Sonny Munroe shoved her poor, ruined beyond repair Blarmey the Blanket with Arms into the washer machine as she checked to make Tawni had locked the door on her way out. All of her cast members and Hayden had left, leaving Sonny alone in the apartment to fix her door before her mother got home from the business trip she was due back from in an hour. Just as she turned the washer on, she heard a sickening sound behind her. Turning around and walking over to her bathroom quickly, she found a self-acclaimed drama-star throwing up into her toilet, making the sickening noise that she had heard earlier. "Oh my God, Chad, what happened?" she asked desperately, getting down on her hands and knees next to the actor.
"That stupid sandwich I ate made me throw up. Oh God, I feel like I'm going to be sick," he complained before going back to burying his head back in the toilet, leaving Sonny staring at him with disgust (not to mention a little bit of gratitude that he'd managed to avoid throwing up on her carpet) and a slight sense of trepidation. She patted him on his back awkwardly (because how many times had she had a puking Chad Dylan Cooper in her bathroom before?) and sighed.
"You're already sick, Chad. I'll get you some Tylenol for that," she said hurriedly and ran over to her kitchen and searched through several cabinets (she hadn't quite had a chance to learn her mom's system for where the medicine was kept at) before finding the Tylenol she was looking for. "I found it!"
When she got back to the bathroom, Chad was leaned against the wall, pinching the skin between his eyebrows with one eye open. "I'll be out of your hair after this. Thanks, Munroe," Chad said begrudgingly as Sonny rolled her eyes and handed him two of the pills with a glass of water, which he took gratefully. "You didn't have to do this, Sonny. I'm a big boy; I can take care of myself," he said easily, setting the glass down on the counter.
She looked over at the box to make sure he'd taken the proper dosage before groaning. "Don't hate me," she started, which of course made him turn to her with narrowed eyes. "Um, these are past the expiration date."
"How far past?" He frowned at her.
"A little over a year," she stated nervously, setting the bottle down. "And medicine usually gets stronger the longer it's kept, so you shouldn't drive home until it wears off. Which should be longer than normal, probably. Sorry," she whispered meekly when she saw him glare at her.
"You drugged me," he accused, putting a hand to his head gingerly.
Sonny rolled her eyes and waved him aside, kneeling down to the cabinet under the sink and scooping up a few things (which included a thermometer, a wash-cloth, and a shower cap).
"Whoa, what's with the shower cap? Chad Dylan Cooper does not do shower caps." Sonny rolled her eyes and motioned him out of the bathroom and into the ling room where she made him lay down on the couch.
"I'm going to need to feel your forehead to take your temperature. You obviously aren't going to let me move your hair aside to do that, so you're going to put your hair up into a shower cap so you can't blame me for ruining your hair. Now put it up, Chad," she said, handing him the shower cap (which he looked at disdainfully before complying) and going into the kitchen to wet the wash-cloth. "Do you have the shower cap on so you can't blame me for 'messing up a perfect masterpiece'?" she asked when she came out.
"Yes," Chad grumbled, turning and trying to find a mirror in order to see just how ridiculous he looked wearing a pale pink shower cap that was covered with small flower patterns.
She grinned at him and turned the thermometer on, checking her own temperature to make sure that it was working properly before running it across Chad's exposed forehead. "100.2," she pronounced, putting the tool down before going back into the kitchen. "How are you feeling?"
Grumbling, he removed the offending floral cap and tossed it on the floor. "Sick," he said disdainfully. "Really, Munroe, I thought you were supposed to be smarter than that."
Choosing to ignore his snub, she came back into the room to him patronizingly on the head. "And I thought you were supposed to be nicer than that. Yeah, yeah, I know. You're not nice." Sitting on the edge of the couch, she turned on the tv and glared meekly at him when he propped his feet up in her lap.
"I'm nice sometimes. To people I like," he defended himself, watching her scroll through channels.
She snickered to herself before stopping on their station. Seeing Meal or No Meal on, she kept going. "Well, that explains it, because you're never nice to me."
Reaching back to adjust the pillow behind him, Chad shrugged. "I'm kind of nice to you. Nicer than I am to people I don't like," he tried, looking at her to gauge her reaction.
If anything, she appeared underwhelmed. "How very generous of you." Pursing her lips and settling on a movie she'd seen advertised before, Sonny stared in front of her determinedly. She was not going to look over at Chad and let it show that she was affected by his words. Because she wasn't affected, no, not at all.
They sat like that through most of the movie, and when Sonny did look over at her companion, she found that Chad was rolled onto his side and hugging the pillow to him. He was still awake, but barely if the way that he was slowly blinking was anything to go by.
"Do you really think I'm not nice?" If she didn't know any better, she'd say that he sounded almost upset at the implication that he wasn't.
"I think you think you are," she responded nonchalantly.
He pouted softly. Sonny always gave him cryptic answers that he was never sure what to do with, because apparently she thought he would be able to make sense of them. "I can try to be nicer." He supposed that it wouldn't be that hard, he knew how to be nice. He just usually chose not to be.
The hint of a smile edged its way onto Sonny's face. "I'm sorry I gave you expired medicine," she apologized, setting a hand on his ankle, noticing how he tensed briefly before relaxing into the touch.
"I can't believe you drugged me." Woefully, he attempted to glare at her through tired eyes.
Stopping herself from producing a full-fledged grin, Sonny looked away from him. "I didn't mean to," she protested half-heartedly. "The drugs just happened to have a more serious affect than I thought they would."
He pulled the pillow closer to his body and snuck a glance at her. "I bet you say that to all the boys," he teased.
Flicking his ankle gently, she nevertheless gave a small laugh. "I'll buy new Tylenol," she allowed. Kicking her shoes off, she propped her own feet up onto the coffee table and leaned farther back into the couch cushions. "Although I would prefer if this didn't happen again."
"Getting tired of me already?"
"Exhausted," she said, but when he looked over to check if she was serious, she was smiling gently.
Stretching out a little more, Chad pulled a blanket from underneath him and twisted himself in it. When he'd finally gotten home, he reached forward and, in a moment of courage, he took her hand. "Sonny?" he asked.
"Yeah?" She sounded as though she was choking on the word.
"Thanks for letting me stay," he said, closing his eyes before he did something stupid like tell her how pretty he thought she was, or how nice she always was to him even though he never returned the kindness.
Swallowing, she looked at him and bit her lip. She felt the heat of his hand in hers and sighed. He was being nice, or some other explanation that she wasn't able to think of. Nothing more, especially nothing that she might have been hoping for. "Anytime," she whispered.