A Little Love (1st Draft)

Chapter 10: Early Morning Phone Calls

Authors note (as of 11/23/2021) : I thank everyone who continues to read this version of A Little Love. I highly encourage you to look at the edited version where grammar is better and some ideas flushed out more. It also fixes a key problem in this chapter which many of you kindly remind me of. I'm this version, Ariana receives Nutella in which a previous chapter it is said she has a nut allergy. In the newly edited novel, Ariana only has a peanut allergy and thus, eating Nutella is perfectly safe. Cheers!
         

Chapter 10

Early Morning Phone Calls

Ariana

I'm currently curled up underneath a mountain of covers. The hood of my Fluttershy onesie is over my head and I am barely awake as I wait for a facetime call at 6:30 in the morning. I have my arms wrapped around Solstice, the horse Alec had bought for me when I was in the hospital.

It felt like two weeks had just flown by. I never did end up going to work on Monday like I had planned to. Well, I tried. I got up to go and somehow, Alec managed to convince me that I should stay home. Which, looking back, I wasn't ready to go back to work. I could barely walk a block without being out of breath and coughing. I talked with work and they said they could cover me. I even had another week off as the office was closed.

And...

I was still living in Alec's house.

Or at least for now. He hadn't kicked me out yet. I couldn't deny how... happy it made me feel. I felt more at home here than I had for the past year that I had in my parent's house. He had made me feel warm and loved. It made me feel fuzzy inside with feelings that I couldn't comprehend. He was always there for me. Sometimes... he was annoyingly there for me. If I had one complaint, it was that he was always asking for proof, especially when he had to go back to the office and left me at the house.

He kept making me lunches, labelling them in the fridge. They were cute little bento boxes with animal shaped food. And as much as I wanted to say, no, I was an adult. I yearned for the cute characters that he made, the black bear chocolate pancakes, and the little star and flower shape fruits he would leave me.

I hear my iPad start to ring with a facetime call and I lazily stretch for it while sitting myself up in my bed. I was not a morning person, so these calls were hard. The only reason that I was taking this call, was because it was my brother, whom I was finally getting to speak with after what seemed like a month.

"Hey sis."

I smile as my brother Daniel is waving from me while he is in some military bed, propped up wearing a tan colored shirt. He then looks at me funny and lifts his fingers to point at the hood of my onesie. "What are you wearing?" he asks with a bit of a laugh. I blush a bit before sliding my hand over my head to take off the hood.

"It's uh... nothing," I state. I was trying to change the subject. "How are you? It's nice to hear your voice after what... a month?" I ask.

My brother frowns at me. "Yea, I know, there's just been a lot of stuff going on around here. Not a lot of spare time, limited access to Wifi, and waiting turns to use it. Also trying to sleep when I can," he explains to me and I nod my head that I understand.

Throughout the last two weeks, Daniel and I had been talking through emails. Be it they were sporadic, but it was the only way he could contact me. It made me sick inside sometimes. Sometimes more than others. I hated not hearing from him every night to know that he was safe. Without confirmation, I was left to think that he wasn't alright. It was happening a lot more lately too. It was starting to leave me with nightmares and waking up in a cold sweat thinking about it.