Still don't own a thing. It's all John Green (who's a fantastic writer, check out more of his work if you haven't already) Hope you enjoy :)
I woke up the next morning at 9:00. I put on an old T-Shirt that my dad got at a concert a while back before he met my mom, and pair of baggy shorts after a quick shower. I looked around for my sandals, and while I put them on, I glanced up at the top bunk; it was empty. "Colonel?"
"So you finally woke up?" I turned around and saw him standing in the doorway to the bathroom. His hair was wet and he was in fresh clothes; a navy blue T-shirt and jean shorts that were longer on him than they probably should have been, but you know, short people got problems too.
"When did you get up?"
"I've been awake since 4:00." My eyebrows rose and he saw it. "What?"
"Why were you awake, we went to bed at like, 2:00?"
"I threw up again," he mumbled.
"I'm sorry; what?"
"I puked, like four different times. I'm surprised you didn't hear me, I was pretty loud."
"Dude, you sound like you shouldn't even be here."
"I'm fine, I told you already! Man, don't you fucking listen?"
"Fine, I'll stop." The Colonel rolled his eyes and walked to his drawer. He pulled out an orange bottle and removed the cap. He picked out a white capsule and walked towards the door.
"You comin' or what?"
I walked towards him and we went down to my car. He took a swig of water from the fountain and took the pill. "What is that?"
"It's an antibiotic; helps the pneumonia go away." He said the last words like I was five years old.
"I'm just looking out for you, Colonel."
"I don't need you to look out for me, Pudge; I can look out for myself."
"Well, pardon my intrusion of trying to be a good friend."
"You don't need to look out for me every waking moment of my life to be a good friend."
"Well, according to past experience, I guess I do." The Colonel stopped walking and stared at me. Whatever signs of a bad temper he had were completely gone. He nodded, which I guess was a thank you, and we went to McInedible. We got a large order of fries to share, and a couple hamburgers, then went back to my car to eat them. There was a long silence while we chomped away at extremely processed food.
"I'm not gonna get myself drunk and drive, Pudge, you know that." I turned to the Colonel, who was looking out the window. "I wouldn't do anything that stupid."
We ate for a while, and eventually headed back to campus. As we walked back to our room, I broke the silence. "So that's why you didn't smell like cigarettes."
"What?"
"When I met you last year, you smelled like cigarettes, but you didn't this time. Thank God, my parents would've lost their shit, but you didn't because you had pneumonia for two months."
"Wow, no wonder you were accepted into Culver Creek, Pudge; you're Albert fucking Einstein."
"Shut up," I replied, sensing the sarcasm he laid on pretty heavy. "But… why'd you have it for so long?"
"… My dad."
"What about him?"
"He wouldn't stop smoking those damn cigars, and I just couldn't get better from the cold. He would come back every once in a while, especially while I had pneumonia, and all he'd do was smoke. Smoke, smoke, smoke, it's like he didn't have anything better to do."
"Or anyone to try to kill."
"Exactly; my mom kicked him out because he was smoking too much, and it caused my lungs to seize up one night. I had to go to the ER for that one. They gave me this." He held up an inhaler. "It's only for emergencies, since I don't actually have asthma."
We made our ways up to the room, but not without smelling smoke. One of the Weekday Warriors was smoking, and they were smoking a lot. The Eagle wasn't at school yet, so they could get away with it. The smoke hit like a wall, but it hit The Colonel like a Mack truck. He started coughing and hacking, but instead of running away from it, his lungs seized up so much that he almost collapsed completely. He sank to the ground, unable to speak. I caught him before he fell completely, and tried to get him on his feet so that he could go to our non-polluted room.
I pulled him to his feet, which was a struggle (he's small, but heavy) and rushed to our room. He made his way to the couch and collapsed onto it. He used the inhaler and the cough was gone in less than five seconds. He lay on the couch, hyper-ventilating. "You ok?"
He nodded and coughed a few times. "Been through that… too many t.. times. Happened a lot… when dad sm-smoked at h- home."
"Dude, you need to get over this pneumonia thing, before you do anything. No smoking, no drinking, no nothing."
"You sound like my wife," he said with closed eyes. He ended up falling asleep right there for six hours. I finally tossed him a pillow and blanket (he managed to cover himself and lay on the pillow all in his sleep) when the Eagle walked in. After last year's mishap with him catching us smoking, he knew what we were capable of, but he came in talking loudly. I almost shushed him, but he did that himself when he saw The Colonel sleeping on the foam couch.
"Hello, Mr. Halter."
"Good afternoon, sir."
"I hope that your summer was nice."
"Yes it was, sir."
"What's the matter with Mr. Martin here?"
"He fell asleep, sir, he told me he was getting over a bad case of pneumonia."
"Yes," he said remembering. He knew what was wrong, he was just making sure I wouldn't lie to protect the Colonel just in case he was drunk. "His mother told me he was very sick over the summer. She told me she would have to pay some pretty hefty medical bills, since he had to be rushed to the ER twice."
