Bea Ashby:
It was finally the weekend and Jamie and I were at the mall, dress shopping for the big upcoming dance.
"That's nice," I comment on the blue dress Jamie was holding up. "You think so?" She asks, holding it up to her body as she looked in the mirror.
So far neither of us have found a dress that really caught our attention. Grant said he would match his tie to my dress since he's my date and all and I obviously need to decide on a dress before he can shop for his tie.
I hum lightly as I searched the store for a dress. Finally, a beautiful dress caught my attention. It was a champagne coloured dress with sequins on the front from above until a bit above my stomach. My hands glided against the soft material and I smiled. I think this is the dress.
After trying on my dress, both the saleswoman, Jamie and I agreed that this was the dress for me. Once I made my purchase, we left the shop, continuing to search for Jamie's dress. We stopped for a quick lunch as well before doing so.
After hours of searching, Jamie finally found a dress she was happy with and we parted ways so we could go home. When I get home, I quickly remove my shoes and carefully take my dress upstairs. I pass Noah in the hall and he whistles. "That's a long dress,"
"Mhm." I murmur, careful not to let the dress get caught on anything. Once I settle my dress down, I open my hair from it's bun and let it fall past my shoulders. I quickly change out of my jeans and top and into some yoga pants and a tank top.
I said I would help Justin with his writing again and this time I didn't have to worry about having my dad walking in and worrying about Justin's safety. Knocking on Justin's door, I wait until he opens it, letting me in.
"Hi," He turns to walk to his bed where his notebook was sprawled open on a new page. "Avocado ready?"
"Ready." I confirm with a curt nod.
We go over to the seating area in his large room, right by the large window. I take a seat on the couch and he does the same, making sure to keep some distance between us.
He hands over the notebook and I go over his past work. The past few days we've just sat here and worked on our own for a bit instead of downstairs in the open. I didn't want to work in the dinning room where dad and the two other doctors saw everything when they were around.
"Okay, let's work on sentence structures and pronunciation," I flip to the new page, "Let's start with a simple one." I think over it for a bit. "Okay, you ready?"
Justin nods, his brown hair falling back over his face. He pushes it away nonetheless and takes his pencil, holding it up to the page.
I give him a few sentences to write and I help him out with his spelling. I also quiz him on some vocabulary he's learning with his actual tutor and he gets almost all of them right. He's obviously been working hard these past weeks and it's really paying off.
He's no longer always stuttering and he's learning how to spell and write properly. He's even got the whole alphabet down!
We spend about an hour together just practicing back and forth until I close the notebook. "You've done good, Justin." I chuckle, glancing over at him.
Our eyes meet and I find myself looking away almost immediately, shying away from him. He clear's his throat, catching my attention. I look up and see the book I got him in his hands. "Read to Justin?" He asks, his hazel eyes a little hopeful.
Usually after we finished practicing, I would read Justin a few pages of the book and he really seemed to enjoy it. I know he doesn't understand all of it so I always stop to try and explain to him what's happening and he never fails to be amused by it all.
Sometimes he closes his eyes and listens to my voice, enjoying the way I talked or pronounced things which always makes me a little self conscious when I read out loud to him.
Chuckling, I nod. "Sure," Taking the book from his grasp, I continue from where I left off. Justin laid back in a comfortable position, closing his eyes and I started to read.
Every now and then, I couldn't help, but pause and look at him. He was absolutely beautiful. His face was carved by the gods. He was a real work of art.
Justin peaks an eye open when he notices the awfully long silence. "Something w-wrong?"
I shake my head, looking back down at the book and continue, a little embarrassed that he had caught me staring for too long.
I read a little more to him before I stop at the next chapter and close the book. "I think that's enough for today." I needed to start working on a project and I know that dad will be back soon so its best if we both went on with our day.
Justin nods, sitting up and stretches his arms out. His shirt slightly raises, giving me a glimpse off the ink on his skin, but it's quickly covered once again.
Clearing my throat, I stand up myself and hand the book over to Justin who proceeds to place it back in one of his desk drawers where he usually keeps it.
I pass by his bed and don't miss how it was always made. Suddenly, I stop right in my tracks and turn to Justin. "Do you always make your bed like this?" Not once has it changed. He just shrugs before walking right into his bathroom.
Shaking my head, I enter my own bedroom and get started on my project.
~
"Are you okay, Bea?" Jamie asks, approaching me in the halls. I shake my head no, stuffing my stuff into my bag. "I think I got some sort of virus or a bug from Noah. Not feeling well." I mumble, closing my locker shut.
My best friend gives me a sympathetic look, "Do you want me to drive you home?" She asks with concern in her eyes.
