Justin woke up feeling like death had warmed over him. A groan tried to escape him but even that was too much effort so instead he laid still. He looked to the side and saw it was almost seven o’clock. He swallowed and winced and closed his eyes again, hoping he could just fall asleep so he wouldn’t have to be conscious of how horrible he felt. He had just started to drift off when there was a knock on his door. He ignored it, not having the energy to get up, and a moment later, he heard it open.

“Justin, you didn’t set your alarm again. We have to go in half an hour.”

He forced his eyes open and saw Brenna at the edge of his bed. Painstakingly, he forced himself to speak and found that his voice came out a hoarse whisper. “I’m sick. Can you cancel everything for today?”

“You’re sick? How sick?”

He closed his eyes. “Really sick.” He felt her hand on his forehead and then a minute later it left and he heard her walk out of the room. He had started to fall back asleep when she came back into the room.

“Everything’s cancelled. Tell me exactly what’s wrong.”

“Throat hurts, headache, stuffed nose, nauseous,” he mumbled.

“Maybe you should go to your doctor. What if your mono’s back?”

“It’s not that.” He opened one eye and saw her standing at the foot of his bed, chewing on her lower lip.

“Okay, I’m going to go to the store and get you some medicine. You’re okay here by yourself?”

He made an attempt to nod and closed his eyes.

“Okay. I’ll be back in a bit.”

He heard his door close and he relaxed in his bed. He soon fell asleep and didn’t wake up until an hour and a half later. As he was drawn into consciousness, he felt the bed shift a bit and opened his eyes to see that Brenna was sitting on the other side of the bed, some papers spread out in front of her. He swallowed and coughed and she looked over at him.

“Do you feel any better?”

“No.”

She set down her papers and reached over to the bedside table beside her. “Here. Take these. Can you sit up?”

He groaned and pulled himself half up, closing his eyes as a sharp pain went through his head. He opened his eyes when Brenna took his hand and put some pills in his palm.

“What are these?” he asked, staring at the handful of pills.

“Vitamins, cold medicine, flu medicine. I talked to the pharmacist and she said to take it every four hours.” She passed him a glass of orange juice that had a straw in it. He put all the pills in his mouth and with a wince swallowed them with a mouthful of juice. She took the glass from him and put it back on the table. He looked over at the papers in front of her.

“What’s that?”

She gathered the papers in a stack. “Just some rescheduling. Don’t worry about it.”

“When are you rescheduling for?”

“Don’t worry about it, Justin,” she repeated. “You need to just relax and sleep and get better.” She put her hand on his forehead. “You’re really hot.”

“Thought you were into Drew, but thanks.”

She laughed. “Sick and still making jokes.”

He coughed and sighed. Laying back down on his bed, he watched through half closed eyes as she got up and went over to his bathroom. He heard the water running and then she appeared again with a washcloth. His eyes closed as she placed the cold washcloth on his forehead.

“I’m gonna be in my room but call me if you need anything, okay?” she asked softly.

He nodded and opened one eye to watch as she picked up the stack of papers and went to the door. Once she had left, he turned onto his side and went back to sleep.

Later that day, Brenna balanced the phone in between her ear and shoulder as she talked to Johnny Wright. She had been on the phone with him for almost half an hour, rearranging Justin’s schedule.

“I’ll go ahead and cancel tomorrow’s schedule,” Johnny said.

“Okay. I made him a doctor’s appointment tomorrow in case he’s not better.”

“That’s good. Last time he put off going to the doctor’s we all know how that turned out.”

“Yeah. His doctor said that if he was still really sick tomorrow and he needed to get better, he could give him this shot or something that would help.”

“Don’t feel like he needs to be better right away. Rescheduling is not hard to do.”

“Okay.”

“Just make sure he’s resting and that’s all you can really do.”

“Okay.”

“I should go. Call me tomorrow and we’ll see how he’s doing.”

“Sure.”

“Great. Thanks, Brenna. Bye.”

“Bye.” She hung up the phone and set it on the kitchen counter. It was close to noon and she went through the pantry to pull out a can of soup. As it heated on the stove, she made a sandwich and put it on a plate. She left the kitchen and walked down the hallway to Trace’s room. She knocked on the closed door and then opened it when she heard him say, “Come in”.

“Hungry?” she asked.

He looked up from a textbook he was reading and smiled. “Awesome. I was just starting to get hungry.”

She handed him the sandwich. “How’s studying?”

“Not great. I don’t’ know if I’ll be ready.”

“When is your final?”

“Day after tomorrow.” He took a bite of the sandwich. “How’s Justin?”

“Still sleeping. I was going to bring him up some soup.”

“Did you call Johnny?”

“Yeah. I just got off the phone with him.” She went to his door. “The soup’s probably done. I’ll let you get back to studying.”

“Okay. Thanks for the sandwich, Bren.”

