I was worried about the long ride to Port Angeles stuck in a car with just Jake and Mike, but it turned out to be no different than all the car rides Jake and I have taken together. Mike just sat, nearly silent, in the backseat, sniffing with displeasure now and again. As soon as we arrived at the theater, Mike excused himself to the bathroom.
"What a grump," Jake said cheerfully, watching Mike's retreating back.
"He's probably just disappointed that the others couldn't come," I said, trying to be neutral. Secretly, I agreed with Jake.
Once Mike got back, we all settled into our seats in the movie theater. I was in the middle, one boy on either side. Mike seemed to have regained some of his previous enthusiasm and kept up a stream of chatter about school, effectively leaving Jake out of the conversation completely. I was grateful the movie started after only a few minutes and I didn't have to worry about talking for awhile.
The movie sucked, but I barely noticed it. The boys had claimed the armrests on either side of me with their palms facing up in an unnatural, uncomfortable position. Clearly, they were hoping I was in the mood to hold hands. I crossed my arms over my chest and let my mind wander.
Suddenly, Mike jerked out of his awkward position and let loose a terrific sneeze, just barely catching it in his elbow in time. A few people nearby whispered "bless you!", while others just glared at him. I reached for my purse to see if I had a tissue to give him when he sneezed again…and again…and again.
AHHHHCHOO! AHHHHHCHOO! ACHHHCHOO! ACHHHCHOO!*
Now everyone was really glaring at him, and our closest seat neighbor looked disgusted.
"Mike! Are you okay?" I whispered urgently.
Mike just shook his head and sneezed again. This time there was an audible "C'mon man!" from somewhere in the theater. Mike stood up and hurried for the exit, still sneezing.
I looked at Jake in distress. "I'm going to go see if Mike is okay," I decided, picking up my bag and hurrying after him.
Jake stood up as well and followed me out. "This movie really sucks Bella," he said conversationally as we walked down the aisle, not even bothering to keep his voice down.
"Yeah, well, sorry," I said distractedly. We were out in the lobby now, with no sign of Mike. "Where do you think Mike went?"
"Probably the bathroom," Jake said. "I'll go check."
"Thank you!" I said gratefully. I watched Jake enter the nearby bathroom and sat on a bench to wait. This was really turning out to be a strange night. Jake returned only a few moments later, looking amused.
"The guy is having a full-on sneezing attack," Jake explained. "Either he has a previously unknown movie theater allergy or he's got the cold everyone else in Forks seems to have."
"Oh no!" I said in concern, "I knew we should've just rescheduled this night."
"I'm glad you didn't," Jake said, suddenly serious. "Any time I get to spend with you is good time, even if it's with a stupid movie and a sneezing dude."
"Oh Jake…"I started to say, then trailed off. I knew Jake liked me. I knew that I liked him as well, I just wasn't ready to like him the way he wanted me to like him. Thankfully I was spared from saying anything else because Mike came slowly out of the bathroom. His nose was bright red and his eyes were watery. He still held a handful of tissue.
"Mike! Are you okay?" I asked running over to him.
"I feel kind of awful," he said, sniffling. "Would you mind if we went home?"
"You just suddenly got sick or something?" Jake asked, the skepticism in his voice evident.
"Actually, I've felt bad all day," Mike said testily, "I just didn't realize it was this bad."
He blew his nose again loudly and I cringed. When he lowered the tissue again, I reached out to place a hand on his forehead.
"Mike, you're burning up! We definitely need to get you home."
We all walked in silence back to the car, with the exception of Mike's sniffling every few seconds. I fished in my purse again and handed him the tiny pack of tissues that had been in there for two years. The drive back was also quiet. It seemed like Jake was deep in thought, and obviously Mike was too sick now to be chatty. Mike had another sneezing attack halfway home and I caught Jake glaring at him in the rearview mirror. I was sure he was worried about Mike getting snot on his brand new car.
"Are you sure you'll be okay to drive yourself home?" I asked Mike, once we were back in my driveway.
"Yeah, it's fine," Mike said sniffling again. "But, um, do you think you could grab me another tissue? These are pretty much done for," he said holding up a crumbled wad.
"Oh! Of course!" I dashed inside, grabbing the box of tissues from the hallway table so quickly that my dad only looked up when the door swung shut behind me.
"Here, take the whole box!" I encouraged Mike. He took the box and immediately pulled out two tissues to blow his nose again.
"Well, uh, I guess I'll go," Mike said walking slowly to his car. "Sorry for messing things up."
"No, it's fine!" I called, "Feel better!"
He gave a half-hearted wave as he got in his car and drove away.
Jake turned to me, smiling widely.
