Smells Like Coffee ~ (Etho x Bdubs)

Chapter 10 - Weekend Worries

Bdubs in fact, did not get to "sleep in tomorrow" as Keralis had promised. Ringing filled his ears, and as much as he wanted to ignore it, the sound was infuriating enough to at least answer just to stop it.

"If this is a telemarketer, I'm going to throw my phone out of the window." Woken-up-too-early-to-be-nice Bdubs decided impulsively.

Reaching out to his nightstand he flung his hand around until he felt his phone, and picked it up without looking. There was always a chance it could actually be important, but considering most of his friends knew his sleep schedule and respected it (aside from the occasional teasing) he figured it was probably someone that didn't know or care that he liked to sleep in late.

"Hello?" Bdubs raspy voice cracked out.

"Did you just wake up? Oh I'm sorry, Bdubs." The voice was clearly Cleo, but it sounded uncharacteristically worried. Bdubs sat up more and focused better.

"No no it's fine." He half lied, but that wasn't important now. "What's wrong, you sound..." He trailed off, still too tired to find the right words. He blinked his eyes a few times and tried to focus on parts of his room to wake him up better. It was already light in the room anyway, seeping through edges of the closed blinds.

"Panicked? Upset? Did the coffee machine break?" His thoughts blurred, not being very helpful.

She chuckled nervously, solemnly almost, and took a breath. "I'm sorry to do this to you, but I need you to run the coffee shop this morning. G is already there I think-"

"There? Cleo where are you then?" He sat up too, starting to wake up more and hear words more clearly.

"I'm at the hospital- I'm not hurt though." She added quickly.

"Scar-" Her breath staggered. Bdubs froze. "He's fine. He's fine." Cleo reassured him. "But he's going to be here for at least a day, maybe more. Something happened, I'm not sure what but- he's ok. He's here and safe and ok." It sounded like she was trying to reassure herself too.

There was a pause as Bdubs processed the information and Cleo tried to think of what to say next. Bdubs wanted to jump out of bed and teleport there, see what was going on and help any way he could, but his legs weren't even moving to get out of bed, and his arms were frozen in place.

"They-" Cleo started again, and stopped. "Jellie's not allowed in here, which makes sense I guess in a hospital, but he misses her."

Bdubs was sitting straight upright now, and scoured his room for anything. Maybe to ground him, maybe to help the situation, he wasn't sure, but something caught his eye.

"Would a stuffed animal help?"

"What?" Cleo asked.

"A plushie of Jellie. He got it for me for my birthday a year ago-" Bdubs explained more clearly. "I can bring it over."

Cleo paused, thinking it over. "Yeah, I think that might help." She said quietly.

"I'll run it over and then get to the shop. Can G hold up the morning rush without me?" His limbs were working again, and he used his free arm to throw the covers off. He didn't even feel the cold air wash over his legs as he threw them off the side of the bed to stand.

"He might be flaky with work schedules, but I know he can do it alone for a bit. I'll call him so he knows, how long until you can be here?"

"I'll be there in 20, maybe 15? Then I can rush to work to help Grian."