Opposites Do Not Attract
Sick, But Ok
Ash’s POV
I stared at the clock as I wished for the minutes to go past faster. The colon that separated the hours from the minutes on the analog clock kept flashing as time seemed to slow down as the seconds past. Those orange numbers were basically burned into my mind by now. I had already started overthinking the whole idea and design of clocks, eventually wandering to the whole concept of numbers. Strange things they were; all numbers you could possibly think of, just made out of the same nine symbols in different orders, over and over again. And then there was our number system. Who even thought of making a minute 60 seconds long and an hour 60 minutes long, but a day only 24 hours long. Why only go up to 60 if we usually go up in tens for other everyday things. It just didn’t make sense to me. The longer I thought about things, the stranger they actually became.
Now, you might ask what’s got me thinking all this. Well, I’ll happily tell you. First of all, I’ll calm your nerves and suspicions, there wasn’t anything seriously wrong with me. I just happened to get sick a couple of days after we came back from our school trip. It started out as me just simply sneezing occasionally, but then all the other flu symptoms started showing up as well. I felt like literal shit. So, while I was at home, everybody else was able to go to school. I was just waiting for the clock to strike four o’clock, meaning that Alex would be back home. Being sick and not being able to do anything really was the worst.
There are different stages of being ill. One is just mild symptoms that don’t affect your daily life all too much other than feeling a bit under the weather. Then there is that type which makes you feel pretty bad, but not bad enough to miss an important class at school (even though most people would still take advantage of it). The next stage was feeling sick enough to stay home, but you’re still able to do some stuff. Then the stage I was in, feeling too bad to even think of doing something productive. The last stage was obviously for very serious cases, which I definitely wasn’t.
All I had been doing for the past couple of days was sleeping other times I just stayed in my bed, staring at whatever was in front of me. I only left to go to the bathroom and to occasionally eat something. Being sick always made me have weird eating patterns. I could eat nothing for a while, feeling like I was actually going to be sick if I was even around food, and at other times I would raid the entire kitchen. Right now I was in the raid-the-kitchen mood. Maybe it would make the next 15 minutes go past faster as well. It was a Friday, so it meant that some more people would be coming over for the monthly movie-watching and sleepover party was going to happen. I didn’t know who exactly was going to come, and I wasn’t sure I was going to participate either, I was just going to have to wait and see.
I slowly got out of my bed, dragging myself out of my blanket burrito. Nobody was at home, not even Alex’s mom, making me long for the time Alex was going to come back even more. As soon as I got to the kitchen, I tried to find something I felt like eating, something I was craving. Many of the cupboards had good food in them, however, I had already rummaged through them too often before, there wasn’t anything that made my heart jump from looking at something you love. However, as soon as I got to the fridge, I suddenly had an idea.
Alex had once taught me how to make grilled cheese. Just thinking about it already made my mouth water. So, I got out the pan, the butter, the cheese, and the bread. In no time, butter was being spread, cheese was being melted, and an overwhelming delicious smell wafted through the kitchen. I was so ready to eat it. After I turned off the gas, I put the finished grilled cheese onto a plate and went to put all the stuff I used back again.
Little did I know that the front door had opened and there was now a group of people here.
When I turned around Alex was holding my food, taking a large bit out of it while leaning against the counter.
“No,” I whined and pouted as he gave me an evil smirk, “that’s my grilled cheese!”
He shrugged and winked at me, taking another bite. “This is really good, who taught you how to make these? Oh, wait! That’s me!”
“I was planning on eating that, though…”
He walked away with one last cheeky smile, knowing that I wasn’t actually upset with him. Of course, I was bummed out, but I just couldn’t get mad at him over something like this. That would just be stupid. I could always make another one in no time, it only took around five minutes in total. Plus, there was a chance he would get sick from eating something I prepared, so that would be payback enough for me.
I was about to go make myself a new one when I suddenly saw Jack walking past the doorway. He didn’t seem to realize I was there, so I called out his name excitedly, “Jacky!”
Immediately perking up, he turned and dramatically ran up to me. “Ashy!”
He quickly wrapped his arms around me in a strong embrace, and I didn’t hesitate to hug him back. Although he was so tall and lanky, I still thought he was able to give some of the best hugs out there. Not only were they comforting, but they’d often lead to something weird and funny happening as well, just like the one time we fell over in the hallway together.
“How are you doing?” He kissed the top of my head, looking down at me while I was only wearing a pair of sweats and an oversized sweater, my hair up in a messy bun.
