A Month To Live - Extras

The Nurse

Was it worse waking up for college or waking up for work? Sometimes I wasn’t so sure. I looked forward to some classes so those days were easier. Right now, on a Saturday morning, I was thinking I’d rather sit in class for a couple hours than spend a day at the garage. I needed a long rest after a long week. Getting up and being sociable and nice to customers was really not what I wanted to do.

Not that I hated working at the garage – actually it was pretty fun a lot of the time. Right now, it was cold as hell though and I didn’t fancy sitting around freezing my ass off all day. As the garage was quite a large open space, it was hard to keep warm so the best way was to just layer up on clothes. It didn’t stop me and Cole from complaining all day though. But we did enjoy annoying Jojo.

Staying snuggled in bed right now all toasty seemed like a much nicer idea. But duty called.

With a noise between a groan and a sigh, I shot my hand out and turned off my phone’s shrill alarm. Our room was nowhere near close to cold – actually I kept it very warm despite Bradley’s protests... he preferred sleeping in a cool room and snuggling under the covers. I didn’t mind the window open in the summer but right now in December, I just couldn’t compromise.

I dragged myself up, glancing somewhat jealously at Bradley’s sleeping form on the other side of the bed as I crossed over to the bathroom. He was passed out. He’d been training like a crazy person the last week or so with the team in an attempt to be in the best position possible for their game next week.

It really annoyed me when he did that. He always pushed himself much too far and suffered for it afterwards. And he also waved me off and said I was just worrying too much. Maybe I was. Maybe I wasn’t. I think he could have a healthier balance; I wasn’t sure he knew his limits. Or if he did, he insisted on pushing past them.

After brushing my teeth quickly, I returned to the room and threw together an outfit which would keep me as warm as possible throughout the day. I was feeling much more awake now, distracted by the thought of perhaps picking up some crepes for breakfast on the way to work.

‘See you later,’ I said, untucking my hair from my sweater as I made my way around Bradley’s side of the bed.

‘Bye,’ he managed to get out in his half-asleep state. He’d stirred once he heard me getting dressed. It was quite difficult to stay asleep when the person you shared the bed with was leaving. Well, I struggled with that anyway, I always seemed to wake up when he got up even if I wanted to sleep in for longer.

I leaned down to kiss him right on the temple – he just looked so comfy and cute snuggled up into the pillows and blanket. But I frowned as I pulled away and drew the cover away from his cheek.

‘You’re hot.’

‘Thanks,’ he muttered without skipping a beat.

My frown deepened into a scowl at his response and I pressed my hand against his forehead to see whether I was just imagining it. He did tend to overheat when he slept. I barely needed a comforter if he was in the bed. But no, I didn’t think he was usually this warm. He was burning up.

‘You feel okay?’ I asked, taking my hand away slowly, brushing some strands away from his forehead where they’d flattened in the night. ‘You were at practice in the rain, weren’t you?’

He’d come back late last night after one of the evening practices – drenched and covered in mud. He’d been sneezing even after a long, hot bath and ended up going go bed earlier than usual after barely touching his dinner. When Bradley wasn’t hungry, all was not right in the world. I knew that much.

Bradley didn’t reply for a couple of moments and instead let out a noise of complaint as he rolled onto his back and cracked his eyes open to look up at me. He looked fairly normal except for the fact that his face was flushed red and beneath his eyes was darker than usual like he hadn’t actually slept at all. Fitfully at best.