Stay With Him Tonight

TYLER P.O.V.

Allie called to cancel our plans a few minutes after I got out of class. I was walking to my car as she called, and I continued to make my way to it as we greeted each other. She sounded tired and said she was sick, although she wouldn’t tell me what she was sick with.

“All right, I’ll stop by in a minute to cheer you up,” I planned.

“Ha, are they understaffed here? They send the doctors to treat a little flu?” she joked.

“Of course not. Only the special patients get special treatment.”

“And I would fall into the ‘special’ category?” she asked. I smiled.

“Very special. You get the doctor all to yourself.” I got to my car and leaned against it instead of getting inside.

“Lucky me. But really, you shouldn’t come around here right now. I don’t want to give this to you,” she worried.

“like I don’t have it already. I bet I just have a better immune system. It’s all that sugar you eat,” I teased.

“Hey! I have an addiction!”

“The first step is admitting you have a problem.” This was a frequent exchange between us; Allie ate as much sugar as a kid on Halloween, and I teased her about it. It was cute, really. She was proud that she once got 68 skittles into her mouth at once. The only problem was that she threw up afterward and almost choked. She pretended not to remember that part.

“Sure. I’m just lying on the couch watching movies and sleeping. Why don’t you come by tomorrow afternoon instead? I’ll be better for sure. I’m already feeling better, but I still feel like sleeping for a couple years.”

“I can still come over quick,” I offered again.

“I won’t even be able to stay awake until you get here,” she admitted. I sighed.

“Fine. You win, I’ll come tomorrow,” I said, defeated.

“Of course I win. I’ll see you tomorrow, then. I’ll text you after I wake up.”

“Okay. Night, Al. I love you.” She said it back and we hung up. No sooner had I stuffed my phone in my pocket than did I hear my name being called. For a second, I slipped my phone back out to see if I hadn’t really hung up on Allie. But then I heard my name again, closer this time.

“Tyler! I’m so glad I found you! Where did you disappear to so quickly?” A girl from my class ran up to me, huffing and puffing.

“Hey, Elizabeth. I didn’t know you were looking for me.” Elizabeth sat next to me in the class I had just got out of. I didn’t talk to her often, but she was often pushy and plaintive. She also had some good ideas and was sociable. I guess I didn’t really like her, nor did I dislike her.

“Oh. It’s Lizabeth, by the way,” she said like she had said it a lot before.

“Sorry. Lizabeth, then. Why were you looking for me?” put my books and my bag into my car. She smiled.

“We have a project, remember?” I scoured my brain for information about a project with this girl. One came to mind, vaguely. I recalled that it had been assigned earlier this month.

“Isn’t that due a while from now? The semester project, right?” I asked, unsure. She shook her head.

“Nope. It’s due in two weeks, and it’s a big project. We planned to get together and study today.” She kept smiling at me. I shook my head a little, wondering how I could have forgotten.

“I need more sleep. Sorry, I forgot. I could have sworn it was due at the end of the semester. I thought we had time.” She smiled like she understood.

“Don’t worry, happens to me all the time. So are we still on for today?” I scratched my neck, thinking about the mound of homework to do. I remembered that I had one less class because of the cancelled class, which would have been a reason to go ice skating with Allie.

“Sure, I have time,” I finally shrugged. “Where do you want to meet?” I asked.

“Actually I haven’t had anything to eat all day. Do you mind if we go out first?” I hadn’t finished eating my breakfast that morning. Allie might have been able to (I’m pretty sure she was just being nice and finishing it), but I had also given her the best of everything; I gave her the better-cooked eggs, and I ate the burnt and charred sausage myself. I got mentally distracted by the image of when I had come into my room that morning and found Allie sleeping peacefully.

“Hello? Tyler?”

“Food. Yeah, okay,” I scrambled to not look like an idiot after spacing out. “I haven’t eaten much, either. We can plan out our project while we eat.” She nodded and we met down the street at a little barbeque joint.

*

Afterwards, we spent two hours working through a lot of research for our project about PCOS, a disease in women which was the focus of our project. I went home and tackled the difficult homework that needed to be done. I called Allie (she texted me first that she had woken up) and we talked for an hour before she fell asleep on the phone. I eventually took a shower crawled into bed at three.

*

I woke up at seven to my phone buzzing. It was my alarm; my first class on Thursdays was at eight and lasted nearly three hours. I pressed “snooze” on my alarm until I saw the time was 7:35. I groaned but got up and made myself oatmeal. While it was in the microwave I wet my hair down—after my idiot move of taking a shower and then going to bed, my hair stuck straight up on one side of my head. I toweled it off, making sure I didn’t look like a cockatoo, and then took my food out.

Five minutes later, with a burnt tongue and clean scrubs (it was required dress for the lab class), I took off.

*

I waited all day in anticipation for the hour and a half break in classes in which I was planning to go see Allie. Again, as I was walking to my car at the start of my break Lizabeth ran up to me. “Can you work on the project again today? I really want to get it done as quickly as possible,” she explained.

