Another night of tossing and turning. Nicky didn't get a wink of sleep. Staying up all night isn't a good idea, and he woke up with a pounding head.
As he rose from his bed, he noticed that Ricky isn't in his bed. He struggled to get up but he did eventually, and look down and see Dicky isn't either. This is weird, Nicky is always the first one up. 10:00 am! Why did no one wake him? And it's Saturday too, He is meant to be making breakfast for the family. Nicky darts down the stairs and into the kitchen and see his brothers and sister sitting there eating an average looking meal, he knows he could've made it better. What happened to him cooking?
"Thanks for waking me" he blurts sarcastically.
"Hey Nicky, you looked so peaceful and thought you might want to sleep in" Ricky says, patting his back.
"Yeah, you looked really tired dude. You were tossing and turning all night. I should know, I was in the bunk below you" Dicky says shoving a piece of toast in his 's true, he's not wrong. Nicky barely slept last night. This feeling he woke up with started last night after a long night of studying for the up coming test.
"Where's mom and dad?" he says, glancing around the room.
"They went out early. Something about preparing for a sale tomorrow" Ricky says.
"Hey Nicky, you feeling alright? You look kinda pale" Dawn says placing her hand on his face.
Dawn is the oldest and feels responsible for them sometimes, but Nicky hates being 'babied'. Especially when he's sick, he's reminded that he's the youngest all the time by his friends and siblings so when he's sick he wants to be alone. He pushed her hand away but she insists on feeling his forehead.
"Nicky, you're hot. Like really hot. I think you should go back to bed." Dawn says as she pushed him out the kitchen door.
"No!" he yells. "I'm fine! Just a little tired." He sits down to eat and in front of him is a piece of toast with an egg on top with bacon on the side. He didn't really feel like eating but he doesn't want Dawn all in his face again so he began to eat.
"Mom and dad asked us to help out with the sale tomorrow. So, lets not mess it up like last time" Ricky says, staring towards Dicky.
"Hey not fair! They are called super bouncers, I was just checking they work." Dicky says in defence.
"I gotta go" he says in a panic. Dicky yells out "Where?" and he responds with "Bathroom, too much orange juice"
He felt as if he was going to sneeze, but if he does he wasn't going to hear the end of it. And everyone knows that when he's sick he sneezes more than once in a row. He made it into the bathroom just in time.
Het-chch, het-chuh.
"Nicky, you ok in there?" he hears in the distance
"Het-chuh.. uhh yeah I'm fine." he replies
He came out and as soon as he did the three of them are standing there staring at him.
"Fine huh?" Ricky says in a tone of disbelief.
"Look you're worried about nothing" he says "I'm not sick. My body is "hot" because I fell asleep with the electric blanket on and I'm tired because I've been studying for the science test coming up that I know I will probably fail. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go get dressed." He starts to walk away hoping he won't sneeze again.
"Yeah, don't believe for a second. We shouldn't have had the electric blanket in the first place" Dicky says.
"Why?" Ricky asks
"Look, it was one of the hottest nights on record. And he was cold" Dicky states. For the first time, he was right about something.
"But you know how he is about being sick. Ever since he was like 5, he's tried to hide it and made it way worse." Ricky says. They continue to talk about how they could help him, but Dawn stayed silent. They boys continued to chat about Nicky and then they went quiet. Finally, Ricky broke the silence.
"You've barely said anything Dawn, what's up? he asks
"Nothing" she snaps. "Do you think that its bad? Like hospital bad?"
The boys look puzzled. "Dawn, is there something you're not telling us? Dicky asks
"No no, it's nothing" she says
Nicky heads back upstairs to get dressed and then he suddenly had this weird feeling in his chest and starts coughing uncontrollably. he collapses at the top of the stairs in a coughing fit. He tries to get the attention of his siblings but his efforts are useless. After about a minute and a half, he felt a weight being lifted. Actually it was him being lifted. By Ricky and Dicky, guess they heard him.
"Nicky …. Nicky wake up!" Dawn screams in panic.
"What? What happened?" Nicky says.
"Oh thank god, Nicky. You collapsed, you scared me I thought you would never wake up" she says in relief.
Nicky looks around and sees he is in the spare bed under Ricky's. His brothers and sisters were surrounding him with concerned looks on their faces.
"Why am I here? I'm not si… si.. Het-chuh. Sick" Nicky says, being interrupted by a sneeze.
