Disease

Oliver and Afton were laying in bed, cuddling against each other. Well, it was as close to cuddling as cuddling got for the two of them. Afton had her head rested on Oliver’s shoulder, and he had a hand placed lightly on her hip, mindlessly rubbing the side of her leg. The room was completely silent, and while Afton thought Oliver was sleeping, and Oliver thought Afton was sleeping, truth was; they were both wide awake.

Oli’s eyes were fixed on the ceiling, only being able to think and worry about the state of his and Afton’s relationship. He looked down at the top of her head and sighed loudly, sending multiple pieces of it flying and landing on his chest. Oliver was completely unaware of the fact that Afton was still awake, her big blue eyes focused solely on the detail of his tattoos. Her breathing was quiet for once, and her throat wasn’t choking back wheezes to breathe. Her hands were freezing, he noticed as they moved across his stomach and rested on his shoulder. He reached down and grabbed the top of the comforter, being sure to cover Afton’s body.

Afton could hardly contain herself as Oliver draped the blanket over her extremely sweaty body. Every night, he pulled the blanket up over her, making her sweat more than her disease had deemed necessary. But, she didn’t speak a word. She was too fatigued to do much about it, she just lay there, listening to Oliver’s soft breathing and his heart beat against his chest. She really didn’t feel the need to argue with him about the blanket anymore; she didn’t really want much to do with Oliver at all anymore. She hadn’t realized this until he’d mentioned it the other night at his mum’s house, but it was true.

She had been selfish and thought only of her and her disease. Nothing of Oli and the way it might be affecting him. She suddenly realized how horrid she’d been treating him and made a note to herself to watch the way she treated him, and make sure it was better next time.

She shuddered slightly as she suppressed a cough. She felt Oli’s grip tighten around her and pull her a little bit closer. His bare skin came in contact with her exposed stomach, and she felt burned. Like, Oliver was boiling against her. Which made absolutely no sense to her, how she could possibly get any hotter. A kiss from Oli’s lips met the top of her head, then he proceeded to rest his chin against her hair.

Afton almost jumped out of her skin as he began speaking in a croaky whisper.

“’ey God,” He sighed, “Or Jesus. ‘Ooever the fuck yeh are. I need yer ‘elp,” He whispered quietly. Afton could almost feel the embarrassment radiating from him, “I may not believe in yeh as much as I should, or as strongly, but meh life is fallin’, an’ it’s fallin’ fast. ‘M losin’ the one thing I love most,” He paused and squeezed Afton softly, as to exaggerate that Afton was what he loved most, “Please ‘elp. I can’t do this alone anymore.”

Afton’s chin trembled, the back of her throat was aching with a sob, and her tongue was begging to let her release the cough that was coming up behind her lips. She quickly removed herself from Oliver’s grasp and ran into the bathroom, throwing open the door and quickly turning on the light.

She leaned over the sink and tried to keep her mess of tears away from the mirror, turning on the water. She sobbed loudly, disguising it as a cough. Then, she could taste the blood traveling up the back of her throat and she finally released her cough, crying and sputtering at the same time.

She felt the pain not only of her disease, but of love. She felt the pain that Oliver had been experiencing, and she finally realized how wrong it was to treat someone like that. She’d never felt so horrible in her life.

Afton leaned against the counter, trying to overcome the dizziness caused by her fatigue, but she couldn’t manage. What with the coughing, crying, and throbbing head, she fell over in a fit of sobs.

She landed roughly against the bathroom wall, sending Oliver flying from bed and running into the bathroom to see what had happened to her. He was met with Afton looking up at him blood dripping from her mouth, snot pouring from her nose, and tears trickling from her eyes.

She looked so broken, so sad. He grabbed a roll of toilet paper and turned off the sink, pressing the toilet paper against her mouth and removing as much blood as he could. He handed her a bundle of the soft tissue and bent down, pulling her into his arms. He rocked her back and forth gently for a few minutes, until she managed to stop crying.

“I’m so sorry Olleh,” She cried, “I love yeh.”

“Fer what?” He asked, swallowing hard, hoping for his sake, she didn’t hear him praying.

“The way I’ve been treatin’ yeh. Yeh don’t deserve it.”

She was bawling now, tears were rolling down Oli’s forearm and he breathed in deeply, only smelling the soft scent of rose shampoo from Afton’s hair.

