Page 55 of Eye of the Hurricane
“We’re going to head out early. Kat isn’t feeling great, so I’m gonna pack up,” he announces as he walks towards our friends where they’re gathered in lawn chairs in the late morning sun. He turns his attention to Luna. “Do you want to ride with us?” he asks.
“You’re welcome to ride back with us if you want to hang out,” Audra offers.
“Or us,” Beck chimes in.
Luna looks towards me with concern, trying to judge if she needs to pull on her mother hen persona to take care of me. I give her a small shake of my head, as much as I can manage without the world spinning and look towards Ares. She nods and turns back towards Audra.
“I’ll hang out then,” she says, plucking a marshmallow from the bag and popping it in her mouth. The idea of eatinganything churns my stomach and I have to look away from her.
That wastheworstcar ride of my life. I thought crying this morning about not being seen in the best light would be the highlight of the day, but I really put the cherry on top by having Ares pull over for me to throw up. Not once, but twice.
I’ve never been so happy to be pulling into my driveway in my life. I haven’t had a proper shower in days, I’ve been throwing up all morning, and my head is absolutely throbbing.
Ares helps me in the house by carrying all of my things. Normally I’d give some push back but I’m so weak from being sick all morning that I just let him. I don’t think I could have done it if I wanted to.
I flop myself on the couch with a loud groan. A ball of black fuzz hops into my lap and settles on my stomach.
“Honey, you’re so pale. I’m not sure you’re just hungover,” Ares says, sitting next to me.
Bellatrix stands and hops into his lap. “Hi, Bells,” he greets her, giving her a little scratch on the head. She purrs loudly.
“You think I’m sick?”
“I definitely think you might be,” he says, planting a kiss on my forehead. At first, I think he’s just being sweet. That is, until he looks at me with a sympathetic look in his eye.
“You’ve got a fever.”Shit.
“No. No, no, no. I don’t have time to be sick,” I whine.
I open my phone and look at my calendar. Meetings all day tomorrow with Jacob. “Ares, classes pick back up tomorrow. I can’t be sick,” I remind him. His lips tug to one side.
“Sorry, honey. I’m not so sure that the flu cares if you have time for it.”
I look over my calendar again and the stress only rises. These are not things I can move around.
“I have to be better for tomorrow,” I sigh.
“I’ll stay here and take care of you. We’ll worry about tomorrow when it comes, okay?” he asks.
“What? No. Not okay. You can’t miss class any more than I can.”
“Who said anything about missing class? I’m going to get up and go to class as planned. I have a whole carload of things, thanks to the camping trip,” he explains.
“I can take care of myself,” I state defensively.
“I know,” he says, standing up and pulling me to my feet. “Bath or shower?” he asks.
Now I’m the one staring at him like he’s grown a second head.
“What?”
“Bath or shower? Getting clean and something in your system is the only thing that’s going to help you feel better, so what’ll it be?” Ares’ tone is somewhere between stern parent and overly happy game show host. I’d laugh in his face if I didn’t think I’d lose the contents of my stomach for the fourth time today.
I don’t have the energy to fight with him, so I close my eyes and lean into Bellatrix’s comfort before answering, “Shower.”
He nods and walks to my bathroom to turn on thewater.
“The shower’s gotta warm up, but I’ll get you a towel and pajamas in the meantime. Where are they?”
