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Anthony laid in bed, wanting to die, misery overwhelming him as the feeling of sickness washed over him. His entire body was physically warm, yet he was shaking, his stomach ached and he had no desire to eat anything. All Anthony wanted to do was curl up in bed and cry, no motivation or want to eat, shower, or even sleep.
He hadn't left his bedroom for the past two days, which meant he hadn't ingested anything in the past 48 hours, and his body was starting to feel the toll on his body. His head was pounding, and to make a bad thing worse, he was abruptly woken up by the sound of a knock on the door.
"Anthony? We're going to come in ok?" Someone said softly, who Anthony identified as Bryce. The door was suddenly opened, revealing both Bryce and Griffin who walked into the room, quietly clicking the door shut behind them. They had become overwhelmingly worried as they noticed the boy's strange habits and patterns over the past few days.
"Hi," he muttered, tucking his head back into the pillow as he felt the overwhelming feeling of nausea wash over him.
"Are you ok? I haven't seen you eat, or hell even drink something for a hot minute," Griffin said softly, sitting down on the bed next to Anthony's head, running his fingers gently through his hair, feeling bad as he accidentally tugged through a few knots, watching as he winced.
"I'm not hungry," Anthony whined softly, the idea of eating making him want to gag, he didn't think he would be able to keep anything down for more than a few minutes. Bryce placed a gentle hand on his forehead, almost immediately retracting it as he felt how overwhelmingly warm he was.
"Griffin, can you get a thermometer?" Bryce asked in a hushed manner, hooking his arms under Anthony's and gently pulling him up to sit straight. But instead of sitting up by himself, Anthony gently slumped forward, falling into Bryce's steady shoulder. Griffin stood up, heading downstairs to grab the thermometer they kept in the downstairs bathroom.
"I don't feel good," he murmured softly, an achy pain shooting through his body, and at that moment he began to wonder if this wasn't some meaningless little cold, but instead the flu.
"It's ok, you'll be ok. Griffin and I are going to help you ok," Bryce cooed softly, placing a soft little kiss on top of his head, not wanting to get himself sick, he tried his best to comfort Anthony without spreading germs.
"I want cuddles," Anthony whined, trying to wrap his arms around Bryce who reluctantly gave in and pulled the sick boy close. Another reason he didn't want to hold him so close was that it would heat up his body, and assuming that he already had a fever, that would make the situation worse.
"Alright, Anthony, open wide. I'm going to put a thermometer in your mouth," Griffin said softly, using one hand to pull the boys head out of the crook of Bryce's neck. He waited till Anthony opened his mouth, quickly slipping the metal device under his tongue, feeling bad as he watched him jump at how cold it was.
"Just, relax, we'll take care of you," Griffin said with a soft sigh, brushing the sick boy's knotty hair out of his eyes, frowning at the sight of Anthony's flushed cheeks and sweaty forehead. And not to be offensive or anything, but both boys agreed that Anthony genuinely looked like shit, and if they didn't do something soon, he would get even worse.
He hadn't been taking care of himself, and it was quite apparent to both Bryce and Griffin as they saw the state he was in. Curled up in bed, body aching, stomach grumbling, and still wearing the same clothes they last saw him in, sweatpants and a cozy black sweatshirt they assumed belonged to one of the other boys.
The thermometer beeped, and Bryce was quick to pull it out of Anthony's mouth, shocked as he saw the black numbers on the little screen. He showed it to Griffin, who also jumped at the sight of the number "104*F" on the thermometer. That was some serious shit, like take them to the hospital level shit. 105 was deadly, that meant that they would need to work to cool him down, and fast. Bryce and Griffin instantly stood up from the bed. Bryce running to the bathroom to fill a cold bath as the other boy went downstairs to grab the bag of ice that was chilling in the freezer. An ice bath could be either extremely helpful, or it would backfire and in that case, they would need to drive him to the hospital in an instant.
Depending on how the boy's body reacted, it would either break his fever, or it would cause him to shiver, which could bring up his body temperature.
They hoped that if he distracted them and rested hot rags on his upper body, it would cause the bath to become effective.
Griffin ran upstairs, walking into the bathroom and dumped the bag of ice into the already chilled water. The two went back in the room, quickly taking off Anthony's sweatshirt and sweatpants, picking him up and carrying him to the bathtub. Bryce gently dropped him in, watching as he whined in disgust, trying to thrash and claw at the two boys who dunked him into the freezing water.
They felt awful for placing him in the icy water, but they knew they could handle whatever screaming, yelling, and hate Anthony threw at him, as long as his fever broke.
"Why," Anthony whined as he tried his best to suppress any sort of shivers that wracked through his body.
"We want your fever to break, it's going to be ok," Griffin tried to comfort as Bryce grabbed the thermometer once again. He placed it back in Anthony's mouth, waiting a few seconds until he heard a satisfying beep. He pulled it out and showed it to Griffin.
Both let out a sigh of relief as they saw that the fever had dropped down to 103*F.