“No problem.” She left his room and went back to the kitchen. She filled a bowl with soup and then put it on a tray along with some crackers and a glass of juice. She carried it upstairs and went up to Justin’s room.

The television in the room was on and Justin was sitting up in bed, leaning against the headboard.

“Can you eat anything?” she asked, coming over to the bed.

“Yeah, a bit. What kind of soup?”

“Chicken noodle.”

He took the tray form her and rested it on his lap. “Thanks.”

“How are you feeling?”

“A bit better now that I’ve slept.”

She sat down on the edge of the bed. “Have you taken anymore pills?”

“No.”

She counted out the pills and handed them to him. “Here.”

“Thanks.” He took the pills and then lifted up the bowl and began to eat the soup. “What do I have on tomorrow?”

“Johnny cleared it. I made you a doctor’s appointment though. Just in case.”

He sighed and nodded. “Okay.” He ate for a few more minutes before he put the bowl down and handed her the tray. “Thanks, Bren. That was good.”

“Did you need anything else? I could go get a movie or video game or something.”

“No. I’m fine.” He rearranged his pillows and laid down on his bed. She started to get up but he stopped her. “Can you stay here? You can watch TV if you want. I hate being alone when I’m sick.”

“Uh, sure.” She moved onto one side of his bed and leaned against the headboard. A few minutes later when Justin was asleep, she moved down to lay on the bed and watch TV.

Her ringing cell phone woke her up forty minutes later and her eyes opened with a start. She was disoriented for a minutes until she remembered she as in Justin’s room. He was asleep beside her and she opened her phone quickly to stop the ringing.

“Hello?” she said softly.

“Hey,” Kate’s voice came over the line. “Where are you?”

“Home.”

“Why are you talking so quiet?’

“Justin’s sick and sleeping right beside me.”

“Oh.”

She turned on her side, facing away form him and held her phone to her ear. “What’s up?”

“Just bored. I was thinking I might come over later.”

“You should. I’m bored too. Trace is studying for his finals and Justin’s sleeping.”

“I’ll come over in a couple hours. I told Tyler I’d meet him for lunch at one thirty. You should invite Drew over. What’s he doing today?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t actually talked to him in a few days.”

“How many days?”

“I don’t know. Four, five maybe.”

“How come? Did you guys get in a fight?”

“No. I just haven’t had time to call him and he’s been busy too.”

“Well you’re not busy right now.”

Brenna sighed. “I know.”

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t know. Last time I talked to him it was just kind of weird. It kind of felt like we had nothing to talk about.”

“Is it always like that?”

“No. That was the first time.”

“Well maybe you guys were just tired or something. Call him up. Invite him over.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“I gotta go get ready to go but I’ll come over after I’m done. I’ll try and call on my way there.”

“Okay.”

“Call Drew.”

Brenna sighed again. “I will.”

“See you later.”

“Bye.” She ended the call and looked at her phone. She laid there for a while before dialing the number to Drew’s apartment. It rang four times and then the answering machine picked up. She didn’t bother leaving a message and shut her phone. She laid there and fell asleep again. The past few mornings she had been up early and not getting a lot of sleep and it was starting to catch up with her.

She drifted in and out of sleep for a while before she heard the sound of people coming upstairs. She yawned and sat up in bed. She recognized Kate’s voice and rubbed her eyes.

“Hey. You awake?”

She pulled her hands away from her eyes to see Kate in the doorway. Beside her was Drew.

“Hey, Bren, look who I found,” Kate said, giving Drew a push into the room.

Brenna smiled slightly and pushed herself up. “Hi.”

He smiled. “Hey.” He pulled her into a hug and she breathed in deeply. He pulled back and kissed her briefly and then slipped an arm around her waist. “How’re you doing?”

“Good.”

Kate looked around them to Justin’s sleeping form. “How long has he been sleeping?”

“A few hours. I gave him a whole bunch of cold medicine though so that really knocked him out.” Brenna felt a tug on her waist and looked up at Drew.

“Want to go to your room?”

“Okay.”

“I think I’ll stay here,” Kate said. Brenna caught her look.

“Kate, don’t do anything to him. He’s really sick.”

“I won’t. I actually want to go through his closet and get rid of some of the ugly stuff he refuses to throw out.”

Brenna shook her head as Kate went into Justin’s walk in closet. She turned to the door and Drew followed closely behind. She led him to her bedroom and he shut the door behind him.

“It feels like it’s been awhile since I’ve seen you,” he said as he sat down on her bed.

“Yeah, it has been.” She stood there for a minute and then went to her bed and sat up near her pillows, drawing her knees up to her chest.

“Is everything okay?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“You just seem a little different.”

“I’m just a little stressed out.”

“How come?”

She shook her head. “Just after today and rearranging Justin’s whole schedule and I’m tired and I’m trying to organize this party for Trace.” She sighed. “I don’t know.”

