Lily sniffled uncomfortably, wincing as she attempted to swallow some water. With her throat sore, her nose stuffed up, and her entire body aching, she just wanted to dissappear under her black velvet comforter and never resurface.
"Lil-ay!" an overly boisterous voice called, from my door frame. She unearthed her eyes to narrow them at her brunette best friend.
"What, Oliver?" she snapped. He winced; she always called him Ollie Pop if it was just the two of them; that is, unless she was angry, like now.
"Geez," he scoffed. "Someone's in a bad mood."
"I've got a high fever and I can hardly talk," Lily croaked. "Am I supposed to be happy?"
"No," Oliver said, the thought just dawning on him. "Probably not. I assume you're not coming to school tomorrow?"
"Urglenimf," was the sound that emitted from Lily, muffled by her pillow. Oliver chuckled and sat down next to her on her bed, stroking the top of her blonde hair.
"Feel better, Lily Pad," he said with laughter in his voice.
As he left, Lily fully came up from the covers and smiled at where he had been standing.
Oliver paced around his bedroom three days later. Lily was still not better; if anything, she was worse, and Oliver felt terrible for her. He suddenly smirked, an idea popping into his head.
That is how we found Oliver Oken in the nurse's office, fake coughing his little heart out.
"Hi Mrs. T," he croaked into the phone. "I know you're probably busy, but my mom is on duty right now and I'm sick and she can't come get me..."
"Honey," she said in a motherly voice. "I'll be right over. You just sit tight. You and Lily can keep each other company!"
Oliver grinned evilly. That was exactly his plan. Boy, was Lily gonna be surprised.
At 11:30, Lily was awoken by her door opening and then shutting once again, revealing Oliver, in a pair of red flannel pajama pants and a gray T-shirt.
"Ollie Pop?" she gasped.
"Yeah," he said. "I faked sick so I could keep you company."
"Aw, thank you," Lily cooed, putting a hand over her heart. "You do know you'll probably get sick now, right?"
"No way," Oliver said. "Smokin' Oken has an iron immune system."
"I'm so sure," Lily said sarcastically. She flipped on her TV and let Oliver crawl under the covers with her.
Her bed was a bit of a tight squeeze, so in order to fit comfortably, Oliver had to prop his arm around Lily's shoulders, which neither of them really minded. After watching a couple of hours of bad daytime television, Lily had fallen asleep, her body exhausted from fighting off a cold.
Ever since Oliver could remember, which was actually quite a while, Lily got sick like clockwork. And when Lily got sick, she got sick. We're talking missing up to three weeks of school with pneumonia kind of sick.
After dropping Oliver off, Mrs. Truscott had to go back to work, so Oliver went down to make Lily some chicken soup, for when she would wake up, which according to Oliver's internal Lily clock, would be soon enough.
When he got back upstairs with a steaming bowl of chicken noodle soup, Lily was just sitting up. She smiled at him tiredly, her eyes and face slightly swollen from her illness. Oliver gestured to the soup, laughing.
It was alphabet soup, and when they were younger, they would spell messages to each other in the soup. As Lily received her soup on a little tray and Oliver crawled in next to her with his own bowl, Lily quickly spelled out "Thank You" for her best friend.
Oliver suddenly got an idea as he looked at the floating noodles. Biting his lip in concentration and not allowing Lily to see what he was working on, he got to work.
When he finally showed Lily the bowl, she gasped. In little squigly noodle letters were the words "I Love You Lily."
She beamed at him and, forgetting how sick she was, kissed him square on the mouth. Oliver, also forgetting how sick she was, responded with enthusiasm, being careful not to knock over the hot bowls of soup.
Two weeks later, Lily sighed as she took in the sight of Oliver, sniffling and coughing on his bed.
"Sorry bout this," she said sympathetically, rubbing his back. "I can go make you some alphabet soup if you want?"
"I'd like that," he said, grinning at her before pulling her in for a long kiss.
"You donut!" she murmured, hitting him affectionately on the back of the head. "After this cycle, we're gonna need a hell of a lot of alphabet soup!"