All alone, whether you like it or not, alone is something you'll be quite a lot.
Sleep evaded Jack for hours on end. No position was comfortable. His whole body ached as he tossed and turned, quietly so not to wake Conor. He didn't want to draw attention to himself. His head was spinning and all he wanted was the room to stay in the one place. He did not know how he was meant to deal with school in the morning.
It was sometime near 4am that Jacks eyes finally shut due to exhaustion. There was no other word to describe it. Funnily enough, it was the closest Jack had gotten to a peaceful sleep in months.
He slept so heavily that he didn't even wake to his alarm in the morning and instead it was a flying pillow aimed at his head that woke him.
"Turn that thing off!" Conor groaned from his bed.
For a second Jack had forgotten the events of the previous day and so he jumped up quickly before a tearing feeling in his stomach took his breath away. It was excruciatingly sore. Jack couldn't stop himself from releasing a small groan of agony that Conor took for a tired groan.
Jack turned off his alarm before lying back in the bed, his breathing heavy and coarse. He was not in a good way.
That meant he had two options. Get up and pretend he was feeling fine for a full day or pull a sickie.
He knew which option he preferred.
Jack looked around for the warmest thing in the bedroom. The radiator was on.
"Get Julia." Jack croaked in the weakest voice he could muster up.
"Huh?" Conor replied still half asleep.
"Get Julia, before I throw up all over your shoes." Jack said faking a burp attempting to make it sound like a gag.
That did the trick. Conor got out of bed as quick as humanly possible. Jack took all his strength to sit up in the bed and lay his head against the radiator. He figured it would take Julia a minute or two to put down whatever child she was nursing and another minute or two to get up here. Still he didn't have a lot of time. Jack grabbed some water and sprinkled it over his face to appear sweaty. He knew he already had the pale skin side of things covered. Especially after yesterday. And he was sure the 3 and a halfish hours of sleep he got could speak for itself.
Jack kept his head on the radiator until he heard someone on the stairs. He lay back in the bed and began to fake shiver. He didn't even really need to fake with the way he was actually feeling.
"Jack?" Julia's soft voice called. "Conor said you're not feeling great?"
"I feel like I'm going to throw up." Jack replied in the same tired voice.
Julia approached him placing her hand on his forehead. "Jack, you're burning up!" She exclaimed. "You poor thing. You look absolutely awful. Tell me how you feel."
"My throat feels raw and my stomach is churning and I don't want to sit up because I think I'll just end up throwing up." Jack explained slowly before starting to cough. "Can you get me a bucket please?"
Julia ran off to do so when Jack realised he did actually feel sick. Julia returned with the bucket just in time for Jack to actually start gagging into it. He hadn't eaten much the day before so it was mostly bile that came up. Afterwards the shivering was real and he didn't think Julia needed much more convincing. "I'll call the school, you try and get some sleep okay? I'll leave a clean bucket here."
Jack didn't even bother replying. He just closed his eyes. He didn't feel like acknowledging anything to be honest.
The next thing Jack noticed was his phone buzzing. His friends had obviously noticed his absence. He pondered answering them for a second before deciding that that was the last thing he wanted to do right now. He could lie later.
Jack must have fallen asleep again after that because he didn't remember Julia entering the room but she put a cool rag on his forehead.
"I'm going to make some soup, okay?" She asked him and all he could do was nod.
He waited for her to leave but when he opened his eyes she was still staring down at him concerned.
"Where did you get those bruises?" She asked worriedly.
"Got tackled in PE yesterday." Jack said shortly hoping he wouldn't have to go into any more detail.
Julia frowned but she left the room after another concerned glance at Jack.
It was around midday the next time Jack woke and he no longer felt sick thankfully. His body still ached but he felt a lot better than this morning. He was pretty sure his ribs where fractured though, because his chest ached with every breath.
He decided to check his phone because he felt like the room had finally stopped spinning.
3 missed calls and 7 unread messages
Fia, Aster and Nick had all tried to call him. None left voice messages though. He had two texts from Fia going from "Where are you?" to "Please tell us that you're alright" Aster, Nick and Sandy had all sent him a text saying something along the same lines.
Sophie had sent him a text saying "Please tell me you aren't skipping school because of how awkward yesterday was." Which got a laugh out of him.
It was the last text that confused and angered him the most.
"Please don't tell me you're dying in a hole somewhere. If you're trying to mess with me, stop fucking
around- D"
Of course Damien had to text. He couldn't just let Jack have the day off in peace.
Jack quickly sent a text to his friends just saying. "Stomach bug, should be alright by tomorrow"
To Sophie he just said. "Not actually use that to get out of tomorrow lol, I'm just sick today haha, nothing to do with you and the awkwardness of yesterday."
But he decided Damien didn't deserve a reply. Let him thing Jack was dead somewhere. He deserved it.
He didn't know what to do then though. He decided to watch Netflix but he couldn't for the life of him decide of a show or a film that took his fancy. He wanted to read but he had no books at arm's reach.
He decided to walk around the house to see if he could practice the art of walking like a human. His body felt like it was in bits. His arms were heavy and until he attempted to stand, he had forgotten about his dodgy ankle, so that was a pleasant surprise. But he manged to pull himself up and walk to the mirror to examine himself.
He looked like hell. His face was paler than normal and the dark circles under his eyes had blended into his bruises. Because of his white face, they jumped out at you far more than before which was just amazing.
When he lifted his top he felt sick. Something was definitely broken because you didn't get colours like that from being healthy. His ankle was twice the size it normally was but he didn't think it was broken. It was just sprained, he decided, based on the fact he could still put some weight on it.
And then Jack did one of those things that we all know is a bad idea but we all have the urge to do. He poked his ribs. And just like that, the bile had made a reappearance.
He was glad however to know that the throwing up was from pain and not due to something worse happening inside. Even though he knew that was a strange thing to be glad about.
He limped back into bed deciding he had walked enough for one day.
Julia returned with soup later which Jack sipped at and along with some dry toast it helped to settle his stomach.
"What did your mum do when you were sick?" Julia asked Jack from the foot of his bed while he ate.
"Flat 7up." He laughed. "That and ginger ale. If they couldn't cure you then you were a goner." He said nibbling on a bit of crust. "I used to make her take the day off work when I was younger because I couldn't stand to be alone when I was sick. And she kept doing it even when I was old enough to not need her as much when I was sick, she still would take the day off and keep me company. And if I was feeling better in the evening, we used to curl up in bed and have melted ice cream and dad would come home from work he would always join us. Helped me forget I was sick." Jack said with a sad smile.
He remembered how she would stroke his hair and just talk about nothing until he fell asleep. She always made him feel like he was the only person in the world.
And Jack realised that for the rest of his life, every time he got sick, he would be on his own. No more flat 7up and ice cream in bed. No more Dad pretending to gag at the soupy ice cream. He could be surrounded by people. But he would still be alone. And that thought alone broke his heart.
He avoided eye contact with Julia and finished his food and she headed off back downstairs again and left Jack completely and utter alone.
(That's another chapter done! Hope you enjoyed and let me know your opinions on it! Reviews are actually one of my favourite things ever and I absolutely adore and cherish all the ones I have received so far so please feel free to let me know what you think!)