“I mean, my nose is red; my eyes are watery; I feel like I’ve taken an unhealthy amount of medicine; and Alex has stolen my grilled cheese sandwich. Yes, I think I’m great.”
“I’ll be nice and not ask you to make me grilled cheese as well, just being you need some extra love. Your best friend Jack is here to cheer you up!”
I rolled my eyes, “you know I’d offer to make you one, but I don’t want to risk you getting sick. You should probably stop hugging me as well.”
“And you don’t mind if Alex gets sick now because he’s eating something you made?” He
raised an eyebrow up at me, chuckling at how protective I was of him.
“Sucks to be him.”
He let go of me and shook his head. “Well, I’ll better get going back to the others before they start thinking dirty things are going on in here.”
“Are you telling me there aren’t any dirty things going on in here?” I smirked a grabbed a new knife to spread butter on the two slices of bread.
“Other than you coughing, no there isn’t.”
He skipped away to join the others, which included Rian, Zack, and Lianne (Harper had to stay at home once again because she had to babysit her brother since her parents had had another fall out). I stayed in the kitchen, planning on making this grilled cheese and then hang out with my friends for a bit before going to bed early. However, Alex came in, once again interrupting my plans.
He wrapped his arms around my waist while I was trying to flip the sandwich in the pan. While his body was pressed up against mine, he kissed my cheek, as if he was apologizing for what he had done before.
“What are you doing?” He whispered, kissing my cheek again, hugging me tighter.
“Making a grilled cheese sandwich because you ate the last one I made and I was planning on eating it,” I said as if I was mad at him for doing that, like him doing it had pissed me off completely.
But it didn’t faze Alex. “It did taste really good, though.”
“It better have,” I grumbled.
“Are you really mad at me?”
I chuckled at put the freshly made food on the plate from before, hoping nobody was going to steal it from me this time and turned around in Alex’s hold. His bottom lip was sticking out, trying to guilt trip me by pouting. I couldn’t help the big grin that formed on my face as I put both of my hands on his cheeks and kissed him, knowing that none of our friends would be able to see what was going on. This was the one reason why I wasn’t afraid of Alex getting sick because of me. At first, I refused to kiss him, but he just kept doing it. If there was one reason why he would also get the flu, it would have been because he just couldn’t keep his lips from mine.
“I love you.” He mumbled against my lips as we both pulled away.
I didn’t reply and instead gave him a quick peck. There was always a hint of disappointment in Alex’s eyes when I didn’t say it back. Of course, he always hoped that I would be able to say those three words as well, but I wasn’t ready yet, and he understood. I could feel that it wasn’t going to take much longer, though. With the way I could feel my heart flutter every time I was around him, I knew that it was going to happen sooner than later.
“Are you going to join us for movie night?” He asked me as he let me go so I could finally eat something.
I shrugged and took a bite of the delicious bread held together by molten cheese. “I dunno. I’ll hang out with you guys for a bit now, but I think I’ll just go to bed after that.”
“Please join us,” he gave me puppy dog eyes, “we were going to start the movie now anyway so we can watch several.”
“But I’ll fall asleep in no time. The plot won’t even have started yet and I will be out like a light,” I whined.
“I’ll bring you up to your bed if you do fall asleep.”
“Ok, fine.”
----
Alex’s POV
I took hold of Ash’s hand and brought her downstairs with me. Jack and Lianne were already arguing with Rian and Zack about which movie to watch. They really wanted to watch Home Alone, while the more sensible were groaning about not wanting to see that again. I decided to interrupt their bickering by announcing that I had convinced Ash to join us. Lianne immediately sighed in relief knowing that she wasn’t the only girl, and Jack also seemed to be very excited. He really turned into a goofball whenever Ash was around, not that he wasn’t ever not a goofball, but it just got even worse when she was around.
I sat back down on my seat, which was on the couch, which Jack had claimed the opposite end on. With Zack and Rian having claimed the other couch and Lianne sitting on the floor, Ash decided to curl up next to me. Eventually, she decided she was more comfortable with her head on my lap and her feet on Jack’s, taking up the remained of the couch.
“Oh, so he get’s head, but I don’t?” Jack whined, pointing at Ash who was in my lap. Other than the first time she ever joined for our movie night, I didn’t feel uncomfortable and the need to think of other things so nothing would go wrong. She was still as beautiful as ever, but that wasn’t my intention anymore.
“I’m sorry, Jacky,” Ash giggled in response, “I’ll promise to give it to you later.”
“I think that will actually emotionally scar me.”
