ALLY:

Trish came back with the digital thermometer, and told me,

"Leave it under your tongue until it beeps."

It beeped in exactly ten seconds and she grabbed it.

"Your fever's gone down at least a little. It's one hundred and one point two now. Now, I'm going to wash the thermometer and then get your soup and tea, just sit back, relax and let me nurse you."

I smiled.

"Thanks, Doctor De La Rosa."

She chortled at my comment. I reached on the coffee table and I found the netflix TV remote to watch Netflix and chill. My phone started ringing again. It was the hospital. I answered it.

I coughed and hacked again, and said,

"Ally Dawson speaking."

"Hello, Ms. Dawson. This is Doctor Moon. I wanted to see when a time for your tonsillectomy would work for you."

I said,

"How about Tuesday at nine AM?"

He told me,

"Hmm, sounds good. We'd like you to come in a day early, to check your height, weight, blood pressure, and we also request a blood and urine sample from you."

"Alright. I'll mark my calendar for that."

"Excellent. Remember, your stomach needs to be empty before the operation. I'll tell our otolaryngology team as soon I'm done with this call. Do you have any questions or concerns regarding your condition or surgery?"

I coughed and hacked again and asked,

"Yes. Besides the chance of my voice, because I sing, being permanently changed, are there any side effects that follow the surgery?"

He told me,

"Like every surgery, Tonsillectomy often comes with side effects. It may have a longer recovery duration in adults than it has in children, but the side effects are almost never serious. They include pain in the throat and/or the back of the oral cavity, nausea or vomiting from residual bleeding, the pain stopping within forty-eight hours after the surgical procedure and then coming back in a seventy-two to ninety-six hour period in your ears, mouth or throat, and pain when you swallow due to the scabs forming over the surgical wounds. The most serious complications are blood clots, and those are rare, but if you do have them, call the hospital. On another note, how do you react to anesthesia?"

I coughed and hacked again.

"I don't know. I've never had-"

I coughed and hacked yet again.

"Anesthesia."

He said,

"We're obviously going to give you anesthesia before the operation, but the risks, although not serious and only temporary, include headaches, low grade fever, upset stomach, vomiting and muscle spasms. Which brings me to the next point, there are more risks that come with your surgery. Swelling of the soft part on the roof of your mouth or of your tongue, and it may cause you to struggle to breathe, especially after the few hours after your surgery."

"Good to know."

"Before your surgery, just get plenty of rest and have a lot of fluids."

I said,

"I will. Thank you, Doctor Moon."

"You're welcome. I'm sorry, Ms. Dawson, but I need to go now. Because my break is almost over and I need to see another patient in a few minutes. But in the meantime, feel better."

I said,

"I will. Thank you. Goodbye."

Trish asked me,

"Ally, do you want honey and lemon in your tea?"

I went into another coughing and hacking fit and I said,

"Yes, please, Trish."

I could hear her mutter to herself,

"You could certainly use it, too. You poor baby."

I saw her grab a knife and cut a lemon and I heard her shriek,

"OW! FUCK!"

I coughed and asked her,

"What happened?"

She told me,

"I fucking cut my finger with the knife when I was cutting the lemon for your tea and it hurts like shit."

She held up her index finger where it was bleeding. It wasn't bleeding profusely, but that didn't mean that that she shouldn't tend to it. I let out another coughing and hacking fit and I said,

"Go rinse it with cold water and put a band-aid on it."

"I'm going to go do that. But you're still the real patient here."

I saw her go to the kitchen sink and rinse her bleeding finger. She came out in thirty seconds with a bandaged finger. She came back within fifteen minutes with a cup of tea with honey and lemon.

"Thanks, Trish,"

I said, and went into another coughing and hacking fit.

"Drink while it's hot, Ally. You're sick."

I said,

"OK."

I picked up the cup of tea and drank it. Trish sure knew how to make tea. I took a sip of the tea. Ah, it was so refreshing, especially with the honey and lemon. Trish asked me,

"So, what's your new doctor like?"

I put my tea down on a coaster with a bunch of hilarious quotes from The Big Bang Theory on the coffee table. Trish, Jace and I all loved that show and we watched it together a lot.

I said,

"Well, my new doctor is pretty young, in fact, he's just about the youngest doctor I've ever seen. But he's highly trained, professional and smart. And apparently he's a…"

I was cut off by a fit of coughing and hacking again. Damn cough.

"huge fan. He actually seemed like a fan in a love-me-and-respect-me kind of way, not a creepy stalker kind of way."

Trish told me,

"I always thought people who did that were the epitome of dumbassery."

I said,

"Oh really? When we were thirteen, you covered your room with pictures and posters of Nick Jonas. You called yourself Mrs. Trish Nick Jonas, made pictures of you and him on a bride and groom, and told everyone that you and him would be married with kids. You also told everyone at school you lost your virginity to him."

Trish said to me,

"To be fair, I thought all of them were cute. But Nick was always my favorite. But now, he's dead to me because I got my Jacey."

I laughed and that hurt my throat and I turned away and let out another coughing fit into my elbow.

Trish told me,

"Ally, drink more of your tea. Your cough doesn't sound much better."

I picked up the tea and drank a little more.

"Yes, Trish."

I drank a little more tea and Trish's phone started ringing. She picked up her gold iPhone 6 plus with a picture of Aladdin and Jasmine kissing. Aladdin had always been Trish's all time favorite Disney movie. It was my second, the first being The Little Mermaid. I smiled and looked at me sideways.

"It's Jace. He wants to FaceTime."

She answered it saying,

"Hi, baby."

He said to her,

"Hi, my sexy little churro."

Trish chortled and blushed as he called her that.

"Want to get laid tonight?"

Trish said to him,

"Sure, but Ally's right in front of me, and she can hear everything we're saying."

I could hear Jace say,

"Now I'm embarrassed. Sorry, you had to hear that, Ally."

I let another coughing fit out.

"It's fine, Jace."

My best friend turned her phone toward me so Jace could see me. He looked at me with concern.

"Hey, Al, how are you feeling?"

I went into a coughing and hacking fit again.

"Maybe a little better."

He looked at me in a somewhat doubtful way.

"Your cough still sounds pretty bad."

"My fever went down a little."

What did the Doctor say?"

I said,

"He said I needed tonsillectomy. To be honest, I'm kind of nervous that something might go wrong and I can't sing anymore."

Jace told me,

"I seriously doubt that's going to happen, Ally. And you know Trish and I are here for you."

Trish told me,

"Yeah. The surgery is probably going to go well, Ally."

I was so lucky to have two amazing friends who cared so much about me.

"Thanks, Jace."

I went into another very thick coughing and hacking fit and drank another sip of my tea. I put the tea down and went into another coughing fit.

"On the plus side, I like the doctor I saw today. He was smart, talented, caring and kind of cute."

Jace smiled at me.

"Ooh, does Ally have a crush?"

Trish looked at him.

"I think she does."

She jokingly made kissing noises at me. I said,

"That's enough, Trish. But yes, I do admit I have a crush on this doctor."

Trish asked me,

"By the way, what's his name?"

I said,

"Doctor Moon."

Trish asked me,

"Doctor Moon? As in, Doctor Austin Moon?"

I coughed again and said,

"Yes. How'd you know?"

I picked up my cup of tea and drank more of it.

"He orders marijuana for his patients from Cosmic Kratom. He's young for a doctor, but he sure knows what he's doing."