“I can’t, not today. I promised my girlfriend I would come by and see her,” I said. She looked a little taken aback.

“We need to get this thing done. Do you know how hard Mr. Snodgrass grades?” I frowned, thinking of how hard he had graded some of my assignments before.

“I can’t. We still have a while to finish it. My girlfriend is sick and at home. I promised I’d go see her.” She sighed, like this was ridiculous.

“And we have a project. You promised to be dedicated to it.” Honestly she just sounded peeved. She seemed like the type of person that wanted things done yesterday, and not a minute later.

“Sorry, Lizabeth. We can work on it all tomorrow afternoon. But I need to go see—”

“—Your girlfriend, yeah, got it. Look, maybe I know her. Do you think I can come too, and I could explain everything?” she asked.

“No, you don’t know her. Sorry, it will just have to wait until tomorrow. Okay?” she crossed her arms and sighed.

“Okay, fine. Sorry, I’m just really worried about my grade. It’s a B,” she added. I glanced at her like I didn’t know why she was upset, but she didn’t see it. She waved and left.

“Maybe she’s a little crazy,” I muttered to myself. Of course, half the people trying to be doctors did eventually turn somewhat crazy, so I didn’t care much either way. I wondered about my own sanity, at this point.

*

I had to stop at the gas station on my way to Allie’s. Although it was only a few miles away, my gas gauge started dinging and I’d been caught on roads with no gas before. I figured my stop might as well be useful, so I went in to pay instead of using my card for once. I wandered through the small store for a few minutes, amassing items. The cashier looked in surprise at the pile I dropped on the counter.

Monsters (two each of green, white and one of blue), Mountain Dew, Green Tea, M&Ms, Skittles, bite-sized cookies, Dots, a Milky Way, a Kit Kat, a tube of pizza-flavored Pringles, and a bag of Funyuns cluttered the counter.

“You can probably get this all for ten dollars cheaper across the street at the grocery store,” the cashier warned me. I had come in here often and he and I spoke sometimes. I shook my head.

“This is fine. I don’t really have time to find all this again. A lot of this stuff had deals anyway.” He shrugged and began ringing it up. “Thanks,” I said, taking my bags and walking back to my car.

*

I looked at the door uncertainly for a second before walking in. If Allie still wasn’t feeling well, I didn’t want to make her get up. I knew she was home alone at the moment. Walking in, I saw a blanket partially hanging over the end of the couch. I walked up quietly in case she was sleeping. I found Allie staring up at the ceiling. Interrupting her view, I leaned over the back of the couch and dropped the two bags on the ground next to her.

“Hey. When did you get here?” She smiled up at me. The green blanket over her was so large and fluffy I had a hard time telling if it was a person under there or pillows with a person’s head attached to it.

“Two seconds ago. How’re you feeling?” I asked. I came around the couch and sat down, making sure to feel that I wasn’t going to sit on her.

“Just dandy. Most of it was yesterday. Today I’ve been watching my eyelids and counting the threads in the blanket.” She rolled her eyes at herself. “I could have gone to school, I suppose, but I don’t want to get anyone else sick.” She sat up and put her head on my shoulder. I leaned back and she cuddled up to me, wrapping the blanket around us until she was comfortable.

“You’re cold,” she commented.

“You’ve been under blankets all day,” I pointed out. I felt her smile into my shoulder.

“It’s been really boring when I’m not sleeping.”

“I can stay as long as you want,” I offered.

“Don’t you have another class?” she asked. I put my head on the back of the couch and found myself drifting off.

“Tyler?” she asked. I put my head up again.

“Hm?” She laughed.

“Don’t you have another class after this?”she asked. I flopped sideways on the couch, taking her with me. I rearranged the cover again so that we were laying down under it.

“That’s not for another hour. For now, I’ll stay here.” She turned in my arms to face me. She smiled and I smiled lazily back.

“Those always look like the most comfortable clothes.” She poked my chest, where the shirt was poking above the cover. I realized I was still wearing my nauseating teal scrubs. They were bright enough to blind a person.

“You can borrow mine anytime,” I teased. She laughed like I hoped she would. She was pale, but not sickly-looking or doubled over.

“I’ll take you up on that. Although I think I’d look better in another color.” She grinned as I grimaced.

“Don’t mention the color. I look like a walking ad for toothpaste.” Sadly, my own description was incredibly accurate.

“Hm. So you do,” Allie agreed. She studied the color seriously, and I could tell she was playing through a toothpaste commercial in her head, starring me.

“Stop that. I wouldn’t wear these if I had to,” I complained. She rolled her eyes at me and pulled the blanket up to her chin.

“Wanna take a nap? You can set your phone alarm,” she suggested. I nodded. I set the alarm and wrapped my arms tighter around Allie. We fell asleep like that.