Guys I am the absolute worst. It took me ten years to write this chapter, for two reasons: one, I have zero work ethic and two, I have had the worstttttttt writer's block these past couple of weeks. I'M SO SORRY. It's spring break here this week so hopefully I will be able to get some stuff out.
They had been up all night.
The four roommates lay sprawled across various pieces of furniture throughout the house. Finn was slumped over a bowl of Lucky Charms in the dining room. Poe slept soundly in the hallway leading to the bedrooms. Ben found himself half on the couch, half on the floor, his feet kicking up over the back of the sofa. Rey resided in the couch opposite him, wrapped in a blanket with a garbage can perched beside her.
She had the flu.
She had kept her friends awake through the night with her constant vomiting and pained groans. Eventually, after the third or fourth time being startled from their sleep, the three boys tiredly decided to stay up with her, fetching her water and re-microwaving the rice-filled heating pad every now and then.
They all passed out from exhaustion around four in the morning, the TV still displaying the FRIENDS reruns they had been paying half-attention to throughout the night.
Rey was the first to wake around seven, emptying her stomach contents into the trash can at her bedside. Ben woke next and trudged to the kitchen to fill a water bottle for her. He tried to let his friends sleep, for they had classes that day and he didn't.
Finn dragged himself from the floor to the dining room around ten to eat breakfast, but had fallen asleep while eating his cereal. Poe was practically unconscious in his spot in the hallway.
"Finn, Poe," Rey croaked, sometime around noon. "You losers need to get up or you'll miss class."
Poe groaned, stirring, before retorting, "We're the losers?" His question was perforated by a yawn. "You're the one who kept us up all night."
"Yeah," Finn chimed, rubbing his eyes and munching on his soggy cereal. "I think I'm going to have nightmares. I didn't know such a small person could produce so much puke."
Rey started to laugh, which turned into a coughing fit, which, of course, woke Ben.
He entered consciousness with an animal-like yawn, stretching, before losing his balance and toppling from his precarious position on the couch. He lay rather awkwardly folded on the carpeted floor, heels over head, blinking slowly as he tried to grasp all that had happened in such a short time. He glanced at his friends, who were clutching their stomachs, howling with laughter. (Except Rey. She could only cough.)
"We never speak of this," Ben ordered, standing and straightening his clothes. He headed toward his room, and as he passed Poe in the hallway, nudged a foot into his friend's ribs, eliciting a groan from the recipient of the kick and stifled laughter from the two who watched it happen.
Poe grumbled, standing, as Ben sauntered away with a smirk. They went into their respective bedrooms, followed by Finn, who had just dumped his empty bowl in the sink.
Rey sipped on her glass of water and turned on her phone, half-focusing on her Twitter and half-listening to her roommates bicker.
"Poe! You stole my jeans! Again!" she heard him stomp across the hall and shove Poe's door open, and she winced as it slammed into the wall. "Give them back! Now!" Poe's protests were muffled. "I don't care if you don't have any pants! Those are MINE! Borrow some of Ben's!"
Poe must have walked out of his room, because she clearly heard him yell, "Borrow pants from the Green Giant? He's, like, a thousand feet tall. There's no way I'd be able to fit in them!"
"That's also assuming I'd even lend them to you," Ben drawled, emerging from the hallway, dressed in fresh clothes: a black shirt, black jeans, and a black zip-up hoodie. "But I think Rey might have a pair you could use."
Rey rolled her eyes but nodded. Her voice was too hoarse to call out to him, so Ben spoke for her. "She said there are some in her room you could borrow." He listened to Rey's whispered words. "A pair of gray sweatpants in the top drawer of her dresser."
Several minutes later, Finn and Poe left for class, the former in a sunshine yellow shirt with dark wash jeans, and the latter in a red sweatshirt with heather gray fitted joggers that were about three inches too short.
Ben and Rey couldn't contain their laughter as the two passed by on their way to the front door. Poe glared at them and made sure to slam the door hard enough to shake the foundation of the house.
Once they had left, Ben walked into the kitchen and started searching through the cupboards. "Have you eaten?"
A scoff sounded from the living room. "Are you kidding?" her gravelly voice was barely loud enough to be heard. "I tried eating a cracker, and I threw up right after." A sharp sneeze punctuated her sentence.
"Green tea with one sugar cube and half a teaspoon of honey is what you like, right? I think I could manage to make that," he reached up and grabbed her favorite mug, gray with yellow daisies, from the shelf, and set about making the drink. He filled the kettle with water and set it on the stove. Rey watched him, slightly incredulous.
"I was just going to heat the water in the microwave but I remember you telling Finn that it tasted like garbage when he did that," Ben explained, settling beside her on the couch, spreading another quilt over her. "Has your temperature gone down at all?"
"Nope, still 103," she stared at him, and she noticed his face redden.
"What?" he shifted uncomfortably under her gaze.
She smirked and turned away to cough into her elbow. "Nothing. It's just the first I'm seeing of this…domestic side of you. It's nice. Wanna bake me some cookies while you're at it?"
Rolling his eyes, he jabbed her in the ribs. "I'm trying to be nice. It's what friends do, right?" The easy smile dropped from Rey's face, and something he couldn't name flashed in her eyes. He cleared his throat, looking away. "But cookies? That's something I excel at."
He stood, and relaxed a little when her grin reappeared. "Double chocolate?"
"Puh-lease."
_SW_
Ben scurried around the kitchen, mixing various bowls of flour and sugar, vegan margarine and egg substitute. Rey watched him rather fondly from the blanket fort he built for her astonishingly quickly.
The floor of her fort was oversize pillows (stolen from Poe), decorated with a humidifier and essential oil diffuser (taken from Finn) and legions of stuffed animals (from Rey's own collection).
She sipped on her tea, and munched on unbuttered toast. She was wrapped in her favorite blanket, a worn cotton comforter with light blue hydrangeas, and tried to read her book, Inkheart. She kept getting distracted.
Ben popped a tray of cookie dough into the preheated oven, and snapped the door shut with a satisfied smirk. He set the timer and turned to Rey, who glanced up at him.
"Good job. You put them in the oven." She deadpanned. "I still don't know if they're any good."
He scoffed and dumped the bowls and spoons in the sink. "Trust me. They are going to be delicious."
"If you say so." She couldn't hide the smile growing on her face.
Ben crawled into the fort next to her and pulled out his phone. "Oh, I say so."
They lounged on the pillow floor in companionable silence until the timer went off, and Ben rose to check on the cookies. Rey handed him her cup and went back to her reading.
He returned with her mug refilled and a plate of steaming cookies.
Rey didn't hesitate in grabbing a cookie from the tray and taking a bite. It burned her tongue, making her feel foolish, but she couldn't deny the amazing flavor.
"These are delicious!" She exclaimed and picked up three more.
He rolled his eyes and took one for himself.
They sat and they talked. They listened to old show tunes and discussed politics. They watched cat videos and posted pictures of their food on their Instagram accounts. (And snuck in pictures of each other.) They got into a lively argument over which book was better, Hunger Games or Divergent. They talked about Ben's parents. They talked about Rey's childhood. They told jokes about their roommates. They complained about classes.
And neither could stop smiling the whole time.
Finn and Poe came home to find the two wrapped together in a blanket and Lady and The Tramp playing on the TV.
They each helped themselves to a couple of cookies and tiptoed around their two friends, making their way down the hallway to their rooms.
The next day, Rey found herself with three sick roommates.
the ending isn't my favorite but i wrote like seven different versions and this was the one i hated the least soooo
hope you enjoy! 3