Thirty-five #2
My mom and Alan shared a pointed look before Alan rushed up the stairs.
As he left, my mom pulled me into a hug.
I eventually felt another pair of arms go around me in comfort and I knew from the flowery scent that it was Gabriela’s.
My heart continued to beat at a rapid pace as I tried to take a deep breath.
"I know he's not okay right now." I laid my head against my mother’s chest. "But he was acting like I don’t love him, like everything I’ve done these past few days hasn’t been to help him. Have I done that bad of a job at being there for him?"
"You have done an amazing job,” Mam à said with clear certainty. “You have done nothing but be there for him and Eli knows that, trust me.”
“Yeah, he’s just sick right now. It’s not on you,” Gabriela added encouragingly.
My mom then sighed. "You have such a big heart, but this is why it is important that you take a break too."
I pulled back from the hug. "What?"
"Take your sister and go spend time with her. You haven’t left the house in days, you’ll get stir crazy.”
I was hurt by Eli’s words, but me walking out of the room did not mean I wanted to leave entirely. I only needed a couple of minutes to myself, not hours. "I'm not leaving him."
"You cannot help him if you don’t help yourself," she said sternly, leaving no room for protest. "I’m not budging this time, Javier. He is in safe hands and will be here when you get back."
Gabriela tugged my arm with a smile. "Let’s go get food, I’m starving."
I did not want to. I wanted to be there for my baby because he was all that mattered to me.
This was proving difficult for me to navigate, but that meant it was much worse for him.
I already had to leave him for half of the day tomorrow to go back to school and now they wanted me to give up a big part of today too.
But everyone here was telling me that I needed to go, and it was not like I had much of an option.
My sister and I went to a local restaurant that I didn’t even know the name of. She took us here because she said she had been wanting to try it for the longest time. I was fine with whatever. I was hungrier than I thought I was, so I kept the complaining to a minimum.
Gabriela tried to take my mind off everything, but I could see that she was worried too.
We tried to keep the details from her, but Gabriela wasn't a small child.
She knew what was going on and how bad the situation was.
Since she cared for Eli just as much as I did, it was affecting her too.
Even with all of the worrying, the outing with my sister was still nice.
At one point I did forget about what was going on at home just like the trip intended.
It was insisted that we stay out for longer than just an hour, so I took her to the outlet mall. I told her we were window shopping because we needed something to pass the time. She ended up leaving with a new pair of shoes and a coat.
We were out for four hours before we made it home.
There was only so much that we could do to pass the time and I had been itching to go back.
When I came into my room, I hoped to find him asleep.
Instead, I found him lying on the floor.
My heart skipped a beat at the sight, but then I took a closer look and saw that he was not in any immediate danger.
He was lying on his back with legs bent and his head turned to me. Eli smiled weakly.
"Why are you on the floor?" I asked, a mix of worry and confusion in my tone.
Eli put his palms flat on the ground and pushed himself to sit up. "Sorry. I was trying something new to see if it would help."
I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. "Did it?"
I crouched down and sat on the floor next to him. He scooted forward and bear hugged me, his body weight leaning onto me. The sudden movement surprised me because I was still having trouble figuring out when he did and did not want to be touched. I wrapped my arms around him as he did me.
"Not really," he mumbled. "I'm sorry for what I said earlier, I didn’t mean that. I love you.”
Such a small gesture and very few words, yet they meant so much. I did not want to be made to feel like I was not doing everything in my power to help him. It made me prideful to know the words he spewed before were just that, words.
“I love you too,” I muttered into the crook of his neck.
“And thank you for being here.”
I rubbed my hand in small circles on his lower back. “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
The next day was better than the previous. I wasn't there for most of it because I was forced to go to school, but I was sent messages throughout the day about how Eli was doing. It gave me peace of mind.
Day five was when he was okay with people coming to see him.
Ricky, Bella, Kailey, and Paxton had been dying too, but he felt too embarrassed and guilty.
He still felt that way, but he felt psychically okay enough to see the people that cared about him.
They came one day after school, and we all spent the afternoon together as normally as possible.
Alex and Millie came over the day after that. Alex had messaged me inviting Eli and I over, and that was when I broke the news to them. Alex sent a bunch of worried and anxious texts my way before I could assure him Eli was alright. We ended up deciding he and Millie could come visit.
Millie jumped onto the bed and snuggled up against Eli. Alex rushed behind her with his arms extending, ready to pull the girl off of the bed she was not supposed to be on. It wasn’t until he noticed Eli’s weak laughter that he paused.