Afton had given up. She ignored the tickle in her throat, and cried quietly, no longer trying to hide her tears, or suppressing her coughs. She felt so at peace resting against Oliver. They both held each other awkwardly, and if anyone saw them at this very moment, they’d probably think that the two of them were completely nuts, Afton blubbering like an idiot, and Oli with his arms wrapped around her, crying into her hair, the both of them twisted in the most uncomfortable position they could possibly be in; but it didn’t matter to either of them. They hadn’t been physically or emotionally close to each other for quite a while. It’d only been around two weeks sine Afton had been diagnosed, and it was the longest two weeks either one of them had experienced.

“It’s alrigh’ Love, I know yeh’re just scared.”

“I’m terrified Olleh!” She cried out, looking up at Oliver, seeing that his hazel eyes were glazed with tears, and masked with worry, “Do yeh know what it’s like teh live like yeh’re dyin’ everyday? I can’t go five minutes without coughin’ my lungs up, an’ I ‘ate it! Why do I have teh deal with this?”

“I dunno.” He whispered, kissing her on the forehead. And then the cheek. He rested his lips softly on Afton’s and spoke quietly, “I love yeh, yeh know that, righ’?”

Afton merely nodded, puling away from Oliver’s lips and wiping her eyes again. He patted her leg softly and stood up, helping Afton to her feet, “All right?” He asked.

She nodded softly, “Yeah.”

“Why don’t yeh go lay down an’ I’ll make yeh some tea?”

“Okay.”

No sooner had Afton’s head hit the pillow and Oliver left the room, her eyes drooped heavily and her head felt cloudy. She was suddenly exhausted, fatigued. She let her eyes fall shut and prayed she’d be awake when Oliver came back into the room.

Meanwhile, Oliver was being extremely quiet in the kitchen, careful not to wake anyone else in the building, as he and Afton had gotten a second floor flat.

He put the kettle on and walked into the living room, looking at their small selection of movies as he waited for the water to start boiling. There were many movies in the cabinet; The Goonies, The Dark Knight, The Blair Witch Project, and finally, he settled on one of Afton’s favorites (Also one he hadn‘t seen a million times; and one he didn‘t want to continuously rack himself in the balls while watching.) The Lost Boys.

He quickly made his way back into the kitchen, just as the water had begun to boil. He pulled the kettle off the stove and easily reached into the cabinet for a mug and a tea bag. Oliver tore open the tea bag, dropping the loose tea leaves into the cup and pouring water in after it, just as Afton always drank her tea. He then spooned two scoops of sugar into the cup and stirred it quickly. He carefully balanced the very full cup in one hand and held the DVD with his other hand. Oliver stepped into the bedroom, watching where he was going with help from the bathroom light. He grinned softly as he saw Afton tucked against herself.

“’Ey Doll. I made yer tea, an’ I grabbed a movie fer us teh watch.”

He crossed over to her side of the bed and set the mug down on the night stand. He looked down, hoping to see Afton’s girlish grin, with her eyes wide open, a smile dancing behind them.

But his face fell quickly as he was met with closed eyes and a somber face. He brushed the hair off her face and pulled the blanket to cover her. He kissed her softly on the cheek and set the movie next to the mug of tea on the night stand.

He went out into the living room and started up the computer. Once at Google.com, he typed in Afton’s disease and read up on it a little bit, finding that fatigue was one of the main symptoms, and came to the realization that he just needed to let her sleep. He continued to busy himself, reading pages upon pages about it, finding ways to keep him from developing it.

He realized he was going to be spending a lot of money on doctor’s visits, but then came to the conclusion that was the least of his problems as he checked his hotmail, seeing a message from SJ in his inbox.

Oliver held his breath as he guided the mouse over the subject of the email, Long time; no talk :’( He crunched his eyes shut as he clicked on it, and then brought them back open to read the email.

Written in bold, hot pink letters, was this;

hey oli! i saw afton at the doctor's office with my mum the other day. i managed to overhear a bit of the conversation. :( such a shame. ur prbly falling apart, id imagine. it’s been what, 2 yrs now? well, if u need anything, u know how 2 get a hold of me. maybe u can come over 4 a drink or something ;)

love,
SJ

Yeah, everyone knows how to get a hold of you. Oliver thought, sighing loudly as he ran a hand through his hair, clicking back and forth between the two windows, trying to figure out if he should reply back to SJ’s email.