"Look, you're sick. But we're here to take care of you" Ricky says.
Nicky looks over to Dawn and she hasn't let go of his hand, she looks like she's terrified.
"Hey guys, do you mind getting me some tissues and something to drink?" he asks to distract them. Both nod and walk away to answer his request.
When the boys leave, Dawn's grip somehow got tighter.
"Het-chuh" Nicky sneezed
"Bless you" Dawn says
"Why do you look so scared? It's like you're taking the whole being sick thing worse than me" Nicky says realising Dawn's hand
"Did dad ever tell you about the incident of 2009?" she asks. He shook his head. "When you were 5, you got sick just like this. But it got so bad that you stopped breathing and almost died" she says as a tear came down her face. Nicky got his hand and wiped the tear away. "I promised mom and dad that I would always take care of you from then on, no matter what.' she says barely holding back the tears.
"But what about Ricky and Dicky? Why haven't they told me before?" He asked
"I made sure that they wouldn't remember. They were crying and so upset. Every time they asked a question about it I made up some weird story. To be fair I was only five" she continues
"You did that for me?" he said
"Of course, you're my brother. I'd do anything for you" she says
"Wow, why would you go through that pain on you're own?" he asks placing his hand on her shoulder.
"So that they won't" She says
"Ok, I promise .. het-chuh… sorry, Uh I promise that if it gets that bad I will call you asap. Ok?" he says. Dawn nods and hugs her brother tight. The boys return to see the two look as if they could break into tears at any moment.
"What did we miss?" Dicky says.
"Yeah, why are you crying?" Ricky followed
Nicky and Dawn both laugh and denied it.
The day became night and Nicky did not feel better in the slightest. Constant coughing fits, always sneezing and worst of all, feeling as if he was scaring Dawn. He mom and dad came to see him and made sure he was alright, and so far it wasn't that bad. He had a fever and a blocked nose but not as bad as he did when he went to hospital.
"Is there I can get for you buddy" his father, Tom, asks
"No, I'm alright. Thanks" Nicky says.
"Ok sweetie, we're going to bed but you call us if you need us alright?" his mother, Anne, says. Nicky nods as they kiss his head.
Nick struggled to sleep. He tried not to wake up his brothers but it was hard. It was about 12:30am when he felt a pain in his chest. He woke up in a coughing fit and felt as if he couldn't breathe. Instantly, Ricky woke up and went to his aid. He rubbed his brothers back but it didn't work. By that point Dicky was awake. He saw what was going on and rushed to get Dawn.
"Dawn! Dawn" he yells
"Dicky its 12:35 in the morning, what do you want?" she says angrily
"It's Nicky" he says with a panic. Thats all it took for Dawn to know what was happening. She ran as fast as she could until she was at her brothers bedside.
"Hey, hey Nicky" she said. She ran and got a small bottle from the boys private bathroom and gave it to Nicky to drink. He quickly calmed down and began to breathe again/
"How did you know that the bottle would be in there?" Ricky asks
"Because I put it there" she snapped at him
"What is it?" Dicky asked
"Medicine, it worked the first time and obviously it worked again, but no time for questions." she continued
"Nicky, you alright?" Dicky asks him
"I think so, I'm so sorry Dawn. I didn't mean to-"
"Its fine, you don't need to apologise" She says rubbing his back. "Ricky, get a bucket" she orders. He doesn't question it, just goes and gets it.
"Why?" Nicky asked
"Because, last time as soon as you had a fit like that you-" she was interrupted by Nicky putting his hand over his stomach in pain and agony. As soon as Ricky got back with the bucket, the contents of whatever Nicky had for dinner was horrifically poured into the bucket. The three of them looked away in disgust. The night was long, Nicky was now puking every hour and had no control over it. They took turns watching him to make sure he was ok. They decided not to wake the parents since they had this handled
"Thanks Dawn" Nicky says.
"Like I said, anything" she says rubbing her hand on his back. After a few hours he had seemed to have settled down and actually got some sleep. Dawn placed his head on the pillow and went back to her room.
—
A week later, Nicky seamed fine. He was still sneezing a bit but feeling a lot better. Eventually he explained the whole hospital scene to Ricky and Dicky and they took it quite well.
Sunday morning came around and Dawn jumped on Nicky's bed demanding breakfast. A smile came upon his face as if everything was back to normal.