Save Me, Soldier

Chapter Five;

I wake up in the morning, earlier than usual. College doesn't start until 8, and I'm awake at 6;30. Usually I get up at 7, it doesn't take me long to get ready. I decide to shower, and then pull my hair back in a neatly styled bun. I don't care if it's still wet, I'm planning on wearing sweatpants today anyways.

It's Friday, the day that I always wear sweatpants whether we have school or not. I pull on a pair of grey sweatpants, and a yellow t-shirt that I had bought at the mall yesterday. I still have about an hour left before I have to meet Janet in the hall, so I figure it'd be a good time to call Asher. He's probably up anyway, always working on something in the early hours of the morning.

I call him on my computer, and to my surprise, he answers. His eyes are red and swollen, his face looks pale. He is coughing, too.

"Hey Ash, what's going on?" I ask, being casual. I wonder if he's caught the flu bug that's been going around. I mean, I understand he's miles away from me, but I still wonder if they have it at home too. Lots of people in college have been getting sick lately.

"Oh nothing, just puking my freaking guts out. You?" He says. Yep, he's got the flu. Right after his birthday too. Just his luck. He sneezes into a tissue and wipes his nose before throwing it in the trash.

"God, you're in bad shape. Sorry to hear that" I say, pretending to wipe off the theoretical snot from my shirt. He laughs and nods his head.

"Yeah, I am. Listen, it's great that you wanted to talk and all,and I really do want to talk to you, but do you think you could call me later? I'm a little tired and I just finished puking, I want to see if I can get some sleep" He asks . A wave of disappointment washes over me. I miss my brother more than anyone in the world, I wanted to talk to him. But, I understand he's sick. He wants to sleep it off.

"Alright, well....I'll talk to you later then Asher. I give him a sympathetic smile and close the lid of my laptop. I spin around in my spinney chair for a couple moments before looking at my blackberry.

It sat on the corner of my desk on its charger, waiting to be unplugged and picked up. I think about it for a moment, and finally muster up the courage to pick it up and scroll down to Chris's number.

What if he's sleeping? What if he won't pick up because he knows it's me? Maybe he's going to avoid me after what happened in the mall. Though, option number 2 isn't possible, because he doesn't know my number. I'm just trying to make excuses...

I push the call button, and hold the phone up to my ear, hoping it goes to an answering machine.

"Hello?" An angel like voice beams the phone, and I can tell he had been sleeping.

"Hey, Chris? It's Peyton..." I say. Somehow I know this wasn't a good idea. I feel he doesn't want to talk to me.

"Hey Peyton! I'm glad you called, I was starting to think you were trying to avoid me or something" He says, laughing. I shake my head even though he can't see me.

"No, no I'd never do that. You're too perfect for me to try and ignore you" The words come out of my mouth before I manage to stop and think about what I'm saying. I mentally slap myself, VERY hard for saying that. I can just imagine the smirk that's playing itself onto his face.

"So, about our date. How about Sunday night?" He asks, hopeful. Sunday Aaron would be over, but that's alright. I trusted him to stay in my room, or go out or something. He wouldn't care that I was going on a date.

"Yeah, Sunday sounds great" I smile.

Sunday. Sunday would be the day that Chris took me somewhere. Sunday would be the day that I get to flirt with him. Sunday will be the day I will hopefully make a good impression and he'll want to spend time with me. Sunday will be the day.