Chapter Twenty-Eight: Christmas
Two-bit POV
I was glad that it was the last day of school before Christmas break. It was half-way through the day when I saw Georgie out back, and she didn't look so good.
"Girl, what is wrong with you? You look like you didn't sleep a wink!"
"Ouch! Shut up, Two-bit! My head hurts."
I touched her forehead.
"I thought you got the flu shot this year. Darry always..."
She looked down.
"You didn't get it. Did you?"
"Don't tell Darry!"
"How long you been sick this time?"
Every time she got sick, she hid it from us. And she knew how to hide it good.
"About three days..."
"You're not gonna be able to hide it for long. You're starting to look pale."
"I'll take a few more aspirin."
She pulled the bottle out of her bag. I grabbed it from her. It was almost empty.
"When did you buy this?"
"Two days ago. Why?"
I groaned.
"I'm taking you home. Now."
"No! You can't! If Darry finds out..."
"He will. I promise you that. He'll be more upset about the aspirin than the flu shot."
She glared at me. I helped her up and took her to my car. She fell asleep on the way there. When we got home, she was nervous.
"You gonna be sick at Christmas again. Do you get a kick out of it or something?"
"No. I hate being sick. I don't know why I get sick so much."
"You take too much aspirin. Your body doesn't even like it anymore."
As if on cue, she ran to the bathroom to empty herself.
"How do you hide this from the boys?"
"Practice."
"Such as?"
"I go outside when I feel like throwing up. They think I'm going to smoke or something. They never suspect a thing."
"Go lay down, Miss Trouble."
That had become our nickname for her. After she'd been gone a few minutes, I called Darry hoping he'd be in his office.
"Hello?"
"What's up, Darry?"
"What do you want, Two-bit? Did you get in trouble?"
"No, but Georgie might be."
"What did she do?"
"You'll probably get a call saying she ditched."
"She what?! Why would she..."
"Hold on! Let me explain! She didn't ditch. But, you're not gonna like what she did."
"Great... What is it?"
"She's got the flu."
"But, she got the... That little punk! She backed out!"
"Yeahp. But, that's not the worst part."
"Okay..."
"Apparently, she takes aspirin every time she's sick. And a lot of it, too. We don't even know she's sick she takes so much."
"Like, how much?"
"She had two left in a bottle today when she bought it two days ago. That's why I didn't take her to the nurse and just brought her home."
"She asleep?"
"Yeah."
"Okay. Do me a favor, and go to the DX when Pony gets home and tell Sodapop to come straight home after work. I want you and Steve there, too. It's time for an intervention..."
Telling Ponyboy was the easy part. Pulling up to the DX to tell Soda and Steve was making me wanna sedative. I knew they wouldn't take it good...
"She's taking how many?!"
"I don't know. How many come in a bottle?"
Steve went a got a bottle off the shelf and read it.
"50 come in this one."
"That's the bottle she had."
I went on to tell them how she hides it and stuff.
"Damn, it takes down her fever so I don't know. And I went with her the day she supposedly had her flu shot! How'd she get out of it?!"
"Did you go back there with her?"
"No..."
"She's a sneaky son of a bitch. That's for sure..."
_
Georgie POV
I don't know how long I slept, but it was dark outside. I felt horrible. I got out of bed to go to the bathroom. When I walked back out, I heard someone clear their throat.
"Hey, Darry..."
"Come in here."
"But..."
"Now."
Dang. I wasn't getting out of this. I wonder how much Two-bit told. Everyone was sitting around the table and Darry motioned for me to sit down.
"Okay. How much have you been sick? The last I remember was over the summer when you got that virus."
I had to think really hard. I got sick a lot.
"Um... Four or five times since then. Mostly my throat."
"How do you hide it from us?"
I glared at Two-but. There was no point in lying, now.
"I take a bunch of aspirin or Tylenol. It just depends."
"Why don't you tell us when you are?"
"Because you guys worry enough about me as it is."
Ponyboy spoke up.
"Georgie. We've been over this."
"I know..."
"How did you get out of getting the flu shot?"
"I never walked in the room. I went in the bathroom back there and sat until I felt like you would buy that I had gotten it. I really hate needles..."
Darry sighed.
"Okay. Next year, I'm going with you to get it, no aspirin or Tylenol unless I give it to you myself, and next time your sick you tell us first thing. Understood?"
I nodded. I hated being in trouble by Darry. He told me to go back to bed after that. Later, I felt a hand on my forehead and slapped it away.
"Kiddo, you're burning up."
"I'm thirsty."
He handed me a glass of water and an ice pack. I fell back asleep and woke up in the middle of the night sweating so badly that the sheets were soaked. Soda was dead to the world next to me. When I tried to get up, though, he woke up.
"What's going on?"
"I don't know. I'm soaked."
He realized he was wet, too from having his arms around me.
"I guess I need to change the sheets."
"I'll help you."
"No. You won't. You'll go sit on the couch while I do that."
Ponyboy was stretched out across the couch with a book in his lap. I sat on the edge and smiled. I hated to wake him up, but I knew he wouldn't wanna sleep on the couch.
"Ponyboy. Pone."
"Hmmm?"
"You wanna go to your room?"
He sat up and rubbed his eyes.
"Yeah, what time is it?"
"No idea."
He took a look at me, and got up. He came back with a towel and a change of clothes. I changed and came back. He felt my forehead.
"Your fever's breaking. That's why your sweating so much."
"I feel gross."
He chuckled.
"At least it's breaking. Maybe it'll be completely gone by tomorrow."
"Maybe."
"I'm done. Ready to go back to bed? Oh, hey, Pony."
"Her fever's breaking."
"I figured. Our sheets were soaked."
"Okay, can we stop talking about my bodily fluids?"
They shared a look. I get irritable when I'm sick.
"As you wish."
"Shut up..."
We went back to bed. The next three days were on and off. My fever came back a couple of times, but it wasn't bad.
By Christmas Eve I was fine. And I was happy. But, I kept going back to last Christmas Eve and tried to push it to the back of my mind telling myself that I was fine.
_
Soda POV
It'd been months since I woke up to a scream.
"Georgie! Georgie, wake up!"
She wouldn't. I'd never seen her not wake up. She woke up Pony and Darry, too.
"Is she okay?"
"Yeah. Go get her sedative."
She never woke up, but she was sleep talking to us and we convinced her to take the medicine. After a few minutes she was sound asleep. We were all sitting up in the living room.
"I should've know. This would happen. This is the day it all went down."
"It feels so much longer then a year ago that I almost lost my best friend again..."
Poor Pony. Losing Johnny was hard. Now that he and Georgie were so close, I don't know if he could handle it all over again.
Darry brought us back to reality.
"She's here. She's fine. It's probably just been in the back of her mind all day. And she completely missed Christmas last year. Let's just make the best out of tomorrow."
The next day was great. We had a really good Christmas, especially based on last year's. We had spent the whole day looking for Georgie. We had her now. And we weren't letting her go.
