Dark affairs

I doze off for a few hours and when I wake up I feel even worse.
I don't think I can get up and go for a walk with Max.
I fumble for my phone and see another two missed calls from Jack that probably happened while I was asleep.

I look in my contacts and search for the Asian takeaway place that I normally order from. I call them up and order three different kinds of noodle soup. I reckon I can eat one and put the rest in the fridge and reheat them the next days. It's not that I'm hungry but I guess I need to eat something and soup is supposed to do you good when you have a cold, right?

So the food problem is sorted but what about Max? I rack my brain for someone who could come and take him out while I go through the contacts on my phone but my friends are either working or have no idea how to handle a dog or live too far away to have them come here just for a short dog walk.

I get a call while I'm still staring on the screen and drop my phone in surprise. I tap around my comforter to retrieve the device and press the button to accept. Of course it's Jack.

"Hello?" I croak.

"It's about time you answer your phone, Mickey!" I hear Jack say with an exasperated huff. "Can you please tell me what I did wrong, because I honestly don't know. How many times do I have to tell you that I love you and want to be with you but you keep accusing me of playing with your feelings. You're being unreasonable and it's getting old. And on top of that you just ignore my attempts to talk to you and put things straight that's so unfair." He goes on hardly taking time to breath.

"Okay" I reply hoarsely because I am too weak to have an argument and to be honest, right now I couldn't care less.
There is a moment of stunned silence on the other side of the line.
"What...what do you mean and what's wrong with your voice?" My boyfriend (can I still call him that?) wants to know. Instead of a reply I have to sneeze a few times in a row.

"Mickey?"

I sigh because it's getting hard for me to breath properly. "Look Jack, I'm sick and not feeling too good, can we do this some other time please?" I am so exhausted that I can feel another round of tears coming along but I don't want to cry on the phone to him again so I sniff them away along with the snot that's been running from my nose. I know that's disgusting but I don't care.

"Mickey, what is it, you sound horrible?" Jack inquires suddenly sounding worried.
"I'm having a fever and a cold I think." I rasp out.

"Oh my god, is there anyone who can look after you until I'm back?" Jack wants to know and I just shrug my shoulders although I realise he can't see me. I'm just so tired.
"..and what about the dog? Can someone look after Max? You're not going outside with a fever!" I hear him talking to someone else but can't understand a word, he is probably holding a hand over the microphone.

"Alex says he can ask Lisa to come and pick Max up and look after him for a few days." Jack announces once he is back on the line but I'm completely opposed to this idea.

"No!" I cough violently,"please Jack don't let him do that! I do NOT want Lisa here! I can manage, I promise, please..." I beg wheezing and have to stop and take a breath.

"Okay, okay, I promise don't get all upset...fuck, uh, uhm, let me..okay let me make some phone calls and I come back to you later...." he is quick to answer while I hear a lot of arguing in the background.
I whine again because I don't need him looking after me. "Nooo," I weakly argue "You don't have to do that, I can look after myself." Then I'm racked with another coughing fit.

"Hah, very convincing Mickey." He snaps unamused. "Don't you dare leave the house, I work something out and call you back as soon as I can." With that he ends the call. No goodbye no nothing, wow he must really be still pissed off with me!

I just lie there for awhile, too exhausted to do anything when there is a knock on the door. I slowly crawl out of bed and pad to the door. It's my soup order! I pay and take the stacked takeaway containers and shuffle to the kitchen.
I put all but one into the fridge and get a spoon and sit down to eat for the first time since yesterday morning.

The soup is really nice and I down a few spoonfuls hungrily but then the coughing starts again and everything comes back up and spills over the kitchen counter. I let the spoon fall into the soup and drop my head onto the counter, not caring that I get soup all over my face and hair.

I must've been sitting like this for quite a while when I'm snapped back to reality by loud thumping coming from my front door.
Apparently somebody has been knocking for some time. I sway a little when I get up but steady myself holding onto the counter and make my way to the door.
When I swing the door open I just stare at the person outside and they stare back at me.
"Nano?" I whisper my eyes wide with surprise.
"Oh my god, I nearly didn't recognise you Mickey, you look awful." Jacks best fried replies sounding appalled.
That makes me feel self conscious and I try to tame down the tangled mop that is my hair and pull down the old stained shirt that is clinging to my body with dampness as if to hide in it.

