Page 7 of Starlight Salon
“Your eyes aren’t open.”
“They are.”
“If your eyes are open, then how many fingers am I holding up?” Her voice shakes with amusement.
“Pretty ones.”
Chloe giggles and I smile tiredly. I made her laugh.
“If you don’t stand within the next five seconds, medicine it is.”
My eyes open and I wait for them to focus. I push my hands against the mattress and sit slowly, my stomach muscles twinging while Chloe watches with her arms crossed.
I’m panting when I finally manage to sit upright, watching as the walls move closer to me. I stand cautiously and only get halfway up before the ground rushes towards me and I sink back to the sheets instead. “I’ll get there in a second.” I glance at her and laugh ruefully. “I kinda feel like shit.”
She brushes my hair again. Who knew I would become addicted to having my hair stroked so quickly? Dogs were on to something. “I know, honey. I’ll find some medicine for you.”
Chloe leaves the room, the sounds of her rifling in the cupboards while she mutters to herself echo throughout the flat. I smile. She talks to herself. And is in my flat, touching my things.
I turn my head to the door when I hear her steps in the hallway. She’s holding three boxes of medicine and a glass of water.
“I found cold and flu medicine, Nurofen, and vitamins.” She drops them on the bed and sets the glass on the bedside table. “Can you sit for me?”
I drag myself against the headboard. The room has mostly stopped spinning.
She passes me a handful of tablets and the glass. “Take these and you should feel better soon.”
I down them quickly and cringe when a tablet lodges in my throat. I drink more water to chase away the sensation. She takes the glass and leaves the room to refill it, taking her calming presence with her. When she returns, I’m lying down, curled on my side, waiting for death to take me. “Am I going to die?”
“It’s the flu, Lach, not the plague.”
I cough into the covers. She used my nickname.
“But just because it isn’t the plague doesn’t mean I want it,” Chloe says, backing away.
“Sorry.”
“I’m going to call Dom and then I’ll leave you alone.”
My chest tightens. “Stay, please?” I’m not above begging if it means I get a little more time with her. If it means she’ll stay here with me, where I can make new memories of the flat with her in my space.
Green eyes survey me and I can’t figure out what’s going on in her head.
“I’ll think about it.”
I nod and close my eyes, waiting for sleep to find me.
3
Chloe
“He has the flu.”
“Is he okay?” Dom asks.
I close the door quietly and head down the hall to the lounge. Don’t want to disturb him now that he’s finally sleeping—he’d tossed and turned before finally settling and snoring into his pillow. “Well, he isn’t dead.”
“Ideal.”