"If fine, Jennifer is picking me up." I assure her. When I get a text from Jennifer saying she is here, I say goodbye to Jamie and leave the school building. I already called home after I threw up in the girls bathroom and told Jennifer I wasn't feeling well. The bell for first period already rung a few minutes ago and I didn't need to sign out so I was just going to go home before I threw up again.
When we get home, I quickly rush upstairs, dropping all my school stuff to the ground and haul myself to the bathroom before puking again. Groaning, I close my eyes and wrap my arms around my stomach. "Beatrice?" Jennifer is clearly worried as she rushes to my bathroom.
"Oh my god, Bea. Let me help you." She sighs, helping me up. She flushes the puke away and helps me into bed, bringing a garbage bin over to my bed incase I was to barf again. "Let me get your temperature," She insists.
I let Jennifer do her thing before she leaves, telling me she's going to make more rice. Rice is suppose to be easy to digest and so it's good for you when you have a sensitive stomach and need to regain the energy and nutrients from when your throw up. I knew somehow I would get sick because Noah was sick like this for a few days.
Dad didn't let Justin go anyway near to Noah for those few days, even after he recovered just to be safe. He couldn't have Justin get sick.
I roll over in my bed and shut my eyes closed. I was going to be missing so much school work and I'm supposed to having a test today which I will obviously have to write when I go back to school. Hopefully I'm not sick for too long. As much as I would like to miss a few days of school, the amount of work that I would have to catch up on will be tremendous.
It was nice of Jennifer to make some rice for me. I know we normally don't always get along or I try to avoid her because of my dislike to both her and her son, but she wasn't that bad all the time.
I know she's always off with work on her mind, but she's a pretty good mother to Noah and her motherly instincts were showing this entire time. She seems to somewhat care for me the same way she might care for Noah.
"I'm going to let your rest, all right?" Jennifer is lightly stroking my hair, pushing it away from my face.
I nod, keeping my eyes on the bowl of fresh rice she made for me. "I suggest you have a few bites, only if you think you can keep it down. Rest and don't forget to drink your water. I'm downstairs if you need me." She speaks in a light, soft voice.
"Thanks, Jennifer."
She smiles down at me before getting up and leaving my room.
Groaning, I hug the pillow next to me. I hated being sick. Sure, I can sleep, but feeling like shit sucks and I'm always worrying about the amount of work thats piling up as I lay down and try to not think about it.
I decide to try and get some sleep, hoping I'd feel better sometime soon.
~
"Avocado better yet?"
Justin was sitting across from me in the living room where I now laid. Justin was keeping his distance because he was told to. When my dad came home, he helped me downstairs, saying it might be nice to get a change of view. Even if I just went from my bedroom to the living room.
"No," I shift on the couch, pulling the blanket back over my body. I hate the feeling of being hot and cold at the same time.
A slight pout forms on the boys face. After a few seconds he asks again, "Now Bea better?" He's been asking the same question over and over again for the past ten minutes.
He's even been trying to take care of. Trying to get me to drink water, have a few bites of rice and occasionally attempting to fluff my pillow.
I would remind him every time that he wasn't allowed near me because I was sick, but he'd just ignore my words and continue to do whatever. It's not that I didn't appreciate what he did, I just didn't want to pass the stomach virus to him.
Groaning, I shut my eyes closed. "No, Justin." The urge to throw up has subsided for a bit and I was grateful for that. I've been resting all day long and Jennifer said that I might have to miss school tomorrow if this continued.
Justin stands up from the opposite couch and walks over to me. "Justin, don't," I warn, but he doesn't listen, plopping down right in front of me. "You might get sick. You're not even suppose to be in the same room as me."
Instead of acknowledging what I just said, Justin leans over and presses his hand to my forehead.
My breath hitches in my throat, my eyes widening. He slowly removes his hand before reaching over to adjust the blanket that was wrapped around my body, tucking it in for me.
Next thing I know, he's pulling out the Jungle Book, opening up to the page we last left off on. "J-Justin will read for Bea."
"You don't have to..." I whisper.
Justin shakes his head before clearing his throat and starts to read. A small smile appears on my face as he reads, pausing every now and then to pronounce words he's never said before. I correct him here and there, but eventually I feel my eyes start to droop.
His voice is soft and nice to listen to and I find myself slowly being pulled in to sleep.
Before I'm completely pulled in, I feel Justin lightly trace my cheek with one hand, muttering the words. "Good night, Avocado."
And then I was out.
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A/N:
I feel like I'm boring you guys with this story aha. I hope it's not boring, I'm still working on the plot, but I do have a few things planned out so no worries!!
-Diana