I completely trusted Ash and Jack around each other now. When I knew for sure that neither of them had feelings for each other, I didn’t even care how close they were. They had actually gotten closer since the trip, when they had cleared up everything, becoming each other’s best friends -- they might have even been getting as close as Jack and I were. The only reason why I was fully ok with it was because I actually asked Jack about his feelings. I had told him he had to be honest about it, even though I still had a slight crush on her (of course it had completely turned into something else, but he didn’t know). The only thing that made him uncomfortable was the fact that I still had feelings. No, not because he also had them, but because he was worried about Ash. He didn’t want me making her feel uncomfortable. However, I told him that I had it under control. Little did he know how under control I actually had it.
We eventually settled on some comedy, completely ignore Jack’s arguments about why we had to watch Home Alone. As she had predicted, Ash had fallen asleep before stuff actually started happening in the movie. Although she tried her best to keep her eyes open, they just kept slowly closing until she succumbed to her exhaustion. I let my fingers calming run through her hair as she was breathing softly, occasionally making cute small noises.
When the movie ended, I brought Ash up to her room just like I had promised. I tried my best not to hit any walls or fall down the stairs as I was holding her bridal style. Somehow I managed to do it all without waking her up. I put her down on one side of her bed, moving the covers off the other half, before tucking her in. After kissing her forehead, I muttered the three words only I was able to say and went back downstairs before the others got suspicious.
“Hey, dude, you ok?” Jack asked me as I entered the dark basement again.
“Yeah, why?” I jumped back onto the couch, hoping they hadn’t noticed anything going on between me and Ash. As much as I wanted to make our relationship public, I wasn’t going to do anything without her being ok with it.
“Just checking.”
“I mean, you did just eat a sandwich prepared by somebody who’s sick,” Rian added, laughing at the way I had been acting before.
“I really don’t care if I get sick,” I told them, knowing the chance was pretty high, “at least it would mean I’d finally get some time to work on that last song for our EP so we can send it out to some record labels.”
“It better be the best fucking song that will sell us to all the record labels!” Zack triumphed.
“Trust me, guys,” Lianne piped up--I had almost forgotten she was there since she was lying on the floor with a pillow, “they will want to sign you, and if they don’t I’ll personally go punch a bitch like Jack put it.”
I stared at the clock as I wished for the minutes to go past faster. The colon that separated the hours from the minutes on the analog clock kept flashing as time seemed to slow down as the seconds past. Those orange numbers were basically burned into my mind by now. I had already started overthinking the whole idea and design of clocks, eventually wandering to the whole concept of numbers. Strange things they were; all numbers you could possibly think of, just made out of the same nine symbols in different orders, over and over again. And then there was our number system. Who even thought of making a minute 60 seconds long and an hour 60 minutes long, but a day only 24 hours long. Why only go up to 60 if we usually go up in tens for other everyday things. It just didn’t make sense to me. The longer I thought about things, the stranger they actually became.
Now, you might ask what’s got me thinking all this. Well, I’ll happily tell you. First of all, I’ll calm your nerves and suspicions, there wasn’t anything seriously wrong with me. I just happened to get sick a couple of days after we came back from our school trip. It started out as me just simply sneezing occasionally, but then all the other flu symptoms started showing up as well. I felt like literal shit. So, while I was at home, everybody else was able to go to school. I was just waiting for the clock to strike four o’clock, meaning that Alex would be back home. Being sick and not being able to do anything really was the worst.
There are different stages of being ill. One is just mild symptoms that don’t affect your daily life all too much other than feeling a bit under the weather. Then there is that type which makes you feel pretty bad, but not bad enough to miss an important class at school (even though most people would still take advantage of it). The next stage was feeling sick enough to stay home, but you’re still able to do some stuff. Then the stage I was in, feeling too bad to even think of doing something productive. The last stage was obviously for very serious cases, which I definitely wasn’t.
All I had been doing for the past couple of days was sleeping other times I just stayed in my bed, staring at whatever was in front of me. I only left to go to the bathroom and to occasionally eat something. Being sick always made me have weird eating patterns. I could eat nothing for a while, feeling like I was actually going to be sick if I was even around food, and at other times I would raid the entire kitchen. Right now I was in the raid-the-kitchen mood. Maybe it would make the next 15 minutes go past faster as well. It was a Friday, so it meant that some more people would be coming over for the monthly movie-watching and sleepover party was going to happen. I didn’t know who exactly was going to come, and I wasn’t sure I was going to participate either, I was just going to have to wait and see.
