Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 84533 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84533 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
He’s not them.
He is…everything.
The pills went down.
I coughed, chest hurting, lungs trying to squeeze the breath out of me.
“Here. Take this too. I need you to take one more.”
He gave me that one, and I took it as well.
“I got you something to help clear your lungs too.”
Got me? How could he have gotten me anything?
“I’m going to put more ice packs on you, okay?”
I didn’t know if I answered before my world went black again.
*
The next time he woke me, the scent of menthol clung to the air, filled my nose every time I breathed in. My chest felt like there was something sticky on it, and I was pretty sure it was beneath my nose too.
“I need you to take some more medication for me,” Cyrus pleaded.
The instinct was there again to say no, but…this was Cyrus. He would never hurt me. I could trust him. And if I wanted to get better for him, I needed to take them.
I opened my mouth. He placed them on my tongue and gave me another drink.
Thank you. No one has ever taken care of me before. No one has ever done this.
“Do you need to pee? We’ve just been doing it right here. I can get the container.”
I shook my head. He’d had to help me piss? Shame washed over me. I was supposed to take care of him, not the other way around…but then, that didn’t feel right. It was like some archaic law, something Chosen would have said. Wasn’t the point of loving someone that you took care of each other? That you gave each other what you needed?
“Okay…your fever is going down. I’ve alternated Tylenol and Advil, two doses of each, plus the antibiotic.”
I only remembered half of them. And antibiotics? Where had he gotten those?
“Go back to sleep, Crow. Rest will help you feel better. I’m right here. You’re going to be okay.”
I believed it because Cyrus had said it. I let the darkness take me again.
*
My bladder screamed at me to wake up. The room still smelled like menthol. The sticky stuff was still on my chest. I had no clue how much time had passed but thought it was more than I likely realized.
There was a body beside me in bed. Cyrus.
He had stayed with me, taken care of me, had—
I frowned. How had he gotten the medicine? Had he had some and I hadn’t known?
It was almost dawn. I didn’t need a clock to tell me the time, not when my head was clearer.
My legs were weak, almost giving out on me when I tried to stand. It was a slow trip to the bathroom. How long had I been sick?
I’d thought I was going to die…
I sat down to piss, then had to work up the energy to stand. The trip back to the bed was even slower. I’d been sick before in my life, but nothing like what I’d just experienced. I fell back onto the mattress, and it felt like I’d spent a day hiking rather than just going to the bathroom.
I reached for Cyrus, needing to touch him, to know he was really there. That I was still alive and with him.
My fingers brushed over something tied around his shoulder.
I frowned into the soft, orange glow beginning to sneak into the room, before sleep took me again.
*
“Hey,” Cyrus said softly as my eyes began to flutter open. “I made some soup. Do you think you can drink some of the broth?”
I swiped at my eyes, trying to clear my vision, my head, something. My whole body didn’t ache the way it had before. My chest wasn’t as tight, and I wasn’t cold.
When he was finally clear to me, not blurred around the edges, the first thing I noticed was the sling around his arm, and then the bruise beneath his eye. My heart clenched, my jaw tightened. Someone had…who the fuck had hurt him?
“How?” I bit out before coughs racked my body again, throat and chest burning.
“Hey, it’s fine. I’m okay. Settle down. The last thing you need is to work yourself up.” Cyrus held a cup out to me again, and I took long pulls, swallowing down the cold water, which helped soothe my scratchy throat.
I opened my mouth, but for the first time, Cyrus said, “Don’t talk yet. I don’t want you to get agitated.”
I rolled my eyes, though I knew he was right.
“You were so sick, Crow. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know if you were even getting enough air. There was no medication or way to check your oxygen saturation… I called Melody. She got the things I needed, then drove up as far as she could get. I took the snowmobile and met her.”
He took… He could have gotten hurt. He did get hurt. What if he’d gotten lost? He would have frozen to death, and it would have been my fault. “No. Don’t…” Fuck. The one time I wanted to speak, and I couldn’t. “You shouldn’t have.”