Person A has been sick with a fever for a bit, and person B takes care of them, and when they can't do anything except wait for person A to start getting better, person B takes out a book and start reading aloud for them.
Ryder woke up that morning to Marley next to him, grumbling and groaning. "Mar, can you be quiet?" Ryder whispered, sliding his hand under the pillow and closing his eyes again, only to have Marley continue with her murmuring. "Babe," Ryder sighed, flipping over onto his back and throwing a sidewards glance at Marley.
"I'm hot." Marley whispered, kicking the covers off of her and groaning, fanning herself. Ryder frowned and reached his hand over, placing his hand to her sweat covered forehead.
"Oh, you are." He murmured, sitting up lazily and brushing her hair off of her face. "You're sick, obviously." Ryder said as Marley sniffled and then coughed.
"Ugh, I feel like crap." She said, wiping her nose on the back of her hand before throwing down limply.
"Poor baby," Ryder kissed her sweaty forehead lightly and run his hands through her hair. "Do you want something to eat, hun?" Ryder raised his eyebrows and sat up next to Marley. Marley shrugged and rolled onto her side, sniffling again and sneezing.
"Ryd, I feel like shit." She whispered, sighing heavily and groaning into the pillow. Ryder pet her arm comfortingly and kissed it lightly, pulling the covers back over Marley, only to have her toss them back again.
"Sweat out the fever." Ryder whispered, pulling himself out of bed and walking around to Marley's side. He pulled the sheets back over her and turned around to face the curtains. He closed them, making the room almost completely dark, only a sliver of light coming through the gap in the curtain.
"I don't have a fever." Marley snapped, burying her face into the pillow.
"Yah, you do." Ryder nodded his head and brushed her sweaty hair from her face. Marley mumbled something under her breath and wiped her face. Ryder leaned down and kissed her head, murmuring, "I love you" under his breath. Ryder then walked out of the room and down the stairs of their house, coming to the kitchen.
He ran around, peering in each of the cupboards before grabbing a little packet of soup and turning on the kettle. He sighed and read over the instructions on the orange packet. Most of the words on the back of the packet Ryder couldn't understand and he decided to miss out on those words, trying to follow the instructions properly.
Ryder flipped the packet around once he'd skimmed over the instructions on the back. "Pumpkin? Why don't we have any of the nice flavours?" He murmured, throwing the packet down on the bench and watching the kettle, waiting for it to boil.
Once it had, he poured it into the large black cup and stirred it slowly, thinking about how Marley could have gotten that stupid fever; he didn't recall them doing anything that would give her a fever… unless one of their friends had had a fever recently, but Ryder couldn't remember any of their little pack having that.
"Ryder!" He heard his name being called from their shared room and sighed, running back up the stairs quickly, to see what Marley wanted.
She was laying on the bed, as she was before, except this time, the sheets were completely thrown off of the bed and on the ground, and Marley was also half hanging off the bed, her legs just touching the floor.
"Mar," Ryder sighed, shaking his head at his girlfriend. She mumbled something and groaned loudly, wiping her forehead roughly, trying to get the thick droplets of sweat off of her head. Ryder rushed forward and pulled her legs off of the floor, placing them back on the bed. Marley rolled onto her side and splayed her legs out, exhausted from doing nothing for the past five minutes. Ryder leaned over and pulled the heavy blankets off of the floor, throwing them over Marley again. She grumbled and tried to shove the blankets to the ground again but quickly gave up, her arms feeling sore.
"I'm gonna get you some panadol, hun." Ryder whispered, kissing her sweaty brown hair lightly and walking to the bathroom, pulling out the almost empty packet of tablets in the bathroom cupboard and running back to Marley, quickly forgetting the cup of soup he was going to make.
He smiled as he popped out two of the tablets and handed them to Marley, also handing her the light green drink bottle on her bedside table. "Thanks, Ry." She muttered, tiredly throwing the pills in her mouth and swallowing them with water. She threw the water bottle at Ryder, who tried to catch it but ended up dropping it, letting it bounce along the floor.
"Get some sleep." Ryder whispered to her once she'd gotten comfy on the bed again, her face squashed against the pillow.