I slowly got out of my bed, dragging myself out of my blanket burrito. Nobody was at home, not even Alex’s mom, making me long for the time Alex was going to come back even more. As soon as I got to the kitchen, I tried to find something I felt like eating, something I was craving. Many of the cupboards had good food in them, however, I had already rummaged through them too often before, there wasn’t anything that made my heart jump from looking at something you love. However, as soon as I got to the fridge, I suddenly had an idea.
Alex had once taught me how to make grilled cheese. Just thinking about it already made my mouth water. So, I got out the pan, the butter, the cheese, and the bread. In no time, butter was being spread, cheese was being melted, and an overwhelming delicious smell wafted through the kitchen. I was so ready to eat it. After I turned off the gas, I put the finished grilled cheese onto a plate and went to put all the stuff I used back again.
Little did I know that the front door had opened and there was now a group of people here.
When I turned around Alex was holding my food, taking a large bit out of it while leaning against the counter.
“No,” I whined and pouted as he gave me an evil smirk, “that’s my grilled cheese!”
He shrugged and winked at me, taking another bite. “This is really good, who taught you how to make these? Oh, wait! That’s me!”
“I was planning on eating that, though…”
He walked away with one last cheeky smile, knowing that I wasn’t actually upset with him. Of course, I was bummed out, but I just couldn’t get mad at him over something like this. That would just be stupid. I could always make another one in no time, it only took around five minutes in total. Plus, there was a chance he would get sick from eating something I prepared, so that would be payback enough for me.
I was about to go make myself a new one when I suddenly saw Jack walking past the doorway. He didn’t seem to realize I was there, so I called out his name excitedly, “Jacky!”
Immediately perking up, he turned and dramatically ran up to me. “Ashy!”
He quickly wrapped his arms around me in a strong embrace, and I didn’t hesitate to hug him back. Although he was so tall and lanky, I still thought he was able to give some of the best hugs out there. Not only were they comforting, but they’d often lead to something weird and funny happening as well, just like the one time we fell over in the hallway together.
“How are you doing?” He kissed the top of my head, looking down at me while I was only wearing a pair of sweats and an oversized sweater, my hair up in a messy bun.
“I mean, my nose is red; my eyes are watery; I feel like I’ve taken an unhealthy amount of medicine; and Alex has stolen my grilled cheese sandwich. Yes, I think I’m great.”
“I’ll be nice and not ask you to make me grilled cheese as well, just being you need some extra love. Your best friend Jack is here to cheer you up!”
I rolled my eyes, “you know I’d offer to make you one, but I don’t want to risk you getting sick. You should probably stop hugging me as well.”
“And you don’t mind if Alex gets sick now because he’s eating something you made?” He
raised an eyebrow up at me, chuckling at how protective I was of him.
“Sucks to be him.”
He let go of me and shook his head. “Well, I’ll better get going back to the others before they start thinking dirty things are going on in here.”
“Are you telling me there aren’t any dirty things going on in here?” I smirked a grabbed a new knife to spread butter on the two slices of bread.
“Other than you coughing, no there isn’t.”
He skipped away to join the others, which included Rian, Zack, and Lianne (Harper had to stay at home once again because she had to babysit her brother since her parents had had another fall out). I stayed in the kitchen, planning on making this grilled cheese and then hang out with my friends for a bit before going to bed early. However, Alex came in, once again interrupting my plans.
He wrapped his arms around my waist while I was trying to flip the sandwich in the pan. While his body was pressed up against mine, he kissed my cheek, as if he was apologizing for what he had done before.
“What are you doing?” He whispered, kissing my cheek again, hugging me tighter.
“Making a grilled cheese sandwich because you ate the last one I made and I was planning on eating it,” I said as if I was mad at him for doing that, like him doing it had pissed me off completely.
But it didn’t faze Alex. “It did taste really good, though.”
“It better have,” I grumbled.
“Are you really mad at me?”
I chuckled at put the freshly made food on the plate from before, hoping nobody was going to steal it from me this time and turned around in Alex’s hold. His bottom lip was sticking out, trying to guilt trip me by pouting. I couldn’t help the big grin that formed on my face as I put both of my hands on his cheeks and kissed him, knowing that none of our friends would be able to see what was going on. This was the one reason why I wasn’t afraid of Alex getting sick because of me. At first, I refused to kiss him, but he just kept doing it. If there was one reason why he would also get the flu, it would have been because he just couldn’t keep his lips from mine.
“I love you.” He mumbled against my lips as we both pulled away.
I didn’t reply and instead gave him a quick peck. There was always a hint of disappointment in Alex’s eyes when I didn’t say it back. Of course, he always hoped that I would be able to say those three words as well, but I wasn’t ready yet, and he understood. I could feel that it wasn’t going to take much longer, though. With the way I could feel my heart flutter every time I was around him, I knew that it was going to happen sooner than later.
