Straight Best Friends (Gay Love Story -- In Progress)

02: Sick

The weekend was really good. I got to see all my baby sisters and brothers. They're a lot to handle, but I love all of them.  My sister at Virinia Tech is dating a guy and they're pretty serious. Part of me thinks he is going to propose to her when she graduates this spring. He came over Saturday night and they just look married already. It is always funny at our dinner table. We are the family of J's. Mom's name is Jill. Dad is Joe. There is me, the oldest. Then Jenny (22), John (20), Jess (18), Jackie (16), and Jeff and Jeb, the twins (14). We are all two years apart. It works out pretty nicely. It is always interesting to hear about the twins' lives, just because 8th grade seems so long ago but when I hear about their drama in middle school it definitely brings back memories. 

Either way, I love being home. It is nice to be the oldest brother of all of them. I am the responsible one, the disciplined one. However, I have always been the most stressed. I carrry a lot of weight in the family, as well as with my graduate studies. I have been under so much stress lately and I can tell it has taken an imact on my energy levels. I feel like I took ten naps this weekend (that was hard to do, seeing as how I share a bedroom with John and the twins).  

I packed my bags and as soon as I did there was a knock on the door. My mom answered it. 

"Oh Matt, thank you so much for doing the driving this weekend. We loved seeing Jack."

I turned toward Matt and his usual gleaming smile. I have never met someone that happy before. "Ready?" Matt asked. 

We packed in the bags and made our way back to the university. I always get sad when I leave home. My family is so warm and tight-knit. Matt could tell how sad I was about leaving.

"I hate leaving too. The M-clan is always full of fun. I am surprised our families didn't get together this weekend for some huge adventure."

Matt's family is like mine in the sense that everyone's name starts with the same letter. There's his mom, Maxine, and his dad, Med. Then his younger siblings: Mark, Maggie, Medeline, Michael, and Michelle. Our families did a lot together. We spend Christmas morning together, we go on camping trips together, we just do a lot. I was also surprised we didn't have some sort of outing. However, it was good to just relax. 

We got back to school around 10:30pm on Sunday night. Matt and I unpacked his car and then watched some TV together on the couch before heading to bed. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I woke up at 3:30am with sharp stomach pains. I went to the restroom and tried to throw up but nothing came out. It was killing me. I went to the kitchen to get some water, and then it decided to come out. I threw up all over our kitchen floor. There was blood  in it, which was even scarier. I drank a lot of water and cleaned myself off as well as the floor. That's when Matt came in. 

"Oh no, Jack what's wrong? Here go lay on the couch I will clean this all up. Do you want me to make something?" Matt  said. 

My stomach hurt too much to have an appetite, but I did as Matt said. He went to work on the kitchen. My barf was disgusting. I didn't know why he was doing all that. 

"All clean. Here is another glass of water." He handed me another glass and took the other one away. He also situated my pillows and got a blanket from his room and put it on me. 

"Are you comfortable Jack?" He asked.

"Yes. Thank you. My stomach is just killing me." 

Matt took care of me for another 30 minutes until I drifted off into sleep. I was exhausted. I had thrown up a lot. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

When I woke up, Matt had slept on the chair next to me. He was still asleep. 

"Matt?" I said. He woke up. 

"What is it bud? How are you feeling?"

"I still feel awful. I feel like I might throw up again. I am going to run to the restroomo real quick."

I went to the restroom and threw up again. This time it was mostly blood. The stomach pain was still there. I had no idea what was going on. 

"Matt can you come here?" He rushed to the restroom.

"Oh my goodness, Jack. Here get in my car. I am taking you to the emergency room."

Matt took me to the doctor, who explained I have developed some weird sickness caused mostly by stress. He said my body was basically just overloaded with it to the point that it was malfunctioning. I can't pronounce what he called it, but he said it is very serious. He told me to move as little as possible and to practice things such as meditation. He essentially was saying I need to calm down, which stressed me out even more because I am supposed to get my Master's degree in May. 

"Jack's in graduate school. What should he do about classes? Can he still go? His stress is what pushes him to do as well as he has. He's a wiz." Matt told the doctor. 

"This is a very serious  condition Jack has. It can get worse, and it will if he continues to do nothing but stress and eat poorly," the doctor said, "He also will need someone to take care of him. Jack, you really need to be resting a lot more. You need to recover, which means staying in as much as you can and not moving around too much. You need to give your body a major break."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I cried on the way back to the apartment. The doctor essentially just told me that I had limits in every aspect of my life that I was crossing. I didn't know what to do about school. Could this not have happened after I graduated?

"I'm going to take care of you," Matt said very sternly. "Jack, I know you want to be Superman, and you pretty much are with everything you do. Two part-time jobs, an extremely challenging  degree program, a large family. You are Superman, but you need a break, I am going to make you relax because it is your health on the line. Okay?"

"Okay." I was reluctant to it, but Matt was serious. It is rare that Matt gets very serious, but when he does you know he isn't negotiating. 

When we got back to the apartment I threw up blood again. As I was throwing up, Matt came into the bathroom and rubbed my back, which helped. 

"I will clean this up. I made you some lunch with some tea that should help out with all this. And I flipped the TV to your favorite station and made you a bed on the couch that I am going to force you to lay in for the rest of the day, okay?" He said. 

I nodded my head, too weak to really carry on a conversation. I left to go to the couch Matt had made. I looked at the table and there was some hot tea, a delicious meal of soup and grilled cheese (my favorite), and the couch was ready for me to make it my home for a while. Meanwhile I could hear Matt cleaning up my mess in the bathroom. He really is the best friend a guy could ask for. I don't want him to feel like he has to be doing this for me though. I know he cares about me, but I can get my mom to take care of me or something. 

I took Monday off and sent e-mails to my professors about what was going on and they all understood. Matt eventually left for his afternoon classes and said he would pick up my medicine for me and would also get anything I would like to eat from the store on his way back.

This was a long day so far, but I am so lucky I have such a great friend that is doing so much to help.