up in the middle of the night on one of our few nights in a hotel.

“Shit,” he croaked out, sounding dreadful. “I’m…” he coughed and then spoke again, his voice cracking. “I’m sorry for waking you up, Pen, but I feel awful. I can’t get room service on the phone, and I can’t figure out how to make a cup of hot water with this damn coffee pot. Can you come to my room?”

My heart softened at hearing him speak and sounding so pitiful. “What are your symptoms? Surely there’s an all-night place where I can pick you up something?”

“I don’t need any medicine,” he sniffed. “A hot cup of tea or lemon water is all I need.”

I wasn’t so sure about that, but I remembered overhearing him talking to Cross earlier in the day, and he mentioned rarely taking any medications.

“I’ll come see if I can figure it out.” Maybe all he really needed was a hot cup of tea, but from the cracking in his voice and the way he sounded stuffed up, I wouldn’t bet on it.

“Thanks, Pen. That would be great. I’ll leave the door cracked, so you can get in. I need to lie down.”

Before I could tell him it wasn’t a good idea to leave his door open, Walker hung up.

Hopping out of bed, I threw on a pair of sweatpants, a tank top, and a hoodie before I was out the door and on my way down the hall to Walker’s room. There were a few noises coming from Cross and Kenton’s rooms that I tried my best to ignore. What they did was their own business as long as there weren’t any girls causing problems afterward.

I knocked on Walker’s door before I stepped inside. I didn’t think he had anyone in his room, but if he did, I hoped they were dressed.

“Come in,” he croaked out.

“You really shouldn’t leave your door open, nor should you tell anyone to just come into your room. You know that, right?” I said as I rounded the corner to where his bed sat.

Walker let out a tired breath. He had dark circles under his eyes, and he was a sickly shade of white instead of his usual olive skin tone. He looked as bad as he sounded on the phone.

Without thought, I moved across the room and sat beside him on the bed. The second my hand touched his forehead, he let out a soft sigh. Walker was burning up.

“I don’t think a cup of tea is going to fix you. You’re sick. Really sick. You need to take something to bring the fever down. I can run to the pharmacy and get you some NyQuil. It will help you sleep too.”

He shook his head as he pulled the covers up under his chill. “I don’t want to take all that shit. It’s not good for you.”

“What’s not good for you is having a high fever. You have to at least take something to bring it down. It’s why you have the chills.”

He looked up at me with sad eyes. “Can I just start with the tea and see how it goes?”

“Fine,” I gave in, hoping that once he drank his tea Walker would realize how it wasn’t the cure for what ailed him.

I went over to the other side of the room and stared down at the coffee pot. For a moment, I was too tired to figure out how to even turn it on. I swore hotels liked to make these things impossible to use in order for you to call room service or use the coffee shop they had in the lobby.

I kept my back to Walker, not wanting to look at him being all pitiful. It felt like forever as I waited for the water to heat up and pour into the tiny cup. I steeped the tea bag into the hot liquid as I walked back over to the bed.

“I’m sorry they don’t have honey.” I was sure most hotels didn’t expect their guests to be sick while staying. Walker was a singer and liked to have tea with honey in it, so from now on, I’d keep honey on me just in case.

“This will be fine. Thanks.” He took the cup from me and blew on the hot tea before he took a sip.

“I don’t know how you do it. I have to have sugar in my tea, or it just tastes… dry,” I shuddered to even think about drinking non-sweet tea.

One corner of his mouth tipped up before he continued to drink more of his disgusting tea.

“If that is all, I’ll go back to my room now.” I looked down to see I’d forgotten shoes in my haste. I was lucky I’d gotten fully dressed with how quickly I’d left my room. What did that say about me?

“Can you stay with me for a little bit? I promise I won’t try to hit on your or anything like that.” He looked up at me with his big, black eyes that pleaded with me to stay.

Personally, I liked to be left alone when I was sick, but I knew some people didn’t. I understood there was no one else that could come sit by his side while he was sick. It made me wonder about his family. If he wanted me to stay, then I was going to ask questions.

“Sure,” I sat down on the bed and crossed my legs Indian-style, getting as comfortable as I could with Walker only being a foot away. “If you were home right now, who would be taking care of you?”

Walker lowered his tea and looked at me for a long moment. “I probably would have called you.”

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