A Little Bit Older

down with the sickness

I have been trying. That could essentially characterize the last few weeks of my life. Trying. Be it with work, family, friends, my relationship with Matt. In fact, I was trying so hard to juggle everything and make everyone happy that I was admittedly feeling a little run down. It was harder than I expected. I was working long hours at work every day trying to perfect some projects on an upcoming line of sunscreens. I was trying to get back in touch with the girls and seamlessly integrate my new work friends with my group of friends that I had met through Meghan, which was proving rather difficult because Michelle and Tara had both decided that they couldn’t stand the other. I had been trying to spend more time with Meghan and Zack and be a better aunt for Theo – who had recently started stuttering and Meghan was panicking because she couldn’t figure out what had triggered it because he only had the stutter when other people were around and spoke perfectly fine when it was just her or Zack. And of course, there was Matt. I’d promised him we’d do something for Valentine’s Day and I’d been trying to spend more time with him and the boys so that we could try and develop a legitimate relationship. It was hard. I physically couldn’t dedicate myself to everything I was trying to do.

To top it all off, it was now Valentine’s Day and I felt awful because passing the day with Matt was at the bottom of my list. Not because I didn’t want to spend the day with him, but because I literally felt like death. My head was pounding, I couldn’t sit up without having tunnel vision, and my nose wouldn’t stop running. I had dragged myself out of bed, albeit very slowly, and managed to take a shower and mostly clean myself up. We were still trying to make up for the mild falling out and I couldn’t flake on him today. I wasn’t entirely sure what he’d had planned but I’d asked him to keep it low key because I’d been having sinus headaches all week and had figured I wouldn’t be up to going out ahead of time.

Once I was mostly presentable, I went to the kitchen and made myself a cup of tea. It was about eleven, but I’d promised Matt I’d be at his house by noon so I only had about half an hour before I had to leave. He’d offered to take the boys from Val for the evening so she could have her own romantic Valentine’s evening so he and I were having a romantic Valentine’s afternoon. Although, I wasn’t sure how romantic it could be given that my head was literally just a pressurize ball of mucus right now.

After my tea, and taking some decongestant, I headed out the door and made the short drive over to Matt’s house. I was probably not in the best state to drive, I realized when I had accidentally pulled into the wrong lane of traffic after turning at a stop sign. I should’ve stayed in bed was the moral of the story, but I had promised that I’d come over so we could spend time together and I wasn’t going to break my promise. Our relationship was still in too much of a baby stage for me to ruin it by doing something like that. He’d done so much planning for today.

“Hey! How are you doing?” Matt asked after opening the door upon seeing me approaching.

“I’m alright.” I lied even though it was obvious that I was still rather sick. “How are you?” I asked slipping into the house and stepping out of my shoes.

“Much better than you. You look like hell.” He confessed and I meekly smiled at him.

“I feel like it too.” I told him with a sniffle.

“Luckily I have some soup prepared for lunch, but I’m to go out on a limb and say that a walk after lunch is out of the question?”

“No, no. I already took some medicine. I’ll be better before you know it. We can take a walk.” I insisted as he guided me towards the living room where he had bowls of soup already set up on dinner trays at the couch.

“You’ve been saying that you’ll be better before I know it all week, Rubes. I’m pretty sure you’re getting worse. You should go to a doctor.”

“Probably but I haven’t had time, you know that.” I replied exasperated. I couldn’t fit in everything else and a doctor’s visit. It was just unreasonable.

“You could’ve gone today.” He pointed out and I shook my head before stopping when my vision clouded slightly.

“No, I promised we’d have lunch.” I responded slowly as I started to eat the soup. It didn’t taste like anything but I was sure that had more to do with my sickness than anything else.

“Your health is more important than a lunch.” He countered although his words sounded very lethargic and I couldn’t process them fast enough to respond. “Are you okay?” I heard him ask after a few moments.

“Yea, I’m fine.” I said pushing myself away from my soup for a moment and trying to focus on his words. Everything was sounding like echoes in my head and I suddenly felt extremely cold.

“Ruby, can you hear me?” I opened my mouth to respond but couldn’t find my words and all I felt was a terrible pressure in my head.

“I think I need to lay down.” I finally managed to say before I slowly laid myself down on the couch.

I don’t know how long I was out for but when I finally woke up, I had to admit I was feeling much better. I slowly sat up and realized I was still on the couch and nothing had changed. Although Matt was nowhere to be found.

“Matt?” I called pushing my hair out of face and realizing that it was sticky with sweat. I didn’t have a fever so I was slightly surprised by this, but I guess it all came with the healing process.

“Ruby?” I heard him yell back followed by what sounded like him running down the steps. “Yea, no. She’s awake now.” I could hear him say as he rushed into the living room carrying a thermometer.

“I’ll call you back after. Alright, talk to you later dude.”

“Who was that?” I asked moving back to my soup bowl and moving to eat my soup.

“Stop.” He chastised before pulling my soup bowl away and holding the thermometer out to me. “Do you pass out often like that?” His speech was quick and he was exuding anxiety.

“Not often?” I asked as he placed the thermometer under my tongue.

“Your color is coming back a little bit at least now.” He pressed a hand against my face. “And you’re cooler again.”

I shrugged in confusion. “Who was on the phone?” I muffled out and he gave me a stern look so I stopped talking.

“It was Meghan. I wasn’t sure what to do so I called her and she said this happens something?”

The thermometer beeped and he took it away from me. “I mean, it happened a few times back in high school and once or twice in college. I dunno. It’s not common.”

“Your temperature is normal. How do you feel?”
“A bit weak, but no worse than before. Can I eat now? I’m starving.” He smiled in relief and nodded so I started eating my soup.

“You should get some rest when you’re done.” He concluded and I nodded.

“So no walk?”

“No walk. Sleep. We can do our walk when you’re feeling better.”

“Okay. Sorry about all the fuss.”

“Don’t apologize. Just get better.” He said sitting down next to me and rubbing his hand over my back. “I should call Meghan back and let her know you’re okay.”

“Tell her I said hi.” I said with a smile and he nodded before getting up and walking away.

After I finished eating, I head to the guest bedroom and let Matt know that I was going to get some sleep. I hated how much I’d made him worry, but I was still kind of tired and I figured the sooner I got to sleep the sooner I could feel better and wake up to help him the next morning with the boys. Although, that was if he’d let me. I didn’t want to have them getting sick because of being near me.

“Hey, you awake?” Matt asked sneaking into the bedroom in case I was asleep.

“Yea, what’s up?” I asked with a small yawn.

“Brian’s sister agreed to watch the boys for the evening so they’re going to stay with Val tonight.”

“No, don’t change plans. They can come over, it’s okay.” I said sitting up distressed. I didn’t want to ruin Val’s Valentine’s plans in addition to ours with this stupid sickness.

“No, it’s fine.” He said walking over and gently pushing me back into bed. “You get some sleep. Don’t worry about it. I’m gonna be in the game room, if you need me. I’ll be back up later tonight to check on you. Okay?”

“Okay. I’m sorry.” I apologized again and he shook his head one more time.

“No more apologies. Just get better.”

I closed my eyes and soon fell asleep. It felt nice to finally rest after running around so much these past few days even if I did feel bad for throwing a wrench in so many people’s Valentine’s day plans.