Forget Green Gables

What the Actual...

"You alive? I need to talk."

I tell Jamie I am, and to let herself in. In truth, I can barely keep my eyes open or poke my head from under the covers without my teeth chattering so hard they make my jaw ache. I vaguely wonder what happened the previous evening that sends Jamie straight over. Two missed calls, one from Rebecca and one from Jamie, show on my caller ID. How had I slept through the phone ringing?

"Are you alive?" Jamie asks when she comes into the room. I had drifted off again, and start awake at the sound of Jamie's voice.

"Barely," I answer from under my pile of blankets. Wokie scampers in the door after Jamie and then up onto my bed, settling near my chest.

"What do you need?"

I gesture to the collection of Nyquil bottles, used Kleenexes, Cherry Chapstick tubes, Vick's Vaporub, and bottled water. "I've got my stash that Felix rounded up. What's up?" My teeth start chattering again. I pull the quilt over my head, indicating to Jamie that I am still listening.

Jamie sighs and flops down backwards over my desk chair. "Rebecca kissed Carl."

I remove the quilt from over my head. "According to w-w-w-who?" The words trigger a coughing fit, and I sit up, gulp down a bottle of water, and smudge some Vick's under my nose. Jamie rubs my back, grabs the brush off of the dresser, and gently brushes out the rats' nests in my hair before braiding it off of my face. She sinks back down on the chair once my breathing returns to normal, pouring out a dose of Nyquil and then forcing it down my throat. Nyquil is my Achilles' Heel and Jamie knows it.

"Carl. He called me as soon as he got home because he felt so guilty, even though he didn't kiss back."

Something lurches inside me, but it is not mucus. How? Is it possible that my seemingly-cemented core of friends is already shattering? How is it even possible that Rebecca would kiss Carl? Rebecca does not even like Carl very much, and she does not find him attractive. Surely, this is not a real conversation. Surely, this is just a fever half-dream, and I will awake from it at any moment, take some more medication, and go back to sleep.

"Did you ask her about it?"

"He said she did. Why wouldn't I trust him?"

There it is, that sinking feeling I have been trying to ignore since the first day I told Jamie to 'go for it.' "Jamie, it's just that..."

"You've always been jealous," Jamie fires back.
"Of Carl?!" The thought is ludicrous. I wish I had the energy to give Jamie a withering look, but I can barely lift my head. Nyquil is almost as good as a tranquilizer dart and dammit, Jamie knows it. She knows I wouldn't be able to fight back once the Nyquil begins to dissolve in my system.

"I came over here hoping that my best friend in the entire world would be sympathetic. Instead, all you can do is doubt me and imply that my boyfriend is lying to me for his own motives." Jamie leaves, slamming the door behind her. I can hear her feet pounding on each step. Wokie makes a pathetic whining noise, snuggling even closer to my form.

"Ugh," I say weakly, already falling into the Nyquil induced haze. "I better call Rebecca when I can breathe again," I murmur, drifting back off to sleep.