"Swim meet today evening! Come give soup to the team!"
"That's 'support', Ed..."
Nazz turned away from the spectacle on the screen to shoot Kevin a meaningful look. "You going again?"
"Might as well," Kevin sighed, his cheek still stinging from where he had peeled off Eddward's latest label. "God, you know, the place is always packed and I'm pretty sure Eddward just calls me 'pumpkin' because at this point it'd be too awkward to ask me what my actual name is. I don't get why he insists on me being there all the time when he clearly doesn't care about my existence in any other area."
"Dude, once was enough for me," Nat grumbled. "Youreally want to go to another one?"
Kevin shrugged. "I dunno, Nat, I just feel like blowing him off would be asking for trouble, you know? And it's a couple hours out of my Friday, so it's not like I'm losing much."
Nat rolled his eyes. "Suit yourself. Let me know if anything interesting happens."
"Heh, sure."
"I'm pretty sure Marie's going, so I think I will, too," Nazz offered. "Wanna go together, or should we meet up here?"
"I'm gonna be taking my bike, so..."
"Right. I'll meet you here, then."
"Ha ha, very funny."
The rest of the period rushed by, until the ringing bell brought sighs of relief from nearly all students present. Kevin kept close to his friends as they left the classroom. All around them, their classmates chattered noisily about anything from the evening's event to weekend plans to some hilarious incident that went down in the cafeteria. The hallway was nearly choked with a veritable throng, as it usually was when school let out on Fridays, and Kevin gladly ducked out of it when Nazz paused by Marie's locker. Nat and Rolf were moving on already, seemingly heedless, but Kevin was grateful for a break from all the shoving.
"Hey, Marie!" At Nazz's greeting, Marie promptly did that adorable thing where she pretended the sound of Nazz's voice didn't make her melt on the inside, and Kevin pretended to notice something across the hall so that neither girl would see him grinning. Sometimes he wondered if Nazz was really as oblivious to their friend's crush as she seemed. Not that he was about to ask. Marie had already sworn him to secrecy a while ago, and even if she hadn't, he wouldn't have had the heart to spoil it for either of them.
Marie grinned, looking tired and distracted. She had been focused on her phone, but at their approach she pocketed it. "Hey. Are you guys coming to the swim meet again?"
"Yeah, me and Kevin are." Nazz blinked at her, looking concerned. "...Hey, are you feeling okay?"
Marie's face, previously pale, turned slightly pink. "Uh. Yeah. Just, um... woke up with a pretty nasty headache, and I'm a little tired, that's all. But I still plan on going. Wouldn't miss a swim meet for the world. Save me a seat, will you? I may run a little late."
"Okay, sure thing!"
"We'll see you the-" Kevin began, only to be cut off when another, much taller student shoved past him, nearly knocking him over.
"Watch it, dweeb!" Nazz looked ready to shout back at him, but Kevin nudged her quickly to keep her from jumping into a needless argument.
"You okay?" Marie asked. Kevin nodded, re-shouldering his bag.
"It's fine," he said, hoping he sounded carefree enough. "Happens enough that it doesn't bother me anymore."No point in complaining when jerks don't hear you anyway.
Nazz seemed to shake herself, as if brushing off her previous annoyance. "We'd better go, though," she said. "I better, anyway. I need to get started on homework."
"It is the weekend, though," Kevin pointed out. "Unless you've got an essay or something."
"No, but we have Quiz Bowl practice on Saturday, remember?" Nazz blinked, then smacked her forehead suddenly. "Crap, and I have a violin lesson right after. So yeah, there's that, and we're going to the swim meet later on top of it, so-"
"Ah, excellent. Glad to hear that I made an impression."
Kevin started, and immediately regretted it when he turned to look at the speaker. Eddward's abrupt presence (not even an arrival, he was just suddenlythere) had caught him off guard, and what was worse, the bully knew it. He had seen Kevin jump, and he looked obnoxiously smug about it. Kevin glared at him, longing to wipe that smirk off his face.
"Wow, it sure is getting crowded here," Nazz said lightly, taking Kevin by the arm. "See you later, Marie. We'll save you a seat."
Marie waved back, looking equal parts weary and apologetic. "Thanks, guys."
