Chapter 8

Emily had been home for three days. When she woke up on the fourth morning, she felt much better than she had been feeling since she first came down with mono. For the first time, she didn't feel like taking a nap within twenty minutes after opening her eyes.

She lolled around for a little while, enjoying the stillness of the early morning. She watched the shadows from the trees blowing outside dance across her walls. After a while, she began to get bored and wished she could reach her book, but it was lying across the floor. She resigned herself to thinking about the events that had been occurring during the past several days.

First off, she thought, there's definitely no way I'm ever going to be hoping to come down with this again. Oh, no…I can't believe it, I haven't even thought about school! What am I going to do? What's today? I think…I'm pretty sure it's Thursday. I've missed almost an entire week! And finals start in…three…? No, two and a half weeks! What am I going to do! I—

A knock on her door interrupted her from her thoughts. "Hey, Em?" she heard Ray's voice call, "You awake?"

"Yeah," she managed to call back just loudly enough to be heard through the wood. As the door opened, she said, "And if I weren't already, I would be with your lovely wake-up call!"

Her brother grinned impishly. "Yeah, well, just wanted to be sure," he said. He held up a plate. "Brought you some toast. How're you feeling today?"

"Better, actually, than I have any other day this week," she said, fighting a yawn. "Don't let this be an indicator, though," she smiled, giving in to it.

"Okay, well that's a good sign. Here, take your toast," Ray offered to her, sitting down next to her on the bed. "If that's the case, we should probably schedule a follow-up doctor's appointment, then. It'd be a good idea to track how you're healing, and see if there are any complications."

"Whoa. Wait a minute. What about complications?" Emily said, her eyes widening.

"Nothing, nothing, honey," Ray said quickly, regretting his slip of the tongue. "Don't worry about that. It's just that when you have any type of illness, unforeseen problems can sometimes occur, but they're usually not serious. Anyway, you seem to be doing fine, so this'll just be routine, okay?" Emily nodded slowly, still seeming unsure. "Hey, come here," he said, reaching his arms out and enveloping her in a hug. "You're going to be all right, do you hear me? I promise, sweetie, you're going to be fine." When he sat back, he saw that Emily quickly wiped away some tears that had started to spill.

"Hey, hey, what's this?" he asked, his voice full of concern, "Look, you have nothing to worry about, all right? This is a really common infection, it's almost like a rite of passage every teenager has to go through! Okay? So you don't need to cry!" he said, leaning over and kissing her hair.

"It's not that," Emily sniffed, "I just…it's everything. I'm sick of being stuck here, barely able to walk to the bathroom without needing to take a break halfway there! And I feel bad for you, because—"

"Whoa, whoa! Hang on! Me? Why do you feel bad for me?" Ray asked incredulously.

"Well, isn't it obvious? It's got to be dull being stuck here all day, having to take care of your kid sister who's bedridden!"

"Let's just get one thing straight, Em, and I mean this in all sincerity: If I had to be stuck with anyone for four days…sweetie, it'd be you! No contest. Face it, kid, we're in this together," he finished, his grin back.

Emily smiled at his last comment. "Okay," she finally said, "I think I will have some of that toast."

"That's my girl. I'll leave you to your toasting, then, and see about that check-up, okay?" Emily nodded. "I'll be back in a little bit, don't try to run laps or anything now just to spite me, all right?" he joked, standing up.

"Okay, then, see you," she answered.