"Why do you look so happy?" I asked in surprise, "Mike basically just exposed us to the plague."
"Whatever, we're made of stronger stuff than he is," Jake said unconcerned. "I'm smiling because we got rid of that pansy and it's the weekend! We've still got time before curfew if you want to hang out!"
I rolled my eyes, but couldn't help smiling at his enthusiasm. "Yeah okay, let me just tell Charlie first."
Half an hour later, Jake and I were in his garage in La Push. I was sitting in an old camp chair while Jake tinkered with one of the bikes. We'd been quiet for a few minutes, but when I was with Jake I didn't mind the quiet. It was nice just to watch him work.
"Hey Bella?" Jake said.
"Yeah?"
Jake continued to concentrate very hard on what he was doing and didn't look at me. "You like me, don't you?"
"Oh…Jake…I…"
"Let me rephrase that," Jake said, finally putting down his tool and walking closer to me, settling on the ground right in front of me. He was so tall we were almost eye-to-eye. "You like me more than you like that snotty guy, right?"
"Yes, definitely," I agreed immediately. Then I sighed, "I like you more than any of the guys in Forks."
"More than the La Push guys?" Jake pushed.
"Well, that Quil is pretty great…" I tried to tease weakly.
He just looked at me and I sighed again. "Yes, more than any of the La Push guys as well."
Jake considered this for a moment, then nodded slowly. "Okay, that's all I wanted to know."
"But Jake," I said, suddenly wanting to be clear, "I'm not…ready…for anything…yet."
"I know," Jake said calmly. "And that's okay. As long as I know you like me more than anyone else around here, I can be patient. I'm not going anywhere Bella."
We just looked into each other's eyes for a few minutes. Finally, I stood up. "It's getting late, I need to get home."
"Okay," Jake said easily, "I'll drive you home."
The next day when I woke up, it was immediately clear that I was not "made of stronger stuff" as Jake had suggested. I felt exhausted and achy, my nose congested and yet somehow still running like crazy. I was in the bathroom looking for the thermometer when Charlie poked his head around the corner
"You look terrible, Bella, do you have that cold everyone else does?"
"I think so," I said sniffling miserably. "I guess it was only a matter of time."
"I thought you might want to know that Billy just called, Jake woke up sick also. I guess being out with your sick friend yesterday wasn't a good idea."
"No kidding," I said grumpily, finally locating the thermometer behind a bottle of cold medicine with an expiration date two years ago.
"Well, I was planning a weekend fishing trip, but I can stay here if you need me," Charlie said uncomfortably.
"No, you should go," I said immediately. "I can take care of myself and if you're away maybe I won't get you sick as well."
"Only if you're sure, kid." Charlie said.
"I'm sure," I said forcefully, grateful to have Charlie out of the house.
"I'll have my cell on me, call if you need anything," Charlie said. It was only then that I noticed he was already dressed for fishing and had an overnight bag in his hand. "I'm heading out now, but I'll be back Sunday night."
"Okay Dad, have fun," I said sniffling. I brought the thermometer back to my room and listened as Charlie thumped down the stairs and left. I checked my temperature, which was thankfully only 99.3. I grabbed a roll of toilet paper to be my tissues and settled in bed with a book.
Two hours later, the phone rang. I ignored it. It rang again. I ignored it again. On the third ring, I finally shuffled downstairs, wiping my nose on the way.
"Hello?" I asked congested and annoyed.
"Geeze Bella, you sound terrible," Jake's familiar voice said.
"Yeah, that usually happens when a person is sick," I said sniffling.
"I'm sick too," Jake said. "Your stupid friend was too good at sharing I guess."
"Sorry Jake," I sighed. "I really hoped you wouldn't get this."
"Whatever," Jake said calmly. "But I thought since we're both sick and both of our dads are away all weekend, maybe we could hang out?"
"But…we're sick," I said confused.
"Well yeah," Jake snuffled heartily as if to prove the point. "Let's be sick together. Your house or mine?"
"Um…" I clearly wasn't processing things very quickly.
"Your house has a better couch and more food," Jake said decisively. "I'll be there in fifteen?"
"Um…sure, yeah. I'll see you soon," I agreed.
I shuffled back upstairs and decided that even if we were both sick, I wasn't ready to look quite this gross in front of Jake. I changed into a less holey pair of sweats and a hoodie that was at least a nice color. Then I brushed my hair into a messy bun and headed downstairs. I put the kettle on for more tea and started to straighten up the living room, but just as I leaned over to pick up an old newspaper, that familiar tickly feeling in my nose overcame me. I had just enough time to grab a handful of tissue when the sneezes started. *Ahchoo! Ahchoo! Ahchoo! Ahchoo! Ahchoo! Ahchoo! Ahchoo!*
When the sneezing finally subsided, I blew my nose twice and collapsed back on the sofa, exhausted. Jake wouldn't care about some clutter anyway.