“Hi, Millie.” He smiled at her.
She looked up at him with a big grin. “Hi!”
Millie had a piece of paper in her hand. It was folded into a card and had a bunch of bright, colorful stars drawn on it. She handed it to Eli. "Alex said you were sick, so I made you a get well soon card."
"That's so kind of you." Elias opened the card and began to read it. I leaned over his shoulder to see what she had written in it, but I realized there were no words inside. There were a lot of stick people drawn to look like they were dancing, or that’s at least what it looked like to me.
“I love it, thanks,” he said as enthusiastically as he could. Millie leaned closer with a satisfied smile.
"How are you doing?" Alex asked as he sat on the edge of the bed.
Eli put on a brave, determined face. "Getting there."
"Look!" Millie shrieked as she crawled to the other side of the bed. The child picked up the bear that she spotted and raised it high before wrapping her arms around it. "A bear! Can I keep it?"
Alex pinched the bridge of his nose with an overwhelmed sigh. “No, that yours.”
The girl frowned. “But it’s so cute.”
“You can play with it while you’re here, though,” I told her. I wanted to help out Alex and save him from the child’s temper tantrum. My words turned her frown upside-down.
“I’m sorry she’s messing with your stuff,” Alex said as he shot a glare toward his niece. “She was mad at me before we got here because I wouldn’t buy her a stuffed animal she saw in the store.”
“She’s fine,” I assured him. “You seem stressed.”
Alex laughed bitterly. “That’s because I’ve been watching her all day. But whatever, it’s whatever.”
There was a crease in his forehead as he furrowed his brows and ran a harsh hand through his hair. I eyed his tense demeanor, clearly there was some stuff going on that he wasn’t sharing.
“Where’s Killian?”
Alex’s lips pressed together tightly, and his muscles stiffened. His eyes focused on the bed as he spoke as neutrally as possible. “Couldn’t make it. He wishes you well, Eli.”
Another sore subject. I decided to leave it alone because he obviously was not eager to share.
Alex and Millie didn't stay for long. The girl was upset that she had to go and leave the bear behind because it was her ‘most favorite bear in the world.’ She settled down when I told her that she could visit Fallon Everest anytime. Millie was a handful, to say the least.
That night my parents had us sitting on the couch in the living room while we waited for them to come speak to us.
Me, my mom, Alan, and Eli were having a serious conversation.
Eli and I thought we were in trouble because they had the 'my kid did something wrong' look on their faces.
My mind was flashed with every bad thing I had ever done when I was little.
Mam à took a seat before us. "The trip is in a few days, and we want to know how you're feeling about it, Eli.”
Oh, it was nothing of that sort. I let out a tiny breath of relief, earning a skeptical brow raise from my mother.
Eli's nose scrunched in pure confusion as to why she ever thought to ask him such a question. "I still want to go."
"These past few days have been hard and you're over the worst of it, but you still haven't fully recovered." She put a comforting hand on his knee and he flinched. "I don't want you to push yourself."
Eli’s head was shaking firmly. "A couple of days from now I'll be even more okay than I am now. I can’t miss out on the trip you guys literally paid for me to go on.”
"Your health comes before any trip," I stated.
Eli’s hands flew out to the sides in disbelief. "You're supposed to be on my side."
"I am on the side of you being okay."
Eli looked between the three of us incredulously. "Are you really going to make me stay?"
My parents shared a look before sighing. I wanted him to go more than anything, but not if it was going to make things worse. Though, only Eli knew whether it would make him better or worse. He was the only one that knew himself.
"He is staying in the room with you," Alan mentioned in Eli's favor. "And if he seems like he can handle it these next couple of days, then I don't see why he shouldn't be able to go."
Eli bit his fingernails as he awaited her answer. I was sitting on the edge of my seat too because this determined my fate as well. If Eli could not go, then I could not either. We were a package deal.
My mom rubbed her chin as her eyes focused on the table before her. "If you seem capable of going the night before the trip, then I won’t stop you."
"Really?" Eli jumped up with excitement as his eyes filled with joy. It only lasted for a second before he gripped the armrest of the couch and eased himself down again, the sudden movement a bit too much. He laughed awkwardly. "Yay."
Elias spent the next few days trying his hardest to be okay.
By the night before the trip he was a lot better than before.
He was still very tired from the lack of sleep and he got headaches frequently, but the nausea was gone and he had broken the fever a while ago.
Was he completely over it? Definitely not.
Had he convinced them to let him go? That, he did.