I have known Nano longer than Jack because he used to work for Hopeless as well but we never were close, he was just one of those guys from work and then he quit and opened his own company. I only realised him and Jack were best friends after we started dating and Jack invited him to dinner with us.
"Jack called me." Nano explains himself rolling his eyes, as I hadn't said anything yet, "I'm here to pick up your dog and look after him until Jack's back."

"Oh, uh, yeah..." I try between coughs, "come in." I open the door wider and turn to shuffle back to the living room where I sit down. I swallow thickly to get the next words out. "Thank you for doing that...cough...that's Max...cough," here I point to the puppy who is sitting on the other chair wagging his tail to greet the stranger from a distance.
Nano stands in the middle of the room with his arms crossed wearing a frown on his face.
"Mickey, how high is your fever?" He asks out of the blue.
I look up startled and shrug because I have no idea.
He sighs impatiently, "okay, so where is your thermometer?"
I look at him as if he had just grown two heads, who has a thermometer at home? I'm not a paramedic, am I ?
He interprets my gesture correctly and groans pinching the bridge of his nose in exhaustion. "Remind me why exactly am I friends with you guys! Okay stay here, I take Max and go get a fucking thermometer from the pharmacy." With that he takes the dog leash and Max immediately jumps off the couch and runs to the door. He has obviously been desperate for a walk, the poor thing.
Nano attaches the leash to his collar and Max nearly pulls him out the door with how eager he is.
"Okay, sit tight, I'll be back soon, Mickey" he calls to me from half way down the hallway.

I guess it's about half an hour later when Nano returns, he thankfully had left the door open so he just walks in. I'm not sure I could have gotten up from the couch again.
He is carrying a little plastic bag and starts to unload his purchase onto the coffee table.

"I brought Aspirin and coughing sirup as well because I guess you don't have those as well." He mumbles more to himself and then proceeds to unpack the digital ear thermometer and starts reading the leaflet that explains how to use it. I roll my eyes, who even does that! Nano is so weird.

When he is sure he knows how to operate the single button the device has he comes over to me.
I push my hair behind my ear and lean forward a bit without arguing. He went through all this trouble the least I can do is cooperate, I guess. He pushes the thing into my ear and presses the button, there's a beep and a sharp intake of air from him. I try to lean back but he holds me in place by my shoulder and measures again. The second result doesn't seem to lighten his mood either.
"Mickey!" He yells at me, "your fever is almost 105 degrees!"
Oh shit! No wonder I feel so bad! I look up at him to gauge his reaction.
He drops the thermometer to the table then paces the living room and pulls out his phone to call someone I assume but suddenly decides against it and turns to me. "Fuck it, come on I take you to the hospital."
I'm about to argue but one stern look from him shuts me up. Did I mention Nano can be very intimidating if he wants to?
He pulls me up from the couch and grabs my coat that hangs beside the door and throws it over my shoulders. I try to tell him I want to make myself presentable at least and wash and dress in fresh clothes but he just shakes his head.

"There's no time to waste Mickey, you can't even breath properly." With that he drags me out the door and to his car where Max has been waiting for us.

He drives me to the hospital and we enter the emergency department half an hour later. Another hour spent with waiting and paperwork and I am able to see a doctor.
He checks my vitals and listens to my lungs and an X-ray later it's confirmed.

I have pneumonia.

They put me in a bed and place an IV into my arm with antibiotics and I get an oxygen tube under my nose to help with breathing. It all happens in a blur and I'm overwhelmed with the whole situation so I just do as I'm told and don't try to resist. The doctor tells me that as I have no one to look after me at home they want to keep me for a few days to make sure the medication is working and monitor my breathing and fever.

I silently curse Nano because he obviously told them that I live alone but I guess I have to be thankful that he brought me here before things could get worse.

Somewhere in this whole ordeal he obviously left because he's nowhere to be seen as they wheel me off to another floor and into a little hospital room and after the nurse checks my temperature and the correct flow of the IV and the oxygen I'm left alone for the first time since coming here.
I let myself fall back into the uncomfortable hospital pillows and close my eyes.

Notes

I don't even know what I'm doing at the moment...