"No." Marley moaned, weakly throwing her hand in the air. It landed on the bedside table where her new copy of Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks was lying, almost falling off of the little table. "Can you read to me?" She whispered, sniffling.
Ryder sighed quietly. He couldn't read… not that well, anyway. And he was expected to read Nicholas Sparks? One of Marley's favorite authors? After Suzanne Collins, of course. He was hesitant about reading to Marley, but she was sick and she wasn't feeling well at all, so he kind of had to…
"Fine." Ryder whispered, picking up the book and sitting next to Marley on the bed, kissing her forehead lightly. "Thanks." She muttered, closing her eyes and curling up into a ball, waiting for her headache to go away.
Ryder opened the book to where the bookmark was. He placed the little ribbon that marked the page on the bed and crossed one of his legs over his knee, placing the book on his thigh. "Okay…" Ryder sighed, staring at the words, which seemed all jumbled up, creating words he couldn't even begin to read.
"B-by late June, the flower g-gar-gardens in Dor-Dorchester… that had been ablaze with color in the spring were beginning to wil-wilt, the blooms turning brown and curling inward," He paused and took a deep breath, scanning over the rest of the words on the page. He was embarrassed that it had taken this long to read one paragraph aloud, but when his gaze flickered to Marley's, she didn't seem to mind at all—in fact, she had a smile across her face, her eyes shut.
"The hu-hum-humidi-humidity…? Had begun to creep up and the alleys in downtown Boston began to smell of rotting food and ur-urine and de-cay…"
"You're doing great, Ryd." Marley cut in quickly, wiping her nose on her arm. Ryder smiled under the slight praise and nodded his head.
"T-thanks, Marls." He grinned, staring at the book again with a smile. Knowing that Marley seemed to be enjoying him reading to her, he continued more enthusiastically, "Kevin told Coffey and Ram-Ramirez that he and Erin were going to the weekend at home, watching movies and doing a little gar-gardening. Coffey had asked about Pro-Provinc-Provinceto-Provinc-Provi-" Ryder scoffed and shook his head, looking away from the book. He'd been on a role, and now that stupid word had to stop him. He knew Marley would be disappointed with him.
"Provincetown?" Marley asked, her voice croaky. Ryder shrugged and let out a loud sigh.
"I'm-I'm sorry, Marls, I can't do this. You know I can't read." He muttered, placing the bookmark in and standing up, going to walk out of the room. "Get some rest."
"Ryd, come back." Marley called after him, trying to sit up but falling back down. Ryder sighed and spun around in the doorway, staring at Marley and raising his eyebrows, watching Marley—who had seemed to look a bit better after taking the tablets. "Please? Read to me? I don't care how slow you go." She smiled weakly and fell back down on the pillow, gazing ahead at the cupboard.
Ryder stared at those big, tired blue eyes and nodded, sitting back in front of Marley. Even though her eyes weren't as bright and happy as usual, they could still make him do anything she wanted—even if she wasn't trying to. "I love you, Mar." Ryder whispered, reaching his hand out to grab Marley's, but when he did, it was wet. "Ew, slobber or something." He said, wiping his hand on the bed sheets. Marley let out a quiet, weak chuckle.
"I love you, too, Ryd." She whispered her hand on the bed sheet, too, and glanced over at the book again. "You gonna get reading?"
"I can see you're feeling better." Ryder commented, leaning forward and grabbing the book off of the dresser, opening it again.
"Only with you reading to me." Marley winked at Ryder before closing her eyes and turning onto her side, waiting for Ryder to begin reading again.
"Enjoy, Miss Rose. This won't ever be happening again." He whispered, rubbing his nose against her cheek and smirking. She smiled in reply, nodding her head at him. "Okay, where were we…?" Ryder asked himself, scanning his eyes over the page. "And Kevin had lied and told him about the bed-and-breakfast where they'd stayed…"
For the rest of the day, Ryder spent it curled up next to Marley, reading the book to her. Although, half way through the fifth chapter Ryder began reading, Marley had fallen asleep, completely content with the fact Ryder was beside her, taking care of her. No wonder she had to love him.