So, I have discovered that the only way to update a story is to ACTUALLY SIT DOWN AND WRITE IT. Wow, the world is such a crazy place.
This piece was suggested by an awesome reviewer, the lonely crouton (I love that username!), who asked for a part two of chapter six.
So here we have Rey taking care of her boys.
Rey had seen hell.
She had thought, after her own bout of the flu, that nothing could gross her out, but that was quickly disproved by the synchronized retching coming from all three of her friends' rooms.
She had stayed up all night, running between the rooms, trying to keep her head of straight while making sure they didn't throw up all over themselves. (or each other.)
Thank God she never applied to nursing school.
By noon the next day, their food supply was depleted and Rey was exhausted.
"Guys! I'm heading to the store!" Rey called, hoisting her tote bag over her shoulder. "Any requests?"
"Chicken noodle soup," Poe croaked.
"Some Gatorade," Finn wheezed.
"A miracle," Ben rasped, interrupted by a sharp cough.
She rolled her eyes and slammed the door shut behind her.
Finn waited a moment, and then picked up his phone to text Poe.
IT'S GO TIME.
The two dragged themselves from their beds and into Ben's room, where they were met with a cry of protest.
"No, Solo, we have to talk," Poe ordered, collapsing on the floor. Finn seated himself beside Ben's quilt-covered form.
A groan. "I am nearly delirious with fever, and you expect me to uphold a conversation?" he shifted to glare at his roommates over the edge of the blanket. His eyes were red and bloodshot and his dark hair looked like a bird's nest.
His friends didn't look much better. Poe grabbed a discarded sweater from the foot of the bed and balled it up under his head to form a pillow. "Don't be so difficult, Ben. We just want to ask some questions."
"Oh, great." The sarcasm in his voice was palpable.
Finn cleared his throat, and settled back against the wall. "What's going on with you and Rey?"
Ben stiffened, and it took a moment to respond. "Nothing," he tried to sound casual, but his voice cracked on the last syllable.
Poe and Finn exchanged glances. "Uh-huh," Poe drawled, flipping over to face the two. "So, you're saying that you don't have a crush on her?"
"The only crush I have is the crushing weight of my existence."
Finn rolled his eyes and smacked a hand to his forehead. "You are so dramatic. C'mon, man. Be honest. You know that you're perfect for each other,"
"Yeah," Poe chimed, leaning up on one elbow. "You're like all dark and brood-y, and she's like, actual sunshine in human form."
"I've noticed," Ben's words were muffled, he was most likely burying his head in a pillow to drown out his friends.
"Ben!" Finn yanked the blanket off of his friend's head, and smirked when he saw that the tips of his ears were red. "I knew it! You do like her!"
He sat up and shoved Finn off his bed. "Shut up! I do not!"
Poe caught his friend and they both stared at Ben.
"Okay, well, I mean," he fiddled with the frayed edges of the quilt, avoiding their gazes. "I mean, I do, but there's no way she'd ever like me back." He cut off their protests. "Look at me, guys! First of all, I am an emotionally unavailable person, I have trust issues, I have commitment issues—"
"Don't forget daddy issues," Poe quipped.
Ben rolled his eyes and flopped back on his bed, dragging a hand over his chin. "It doesn't matter," he continued quietly. "She deserves so much better."
Finn jumped to his feet and gaped at him. "Better like that asshole that broke her heart a month ago? Better like the jerks she dated throughout high school? Better like the boys who try to take advantage of her at work because they think she's incompetent?" he shook his head almost ruefully. "Ben, she deserves you." He sat on the corner of the bed and sighed. His voice was hoarse when he spoke again. "We had hard childhoods, man. Never had good role models. Never had people to really love us. I mean, we had each other, but that was different. So we went looking for love in all the wrong places. We wanted so much to be accepted." He trailed off. "There was this kid. Senior year of high school when Rey met him. She thought he was the one, just because he took her out to nice dinners and treated her nicely. I mean, he wasn't all that bad of a person, maybe a little self-absorbed, but whatever. Anyway, she thought they were gonna get married and all that fun stuff. She told me that he didn't want her to go to college, didn't want her to pursue her dream of becoming a mechanic. She broke up with him soon after that.
"Ben, Rey needs to be with someone who cherishes her, who values her, respects her, and loves her. I've seen her fall for too many dead-beats with pretty faces. She likes to fix things. But whoever's she with shouldn't only be with her because they're broken. She's broken too, man. And I think she needs someone who will help her heal, and maybe become whole again." He glanced up at Ben, the both of them with tears welling in their eyes. "I think you could be that man."
Ben wiped his eyes with the back of his hands, and inhaled a shaky breath. "I feel like I just got hit with a freight train,"
Poe chuckled from his spot on the ground, and offered a watery smile. "Damn it, whenever I hang out with you guys, I always cry."
The unmistakable BANG of the front door hitting the wall shocked them out of their bubble. "I got the good stuff!" Rey announced, budging the door to his room open with her hip, holding brown paper bags in each hand. She stopped short when she saw the three of them hastily trying to conceal their tears. "Are you guys alright?"
"Yeah, we're good," Finn sniffed, rubbing his nose. "All the coughing makes our eyes water. And that's all we've done for the past half hour. Coughed and sneezed. Oh, I guess Poe almost threw up on Ben that one time."
Rey smirked and sat down on the floor, pulling items one by one out of the bag. "I got some Sprite, some crackers, chicken broth for Poe, green tea with ginger, a carton of vegetable broth for our resident vegan, some Gatorade for Finn, bread, oranges, a bottle of vitamins, and regular ice cream for you two and raspberry sorbet for Ben!" she flashed a bright smile, and hopped to her feet. "I'll go whip something up. And by whip something up I mean I'll put some soup in the microwave." She was halfway out the door before she turned back. "Hot tea okay for you guys? Honey, too? Except for in yours, Ben. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten." She disappeared down the hall a moment later.
Ben felt the blush rising on his cheeks as he glanced over at his friends. Finn perked an eyebrow while Poe pretended to fan himself. "Shut up," he moaned, and buried himself under the comforter.
"We haven't said anything!" Finn cried.
"No, but I can sense you guys are smiling. So again, I say, shut up."
A/N: so you got your girl crying in the club. Hope you enjoy this chapter (I know I deviated a quite a bit from the general prompt for the story but I realized I didn't have any interaction with just the three boys without Rey so I figured this would be just as a good a time as any. Plus they get to talk about fEeLiNgS so that's always fun)