17 | "Sick"
Thursday, November 16, 2017
><
Insanity:
Pretending you didn't have a conversation with someone less than twelve hours earlier, even though you totally did. And they remember it. And you're kind of a moron.
><
I'm going to explain something about the way my body works.
Since I was little, if I went a few days without getting adequate sleep (upwards of six hours) I would get sick. (1) Not feverish, but sick to the point that my head hurt like crazy and my entire body felt like it was going to explode if I moved from my bed. I was used to this about myself, and I knew exactly how to make myself better: I took one day, spent it in bed sleeping and relaxing, and by the next morning I was completely normal.
Then there were people like my sister, who pulled three all-nighters in a row and still felt like they could tackle the world.
But that's beside the point.
I hadn't gotten to that point yet in the semester until mid-November, right when we were getting close to Thanksgiving break. I woke up on a Thursday morning, ready for my 8 AM Nutrition class, when I felt it kick in.
I rolled my eyes and simultaneously rolled over in bed, getting comfortable. I wasn't worried; I just needed to take some time for myself, after running like a machine for the entire semester so far. Plus, we weren't doing anything especially important in Nutrition, and I could easily ask Madison to take my iClicker into American Government and Politics so I could get points for the quiz.
For those of you who don't know what an iClicker is, they're used by almost every professor at Legered. They're little rectangular boxes with five buttons on them: A, B, C, D, and E. They're used for taking in-class quizzes, and a lot of the time are just for a participation grade to prove you actually showed up to the class. At the beginning of the semester, Madison and I had agreed that if we were ever sick, the other person would take our iClicker into class to make sure we didn't lose out on points—the class was difficult and we didn't want to risk dropping any points if we didn't have to.
So around 8:30, as Madison was getting ready to leave for class, I flipped back over in bed to ask her to take mine in.
"Hey, Madison?"
"Yeah, what's up?"
"I'm not feeling too great. Is there any way you could take my iClicker in to class for me?"
She looked me up and down, eyebrows raised and arms crossed, not even glancing at where I was pointing to try and show her where the iClicker was on my desk.
"Are you sick?" She asked, putting extra emphasis on the last word to let me know she didn't believe me.
I raised my eyebrows.
"...yeah, I am."
"You don't sound sick."
"I'm just exhausted. My body gets like this when I don't get enough sleep, and I just have to sleep it off. I'll be fine by tomorrow morning."
Madison was silent before taking her backpack and walking out of the room, leaving my iClicker on my desk. I heard her walk out of the apartment and slam the door behind her.
I shook my head and flipped back over in bed. I was past done trying to figure out why she was mad at me whenever she was. A few weeks ago she had gone almost an entire week without speaking to me, and when I asked Samantha what the deal was, she had informed me that I snored too loudly one night and it had kept Madison up all night. Thus, she was incredibly angry with me and felt that she deserved an apology.
A whole week of ignoring me because I had snored one night.
***
I was up and about later that night, making dinner and trying not to get too annoyed with the fact that I had definitely lost out on necessary points earlier that day.
"Hey Morg, I need to tell you something." Ashley came into the kitchen and checked the living room to make sure no one else was there, "It's about Samantha."
I looked over from where I was putting a frozen pizza in the oven (2) and nodded.
"What's up?"
Ashley looked uncomfortable but spoke anyways.
"You know I love you, so that's why I'm telling you this stuff. I'm not trying to start anything."
I raised my eyebrows.
"Gotcha. What's going on?"
She paused for a moment before speaking.
"So, Samantha has been saying some weird stuff about you. Like, when you were in the shower the other day, she kept talking about how childish your music was...even though you and I listen to the same music, so that was rude. I pointed it out to her, and she got all red and said she didn't mean it like that, but I know that she did.
"And then like a week ago we were at the mall, right after we had drawn names for Secret Santa."
"Oh yeah, I have Paige. I have to remember to get her something on Black Friday."
"Yeah, so Samantha has you, but don't tell anyone." Ashley told me, "We were walking around the mall with Christina and she was complaining about how you have 'such expensive taste' that she would never be able to find a present."
I raised my eyebrows.
"Everything in my closet cost under $10 and are all probably from Forever 21." I laughed. (3)
Ashley nodded.
"Yeah, I know that, but she was all worked up about it. It was like way rude honestly, and made it sound like you thought you were too good for whatever she would get you, which I know is totally false."
I nodded, feeling myself start to get annoyed. Why was there so much judgement being directed at me from Samantha? I thought we got along pretty well, besides the fact that we differed in our political views and the fact that she thought Ashley and I left her out of things that she never showed any interest in doing.
Also, the whole canyon thing? She was involved in planning that. So I didn't buy for a second that the mediation was anything more than a chance to get Ashley and me in trouble with the RA.
"And the last thing," Ashley continued, "During that same mall trip, she saw some shirt with a political saying on it that she knew you'd disagree with and started making jokes about buying that for your Secret Santa gift, since you would hate it."
"I'm just confused as to why she has such a problem with me?" I asked as the front door opened and I heard Madison talking on the phone, "But I'll address it with her later. I need to talk to Madison."
Ashley nodded as I left the kitchen to follow Madison into our room, closing the door behind me.
"Hey, Madison?"
She looked up from the phone call she had just ended and raised her eyebrows.
"Yeah?"
"Why didn't you take my iClicker today?" I asked, "I thought we both agreed to do that for each other if we were ever sick or unable to go to class."
Madison looked absolutely shocked.
"What? Did you ask me to?"
I crinkled my eyebrows in confusion.
"...yeah, I did. You were leaving the room and asked if I was actually sick, and then you left without taking the iClicker."
Madison shook her head.
"I don't remember that. Are you sure?"
My eyes widened in disbelief. Was she alright? Was she insane? We had had a full conversation while she was awake, dressed, and ready to leave. It hadn't been in the middle of the night where she might have forgotten by the time she woke up. (4)
"Madison, I...you know what, never mind." I shook my head and left the room, slamming the door shut behind me. There were some things I simply had to remove myself from, and that was one of them.
"You okay?" Ashley asked as I walked back into the kitchen.
I nodded.
"Yeah, it's just Madison. I swear there's something wrong with her head."
Ashley laughed.
"Oh, I think we all know that."
><
Theory:
Brett is the best ever. (5) Also I think that people are more likely to lie about things when they think there's a slight chance the other person won't remember the situation.
><
(1) Although, for some unknown reason, this stopped being a thing my second semester of sophomore year of college. I don't know why. But I'm also not complaining about it.
(2) I know I said that Ash and I tried to make healthy meals every night, but sometimes you gotta have a cheat meal.
(3) Quantity over quality, amirite?
(4) Because honestly, I would have understood that. When someone wakes me up in the middle of the night and I fall back asleep within the next ten minutes, 100% of the time I will absolutely not remember anything they said to me. My sister used to have full conversations with me when we shared a room at home, and she would make a game out of whether or not I would remember those conversations in the morning.
(5) He typed that out and I'm keeping it in. Solid theory, if we're being honest.