Mathias had leaned his head on
her shoulder on the way home.
Arzen flushed suddenly. In front,
her mother glanced at them from the mirror and frowned at the sight of Mathias.
“Touch his forehead.” And she did.
It was burning.
“He’s too warm.”
“Have him rest when he gets
home. You can just bring up his homework tomorrow.” Arzen nodded, taking her
hand away but not quite moving his head away from her shoulder.
It didn’t feel right to do
that.
When they had reached home and
parked the car, she nudged him softly. “Mathias? We’re here.”
He awoke with a small groan and
she felt her face redden for the nth time.
“Come on, we have to get out.”
“A few minutes,” he muttered.
Arzen had no choice but to move away, prompting him to wake up.
She carried his belongings back
inside the house.
He didn’t complain at all and
ended up crashing on the bed upon reaching his room, Arzen watching in brief
amusement and concern. She moved closer to feel his forehead once more and
frowned at the unusual temperature.
“Vens?”
“Hm?”
Mathias stirred slightly and
peered up at her with tired eyes.
“I think I have a fever.”
*****
Mathias was sick.
She spent majority of her
evening looking after him, strangely unaccustomed to the reversal of roles. He would
usually look after her if she got sick, and there she was, catering to the
little needs of the ginger.
He had been up for majority of
the night. She knew once she caught sight of him that morning, sleepy and lethargic
with the pillows all over the place and blanket nearly falling off the bed.
“Feeling
better?” she asked softly. Mathias shrugged.
“I’ve been worse.”
“I’ll lend you my notes when I
get home later,” she promised. He said nothing. After all, he knew that she
would insist either way.
“Don’t worry about me too much.
Even though Betsy might kill me for being absent.”
“Are you sure you want to stay?
You’ll be missing a lot,” she asked, but Mathias shook his head and coughed
into a tissue. The sight made her falter.
“Trust me, darling. This is
nothing.” Mathias gave a weak chuckle, “It’s just because of the weather. You,
on the other hand, have to attend today or Tina will wring your neck.”
“I guess so.” She stood up with
her bag in hand, “Feel better, alright?”
“I’ll be fine by later.” He
winked at her, “Try to survive the whole day without me.”
Crossed between laughing and
blushing, she merely rolled her eyes good-naturedly and left the sick Mathias
behind.
*****
“Where’s the Kingly Prat?”
“He’s absent.” Most of the
XDees and two-thirds of the boys were eating that recess, “He doesn’t feel too
well…he had to stay home.” Across Arzen, Cianna winked.
“What, and you didn’t play
nurse for him?” the rest of them laughed and Arzen covered her face, Liam
roaring with laughter. “Poor him. He’ll miss a lot.”
“He picked a shitty time to
miss out.” Liam frowned, “Home Ec exam, PE practice and Health reporting. Did he
have you submit his homework for him?”
“He was awake enough to finish
them last night.”
“Well, Arzen, let’s hope you
don’t catch his sickness as well.” They all looked at Daniel, “We don’t want
Senior Virus 1.0 to break out because of him.”
“What do you mean–”
Gabrielle snickered. “He means
that you can’t exactly play nurse with your Mathias because you might spread
the sickness around.” She knocked on the wooden table for effect, “Let’s pray
that he manages to catch up soon enough.”
The table dissolved into
conversation at that point. Ride had transferred to the other table to talk to
Roza, while Felicia smirked at a joke that Gabrielle made.
Elaine noticed Arzen watching,
and she poked the girl’s shoulder.
“Don’t worry too much about
him.” the girl gave a guilty shrug.
“He never gets sick.”
Daniel spoke up, “He works
himself too hard. Didn’t you tell us that he kept up studying for CETs?” Arzen
nodded, and Daniel tsked. “That’s what happens when he does that.” Elaine threw
him a look and Daniel stopped, running a hand through his hair sheepishly.
“Just be careful, okay? If you
get sick, he’ll get worried and work himself into another fever.” She nodded
and the bell eventually rang, signaling that recess was over.
Eventually, school ended and
Arzen found herself knocking on Mathias’ door, worksheets in tow. The door
opened and she peeked inside, seeing Mathias calmly drinking from a mug of
coffee while studying.
“You shouldn’t be studying,
Prat.”
He ignored the nickname and
glanced at her, “UPCAT’s next week, darling. Of course I have to study.” His
gaze fell on the papers, “Did I miss much?”
“Not really. Only English and
Trigo gave homework for the day, and Betsy asked me to tell you to feel better.”
He nodded and took the papers, glancing at them momentarily before looking back
at her. “How do you feel?”
“Better. I just needed to sleep
it off.” He stretched and stood up, eyes twinkling at her. “Help me out with
this?”
Flabbergasted, she could only
nod speechlessly.
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