•The O'Connor Siblings• Book 1 [Process of Editing&Rewriting]

Chapter 10: A Quarter Mile at a Time✔️

I woke up to the sun blaring through the open shades and right into my side of the room. I immediately shivered and hugged the blanket closer to my chin. I look to the bed next to mine to see the soft rise and fall of my best friends chest as he slept soundly.

"Brandon." I say softly. Hearing my voice, I scrunch my face listening to the raspiness. Did I really get sick over night?

"Brandon!" I say a little louder, but not without my voice cracking. He stirred awake and squinted in my direction as he rubbed an eye. "What's wrong?"

I shivered again. "Did you turn the AC up last night? I'm freezing." Brandon propped himself up on his elbows and frowned, "Jae, the AC hasn't been working for the past 3 days. Are you feeling okay?"

"I don't know. But what I do know is that it feels like Antarctica right now." My teeth started to chatter, causing Brandon to jump up. He rushed over to me and felt my head.

"Jae, you're burning up."

"No I'm not. I'm cold, Brandon. How many times do I have t— achoo!"

My whole body tensed up as I sneezed my brains out. A headache started up immediately after and I groaned in pain.

"Yeah, I'm taking you to the E.R. Come on." Brandon scooped me up, blanket and all, and grabbed a few things before carrying me downstairs. I closed my eyes and laid my head on his shoulder.

"You better not go to sleep. I don't need you dying on me right now." Brandon joked. I smiled the best that I could but kept my eyes closed as there was a knock on the glass door.

Brandon shifted me in his arms to open the door. "Hey, man, is this a bad time?" A soft deep voice that I've never heard before said.

"I'm sorry, dude. This just came up, she got sick over night. Do you want to wait till later today, or I could reschedule you?"

"It's okay, Brandon. Just give me a call when you're done and she's okay and we can work on the car."

I wanted to badly to open my eyes and see who this guy was, but my eye lids won't let me. It's like they're glued shut at the moment.

"Thanks, man. I'm sorry for the delay." Brandon's voice rumbled in my ear. There was a snicker and the the guy replied, "Don't apologize. You can't control it. Mother Nature has a way of surprising you when you least expect it. She's gonna have to ride it out."

Did he really just make a period assumption? Lucky for everyone, I had mine this month already, and If I was starting or still on it, they would've just gotten an ear full out of me. Not that my voice would let me speak anyway.

There was silence and then a snicker from the chest I was up against.

"Dude, not like—you know what I mean. Anyway, I hope everything goes well. I'll be waiting for that call." The guy says and his footsteps become more distant. Shortly after, I felt myself being strapped into the passenger seat and felt the purr of the engine come to life.

After arriving at the hospital, the nurse hooked me up to monitors and an IV drip after seeing how pale I'd gotten in the short amount of time being there.

"Well it looks to me that you have a good old uncommon case of the flu with a side of strep. You should be feeling a little better after this drip is done and I will get the Doc to fill out some prescriptions for antibiotics for your throat."

I laid back and smiled at her. "So she's not going to die?" Brandon asked, grabbing my hand and holding it to his chest like we were in some stupid Romance movie.

"No, luckily it's nothing too serious." The nurse giggled. I pulled my hand back and swatted the back of Brandon's head.

"Thank you so much. I'm starting to feel better already." I state with a smirk as I watched Brandon rub the pain away from his head.