The silence resumed, and I was as white-faced as he was red. Knowing Phil's story now, I wasn't really sure what to say. I wasn't sure I had the right to say anything about any of it, because it would come down to either pity or invalidation –on opposite ends— and knowing Phil as much as I did, I knew he wouldn't want either. So I stayed perfectly quiet as the secondhand memories buzzed around in my head and made it throb. Phil didn't have anything to say more, either, and his brutal coughing fits were the only things to break up the silence until nearly three.

I remembered how when Dane came back in a little while, he wouldn't want to find me here, so I knew I had to go. I slid off the bed and stuffed my hands in my pockets, and was making for the door when I heard Phil's voice croak out behind me. "Where are you going?"

I turned back to face him, smiling softly to put him at ease. "Go to sleep. I'll be back when the coast is clear –I promise." He stared at me another long moment, and decided my word was enough and sunk down into the pillow and blanket to get some sleep. I knot grew in my stomach at the thought of Dane coming and occupying the bed with him soon, but I tried to put that out of mind.

I snuck out the door and headed for the far staircase down. I had to be careful or Dane might see me, working the rooms downstairs, the girls inside and him standing out on guard and taking new customers. I hid on the side of the building and listened carefully in the quiet night. I stood there waiting for a long time, and if there wasn't a solid wall keeping me from going anywhere out of his sight, I would've made a run for it already. But I had to keep still and quiet, and just wait.

Eventually I heard Dane bidding goodnight to the last man, and shouting for the girls to get out there. I heard indistinct and quiet groans from the tired girls, and Dane congratulated them on a good night, and herded them up the stairs back to the room. Once I knew they were all up on the second level, I slipped quietly in front of the ground floor rooms, under the balcony, and headed down the street. But knowing I at least was safe didn't put me at ease much.

I slept on a nearby bench for a few hours, and was only woken when an officer came by and asked me why I was there. I blinked my eyes open to see a kind face staring down at me. "Do you have nowhere to go, kid?"

"No, sir, it was just a long night. I met with my girlfriend –we couldn't go to our houses, our parents would've had a fit seeing us together— and we could only afford the motel room for one night." I didn't like lying, but I could do it pretty well when I needed to. "I couldn't go back to school in the same clothes as yesterday, and my parents will get suspicious if I'm home before them."

It certainly wasn't the most believable story I'd ever come up with, but it seemed to satisfy him. The officer told me to just stay awake if I was going to be out on the bench, and, pretty well-rested by now, I told him I would. Just before he walked away, I asked him for the time. "Three-thirty," he said, and continued on his beat.

Three-thirty. Dane would definitely be gone by now, but the girls would be in, and they might rat me out. But I promised to go back to Phil once the coast was clear, and I was already pretty late. I decided to go for broke and went back to the motel, hopping up the steps two at a time and arriving at the door. I knocked almost hesitantly, but firmly.

Shiba answered, and sneered when she saw me. "Didn't Daddy get rid of you last night?"

I had to be patient and pleasant; she was all that was standing between me and my very sick best friend. "Phil wanted me to come back," I answered unsurely, not wanting to get him roped into this confrontation but ultimately, there was no way around it.

Shiba groaned and shouted over her shoulder, "Kitten! Is he yours?"

"Shut up, Sheeb, he's sleeping!" I couldn't make out which girl that was. Shiba closed the door a little bit, now completely blocking my entrance.

"He's sick and asleep, so you'll have to come back later." It was her smirk that got to me, thinking she had all the power in the world right then, and loved making me beg to see my friend.

"Please?" I sounded a little more pathetic than I wanted to, but I didn't want to show up after Phil had woken up, and he'd think I'd abandoned him. At further refusal, I tried to reason my way inside, and got nothing.

I peeked over her head to see if Phil showed any signs of waking up, but he was lying very still on the bed, only stirred by rough coughing every few minutes. I winced, and agreed to come back in an hour, so long as I'd be allowed in whether Phil was awake or not. Shiba wanted to argue that, too, but didn't get a chance when one of the girls inside –it was Angel, I could see her sitting next to Phil on the bed— agreed to the idea.

"Alright. Come back in an hour, then."

"And if he wakes up will you tell him that I came, and am coming back soon?"

"No promises."

"I will," Sunny piped in.

"Thank you." And I headed out again, counting down until I would return.

After wandering around for a while, nothing much transpiring in the meantime, I ended up back at the motel room door, and stood there to wait until one hour exactly had passed before knocking. But as I stood there waiting, I heard voices inside, the Sunny and Angel speaking in somewhat worried tones.

"You think Daddy will kick him out again?"

"I don't think so. It's just two nights too sick to work, and Daddy loves him, you know that."

"I know. Poor Kitty… Do you think he—"

"I'm sure he'll be fine," Shiba quipped. "It's not like this is the first time Kitten's been sick, so there's no need to get your g-strings in a twist." Silence, and then some movement I assumed came from Shiba. "Now that we got that out of the way, what were you gonna ask, Sun?"

The hour was up, and I couldn't listen to this talk any longer, so I knocked quickly on the door, loud enough to break through the conversation. I heard someone coming, and it was Angel who opened it up this time. "Hey, Dan." She gave me a small smile, and honestly I was surprised, almost flattered that she remembered my name. "You wanted to see Phil? Come on in. He's still asleep, though, so don't wake him up."

I nodded and moved over to the bed to sit next to him. I pushed his hair out of his shut eyes; he was getting worse, burning up hotter than before, covered in a sheen of sweat and shivering, skin blotchy between stark pale and feverish red. And his coughing fits were growing more frequent, even as he slept.

And I knew deep down and in the back of my brain, that he needed to go to the hospital. But the part of me that knew his situation, and the part of me that just wanted him to be alright, conspired to convince me that the best thing to do was to just keep him in bed and wait it out, and everything would be okay.

"Daddy might kick him out tonight if he can't work," Sunny sighed, sitting on the other bed.

And I knew that would be the worst thing that could happen right now, to be exiled out into the cold when he was already so horribly ill. I had to convince them, convince Dane, convince Phil that he could indeed work tonight, even if I couldn't convince myself.