“Maybe you need a break.”

“Maybe.”

“You could tell Justin you need some time off.”

“I can’t right now. It’s busy and Trace has exams.”

“Just make sure you’re okay.”

“I am.” She rested her chin on her knees and stared at her feet. She had no energy left and sitting in silence was fine with her.

When Justin got home from golfing, the first thing he heard as he opened the front door was Brenna yelling. He hadn’t seen her at all that day but from the sounds of it, she wasn’t happy.

After taking off his shoes, he went to the kitchen where Brenna was. She was on the phone, her cheeks seeming a little flushed, pacing the room. He went over to the fridge and opened it, staring inside for something to eat.

“I don’t care what your memo says! That is NOT what I ordered!”

He glanced over at her as she yelled that into the phone and then pulled out a box of pizza from the fridge and set it on the counter. He took out a slice and leaned back against the counter.

“Look, I really don’t’ care if you’ve already made it. It’s not right and it’s not what I ordered and I’m not paying for it. So do it again or I can just go somewhere else and get it done there!”

He watched her end the call and slam the phone down on the counter. “Making new friends?” he asked with a smile. She turned to look at him.

“I’m TRYING to get everything for Trace’s party ready but it’s NOT happening because everyone’s being stupid! Whose idiotic idea was it to get a stupid ICE SCULPTURE?!”

He raised his eyebrows. “Mine.”

“Then YOU deal with them screwing it up every two minutes!”

He watched her leave, his eyebrows still raised. “Wow,” he said out loud. She was mad. He heard her door slam and then it was quiet. “Somebody’s having a bad day,” he murmured, pulling another slice of pizza from the box.

The phone rang and he picked it up from the counter and answered it.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Justin.”

“Hey, Mom. What’s up?”

“Just called to see how you guys were doing. I’m surprised I got through actually. Your line’s been busy all morning.”

“I wasn’t home but I think Brenna’s been on it. When I got home she was duking it would with the people making the ice sculptures for Trace’s party. I’ve never seen her so mad at someone like that.”

“It’s probably because of what today is.”

“What’s today?”

“Her dad’s birthday.”

“But her dad’s de…” he trailed off. “Oh.”

“You didn’t know?”

“That today’s his birthday? No. She never said anything.” He rubbed his neck. “That explains things a bit.”

“She’s most likely just having a hard day.”

“Well if I had known, I would have told her to just take the day off. I don’t need the stuff for the party done today.”

“Where is she?”

“Went upstairs. Maybe I should go check on her. Can I call you back? Will you be home all day?”

“I should be.”

“Okay. I’ll call you in a bit.”

“Sure. Bye.”

“Love you. Bye.” He hung up the phone and left the kitchen and went upstairs. He knocked on Brenna’s closed door and when he heard her say, “What?”, he opened it. She was sitting on the floor, leaning back against her bed. A bunch of papers were spread out in front of her.

“Hey, are you okay?”

She looked up at him. “I’m fine. Not a big fan of ice sculptures at the moment.”

He smiled and went into the room and sat on her bed. “The ice sculpture’s really not that important. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out.”

“That lady was so rude,” Brenna muttered.

Justin moved further onto the bed and then stretched out on his stomach so his head was right beside where Brenna’s head was. “What are you doing?”

“Seeing who hasn’t RSVPed yet. I’m gonna have to call some of these people.”

He rested his chin on his folded arms. “My mom called. You never told me it was your dad’s birthday today.”

She leaned forward and gathered the papers into a stack. “I know.”

“Why didn’t you?”

She shrugged and began to circle some of the names on the list with a pen.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“You know, you don’t have to do all this today. It can wait. Just take a personal day.”

“Justin, I’ve done this for four years. I’m fine.”

“I just don’t get how you can be fine.”

She didn’t say anything but instead flipped through the pages in her hand.

“Hey, why don’t we do something tonight? We can get a movie. I’ll get Trace to pull himself away from his studying and I can call up Kate. Call Drew and see if he wants to come over.”

“Kate said she was busy tonight.”

“What about Drew? Call him.”

“Why is it so important to you that I call Drew?” she snapped at him.

He shut his mouth and didn’t say anything. She sighed and reached up a hand to rub her temple.

“Sorry.”

“I just thought you’d want to invite him over.”

“Sorry,” she repeated.

He leaned forward and from behind put his arms around her shoulders in a hug. She didn’t say anything or turn her head towards him as he put his head forward and kissed the side of her head.

“It’s okay to be upset, Bren. If you want to just be by yourself, we don’t have to do anything.”

“I want to be by myself.”

“Okay.” He pulled away and got up from her bed. Reaching down, he picked up the papers she had put on the bed. “I’ll do this. Don’t worry about it.” He left her room, shutting the door behind him and went downstairs, deciding he would first call him mom back and then work on the guest look for Trace’s party.