“Are you going to join us for movie night?” He asked me as he let me go so I could finally eat something.
I shrugged and took a bite of the delicious bread held together by molten cheese. “I dunno. I’ll hang out with you guys for a bit now, but I think I’ll just go to bed after that.”
“Please join us,” he gave me puppy dog eyes, “we were going to start the movie now anyway so we can watch several.”
“But I’ll fall asleep in no time. The plot won’t even have started yet and I will be out like a light,” I whined.
“I’ll bring you up to your bed if you do fall asleep.”
“Ok, fine.”
----
Alex’s POV
I took hold of Ash’s hand and brought her downstairs with me. Jack and Lianne were already arguing with Rian and Zack about which movie to watch. They really wanted to watch Home Alone, while the more sensible were groaning about not wanting to see that again. I decided to interrupt their bickering by announcing that I had convinced Ash to join us. Lianne immediately sighed in relief knowing that she wasn’t the only girl, and Jack also seemed to be very excited. He really turned into a goofball whenever Ash was around, not that he wasn’t ever not a goofball, but it just got even worse when she was around.
I sat back down on my seat, which was on the couch, which Jack had claimed the opposite end on. With Zack and Rian having claimed the other couch and Lianne sitting on the floor, Ash decided to curl up next to me. Eventually, she decided she was more comfortable with her head on my lap and her feet on Jack’s, taking up the remained of the couch.
“Oh, so he get’s head, but I don’t?” Jack whined, pointing at Ash who was in my lap. Other than the first time she ever joined for our movie night, I didn’t feel uncomfortable and the need to think of other things so nothing would go wrong. She was still as beautiful as ever, but that wasn’t my intention anymore.
“I’m sorry, Jacky,” Ash giggled in response, “I’ll promise to give it to you later.”
“I think that will actually emotionally scar me.”
I completely trusted Ash and Jack around each other now. When I knew for sure that neither of them had feelings for each other, I didn’t even care how close they were. They had actually gotten closer since the trip, when they had cleared up everything, becoming each other’s best friends -- they might have even been getting as close as Jack and I were. The only reason why I was fully ok with it was because I actually asked Jack about his feelings. I had told him he had to be honest about it, even though I still had a slight crush on her (of course it had completely turned into something else, but he didn’t know). The only thing that made him uncomfortable was the fact that I still had feelings. No, not because he also had them, but because he was worried about Ash. He didn’t want me making her feel uncomfortable. However, I told him that I had it under control. Little did he know how under control I actually had it.
We eventually settled on some comedy, completely ignore Jack’s arguments about why we had to watch Home Alone. As she had predicted, Ash had fallen asleep before stuff actually started happening in the movie. Although she tried her best to keep her eyes open, they just kept slowly closing until she succumbed to her exhaustion. I let my fingers calming run through her hair as she was breathing softly, occasionally making cute small noises.
When the movie ended, I brought Ash up to her room just like I had promised. I tried my best not to hit any walls or fall down the stairs as I was holding her bridal style. Somehow I managed to do it all without waking her up. I put her down on one side of her bed, moving the covers off the other half, before tucking her in. After kissing her forehead, I muttered the three words only I was able to say and went back downstairs before the others got suspicious.
“Hey, dude, you ok?” Jack asked me as I entered the dark basement again.
“Yeah, why?” I jumped back onto the couch, hoping they hadn’t noticed anything going on between me and Ash. As much as I wanted to make our relationship public, I wasn’t going to do anything without her being ok with it.
“Just checking.”
“I mean, you did just eat a sandwich prepared by somebody who’s sick,” Rian added, laughing at the way I had been acting before.
“I really don’t care if I get sick,” I told them, knowing the chance was pretty high, “at least it would mean I’d finally get some time to work on that last song for our EP so we can send it out to some record labels.”
“It better be the best fucking song that will sell us to all the record labels!” Zack triumphed.
“Trust me, guys,” Lianne piped up--I had almost forgotten she was there since she was lying on the floor with a pillow, “they will want to sign you, and if they don’t I’ll personally go punch a bitch like Jack put it.”
Notes
So, I was going to put this up yesterday, but I completely forgot. Then I was going to do it this morning, but forgot again.... I actually did it this time! Woooo! At least I didn't forget, because I'm not going to be home until later tomorrow. it would have sucked if I didn't remember to put it up now for you guys to read.
@Daydreamers
I happen to cringe xD
5/25/20