"Hope she's okay," Nazz murmured to Kevin as they rejoined the rest of the crowd and moved away from friend and foe alike. "Is there a flu going around? I'd hate for her to get sick."
Kevin grinned in spite of himself, doing his level best to put Eddward out of his mind for the time being. "She'll be fine. I think-" Someone jostled him again, and this time he sidestepped to avoid another confrontation. Three students - junior year jocks, by the look of them - shouldered their way past. It was never his intention to eavesdrop, but they were close enough that he couldn't help but pick up snippets of their conversation.
"-but did you get it?"
"Yeah, I - hard as fuck to-"
"Shut up, we just passed - he'll hear-"
"Quit complaining - got the key - today's the day." They moved on, and Kevin heard no more from them.
"That doesn't bode well," he muttered.
"Did you say something?" Nazz asked.
"It's not important. Come on, there's the door. Let's go before we get trampled."
Marie had watched them as they left, frowning regretfully at the rather ill-natured parting. She thought longingly of taking a nap once she returned home, but there was homework to be done and a swim meet to attend. Besides, with her head still throbbing like this, the possibility of sleep was doubtful. Massaging her temple with one hand, she turned back to her friend.
"Can you not?"
"I have no idea what you are referring to," Eddward replied glibly.
Marie glared at him, but furrowing her brow worsened her headache, so she allowed the matter to drop for the moment. "Just so you know, I'll probably be a little late today. I'll still make it, though," she added quickly.
"Fair enough." He paused, watching her carefully. "Are you certain you're all right? You have been looking somewhat under the weather today."
"I'm fine," she assured him. "Just a headache. Sleepy. High school. You know how it is." When he still looked doubtful, she nudged him playfully with her elbow. "Hey, I'll be there, I promise."
Apparently satisfied, Eddward nodded. "Then I will see you this evening." He turned away, about to leave. "Do try not to exert yourself, Marie."
Marie smiled in spite of herself. He could get so concerned and anxious sometimes, and often over nothing. "I'm fine, Double Dee. I'll see you."
She loved Nazz and liked Kevin, and she didn't like Eddward's behavior toward them. But when he smiled like that, it was hard to stay mad at him.
She had not felt this legitimately terrible in a very, very long time. In fact, Marie wasn't altogether certain that she ever had. Her bedroom was sweltering and stuffy, and the words and letters before her, both the typed ones in her textbook and the ones she had written herself on binder paper, were blurring and running together. She wondered if something in her sandwich at lunch had gone bad, because she was also feeling significantly more nauseous than she should have.
Crap, now is not the time for food poisoning, she thought, irritated. You have to leave in less than ten minutes and be there for your best friend. Then you can come home and puke up your dinner to your heart's content. It'll even be the weekend, so ten to one you won't even have to miss school.
Grumbling to herself, she got up from her chair and almost immediately listed to the side and fell over. She managed to stagger back into something resembling balance, with some assistance from her chair, before stumbling to the kitchen for a drink. A quiet groan escaped her as she watched water cascade into the glass. The kitchen was even more unbearably hot than her bedroom, and she had to resist the urge to forgo drinking and just dump her would-be beverage over her head. She sipped, and found little relief, if any. Swallowing was a chore all on its own.
May was there, or Marie could have sworn she was. Someone was talking to her, anyway, asking some inane question about why she looked so godawful. Marie turned around, about to tell her sister to piss off until the room stopped spinning, but abruptly turned back and leaned over the empty sink to be violently sick.
Almost immediately there were hands steadying her, brushing her hair back from her face to keep it out of the puke. The heaving eased after a few moments, leaving her coughing and swaying dizzily. The hands left her head to hold her up by the shoulders.
"Christ, you were moaning about a headache this morning and you've been pale all day," May was grumbling. One hand went from her shoulder to her forehead briefly. "Come on, you're burning up. Bed, now."
"Where's my phone?" Her own voice sounded strangely far away.
"You can bitch about this on Twitter when you aren't falling over like an alcoholic," May said dryly. "Hashtag flu season. Now come on."
"Need my phone," Marie insisted, though the reason why was beginning to slip her mind.
"You need bed rest and a bucket. You might need some sick days if this lasts past the weekend."