I had just finished the tea when I heard a car pull into the driveway and I opened the front door for Jake. He was wearing grey sweats and a plain black tshirt. His nose was just as red as mine was, but he still grinned when he saw me. He reached into the backseat and pulled out a large bag, which he brought with him.
"Hey Bells, you're looking lovely as ever," he said teasingly.
"You've looked better yourself," I said rolling my eyes at him. "Here, I made some tea."
I handed him a mug and we both went into the living room and settled on the couch.
"So, what's in the bag?" I asked sniffling and putting down my tea to wipe my nose again.
"Sick day goodies," Jake said smiling again, "I made a stop on my way here."
He placed the back on the floor in front of him and proceeded to pull out one item at a time with a flourish.
"First, extra soft tissues! You look like you could use them," he said winking at me. I rolled my eyes, but couldn't refrain from taking a tissue immediately and blowing my nose. The softness was wonderful compared to the scratchy toilet paper I'd been using all morning.
"Next, cold medicine, cough drops, and Gatorade for hydration." He laid each item down in a line. I was surprised as his thoroughness.
"Also, I brought an assortment of movies, all of which are far superior to that trash you made us watch yesterday," he said sniffling, but clearly having a great time.
"Finally, Sue Clearwater's famous get-better soup. Any time someone on the res is sick, she brings them some. With this cold that's been going around she's been keeping extra on hand. My dad called her first thing this morning and she even brought me extra to bring to you."
I looked at everything he'd brought, overwhelmed. Usually when I'd been sick as a kid, I'd had to take care of myself. Renee wasn't great with illness and I'd learned to just hunker down and wait for it to pass. I'd never had someone go out of their way to take care of me, especially not when they were also sick like Jake.
Jake watched the emotions flit across my face, grinning as he grabbed a tissue from the box to blow his nose.
"Jake, I…don't know what to say," I mumbled, suddenly realizing that tears were welling up in my eyes.
"Bella, it's okay," Jake said softly. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay. If it's too much or you feel too sick, I can leave."
"No!" I said forcefully, then immediately sneezed. Jake handed me another tissue and waited calmly while I got rid of as much extra snot as I could.
"It's just…no on has ever taken care of me like this, bringing me medicine and food and stuff."
"To be fair, half of this is for me," Jake said easily. Then his eyes softened, "I like you Bella, I just want to take care of you."
Then his face contorted. I threw the box of tissues at him and he got one to his nose just in time. *AHHchoo! AHHChoo! AHHChoo! AHHChoo!*
When he finished, I smirked at him. "I guess today, we can take care of each other."
We spent the rest of the weekend together on the couch in all of our snotty, gross glory. We watched movies and talked, sneezed and took cold medicine, drank tea and ate Sue's soup. We even slept on opposite sides of the couch that night. By Sunday afternoon, both of us were feeling a lot better and cleaned up before Charlie got home. We hadn't really been worrying about the mess and there were snotty tissues everywhere.
"I guess I should probably go," Jake said sighing.
"Probably," I agreed. Neither of us moved.
"I'm really glad you came over yesterday," I said earnestly. "Not only do I think Sue's soup is the primary reason I feel so much better today, but it was just nice to hang out. I think…I think I might be ready to like you a little bit more."
"It's okay Bella, if you aren't ready, I really don't mind."
"No, I am ready," I said. "All this weekend while I was feeling so gross, I was also thinking about how I wouldn't want to be with anyone except for you."
"I wouldn't want to be with anyone else either," Jake said softly. Hesitantly, he took a step closer to me and lightly brushed the backs of his fingers against the side of my face. "And even sick, you're still the most beautiful girl I've ever met."
I reached up and ran a hand over his strong shoulder, and the other through his long, glossy hair. We moved even closer together and I buried both of my hands in his hair. He pulled me towards him gently, "May I?" he asked. I nodded and closed my eyes, turning my lips up towards him.
And the next thing I knew he yanked away and sneezed violently into his elbow. He glanced up at me guiltily.
"Well, maybe we're not quite well enough for that just yet."
All I could do was laugh, which made me sneeze again and we both laughed harder.
"I think next week, when we're both totally better, we should go on a proper date," I decided.
"Really?" Jake asked eagerly, for a moment looking like a puppy who'd just been asked if they wanted a treat.
"Only if that's okay with you," I grinned.
"Oh yeah," Jake said, smiling back. Then, swiftly, he pulled me into his arms and kissed me softly. "I'm very okay with that."