As if on cue, the Colonel started coughing. The coughs were deep, and kind of raspy, but painful nonetheless. They sounded real, but he was trying to get the Eagle to stop talking. The Eagle caught the message, and turned around. "Don't kill yourself, Chip. Let yourself get better this time."
"I'll try." The Eagle smiled and closed the door.
"What'd he mean this time?"
"Sophomore year, I got really sick right after second semester started. Alaska about lost her shit when it had been nearly two weeks and I still wasn't better.
"It sucked, but everyone thought I had the flu. I had that "flu" for 2 weeks straight," he said putting air quotes when he said 'flu'. "All I did was continue to get worse and worse; Alaska, one time, stayed with me two nights in a row. I already reached that point where I was too sick to go to class, but I didn't want to go to a hospital to have people tell me I just had the flu and tell me to go drink fluids and go to sleep. I was tired of that shit. So, I stayed in my room for another week, and on the last two days, Alaska was there."
The Colonel coughed a few times before continuing. "She knew that something was really wrong with me, but she didn't know anything or where to start. I stayed up all night throwing up, I had this rash, and I was really confused. All I really remember is being really sore, really hot and cold, and having this monster headache. This went on for two days, but on the second day, Alaska told me that she asked me a question once and I didn't answer. She went to check on me and when she did, I was having a massive seizure. When I came to, I was in the hospital and Alaska was losing her shit, you know, the way she used to. She started screaming at me, telling me how stupid I was for waiting, even though it really wasn't my fault. I just got fed up with people telling me something I knew I didn't have.
"I went on to recover from the Staph Infection I got, plus a nice little helping of TSS. Yeah, I didn't have no damn flu, you little shits, but that recovery sure as hell took its sweet time. My teachers excused me from some work... a lot of work, and Alaska and Takumi brought me all my stuff so I could just stay in my room. The bathroom got cleaned too, like it was brand new."
"Why?"
"Because Staph Infections can be passed through feet and open wounds; my whole room was cleaned. So yeah, that's my story of how I could have failed my Sophomore year, but didn't because of a Staph Infection... thanks, dad; sorry to make you jealous, Pudgy."
I rolled my eyes like I didn't care, but I did. I wish I had gotten a Staph infection so Alaska would have taken care of me. "I'll bet it was nice," I whispered.
"What?"
"Having her take care of you."
"Oh, hell no, Alaska had the shittiest bedside manner this side of the universe has ever seen. I know you were like her long forgotten lover, Pudge, but it sucked."
I laughed because it seemed so like her, to have a horrible bedside manner. "I miss her," the Colonel said suddenly.
"I do too… I wonder how she would've reacted to you getting pneumonia."
"Oh God," he said falling back on the couch. "She would've skinned me and my dad alive."
He started to imitate her voice. "Damn it, Chip, you need to stop smoking those damn cigarettes. You're taking poor Pudge's money, and killing your lungs."
I laughed out loud. "She really sounded like that to you?"
He imitated her again. "Absolutely."
We laughed again, and turned the TV on. SpongeBob was on, so we just watched it until the Colonel fell back asleep. By then, three episodes had passed and I was kind of tired too, and before I knew it, we were both passed out.
"Well, look at you two," a voice said that woke me up immediately. I sat up a little and rubbed my eyes, staring at the clock. It was 12:00, but light outside.
"We slept through the whole morning," I shouted.
"Yeah, over 12 hours and cuddling with the Colonel, I see." I looked over and saw that I was hugging his leg, like a pillow. I stood up and walked over to the bathroom, The Colonel was out like a light, bundled up in a blanket, and I undressed to take a shower. I was washing my hair when Takumi walked in. "So are things getting serious between you two?"
I rolled my eyes and shook my head, knowing it was a joke. "Look, he inhaled smoke and his lungs lost it. We both just fell asleep on the couch."
"I'm just messing with you, Pudge, calm your tits. So what's up with you?"
"Nothing..."
"Don't wanna smoke, or drink?"
"Nah, I told the Colonel that he can't do any of that until he gets better; I'd feel like I'm rubbing it in his face."
"Fine, do what you want." Takumi started to light a cigarette.
"Dude, don't light that!"
"Why not?"
"I just told you, he's sick, he can't handle that."
Takumi rolled his eyes, threw the cigarette in the toilet and flushed. "Making me waste perfectly good cigarettes."
"You're doing that yourself." We left the bathroom, and sat on the ground in front of the couch, since the Colonel was still sleeping, and played a video game on low volume. It was a fighting game, not sure which one, but the girls were all really hot. I won the first four games, but then Takumi started kicking everyone's ass. We cheered as silently as we could, but after another victory for Takumi, a deep voice came from behind us.
"For the love of God, put that shit on mute!" We did and the Colonel turned around. "Thanks."
And we played video games on mute while he slept, until my radio went off on my alarm clock at 7:30.
Don't trust me too much about medical problems, I am NOT a professional in the least. I just do some research on the Internet, so if I'm wrong about something like that, feel free to tell me, and I'll try to correct it in the future :)