Not your usual nurse

You were lying down in your bed, half propped against the headboard with some pillows to try and breathe better through your very stuffy and runny nose, the tightness on your chest getting worse and burning whenever you had a coughing fit, the sips that you took from your bottle water not doing much to ease it.

Your doorbell rang and you groaned, you didn't feel like moving from your blanket cocoon. The doorbell kept insistingly ringing, though, and so, cursing, you got up, keeping the blanket around yourself, and headed to open the door.

There stood Eddie Munson, his brows furrowing as he looked at you.

"Jeez, you look shitty."

"Woah, thank you, really, have you come just to say how hideous I look," you scoffed, trying to hide how self-conscious you felt at Eddie seeing you like that. "What are you even doing here? Shouldn't you be at school?"

"I went to your parent's café, you weren't there, '' Eddie said.

He had been having breakfast each morning at your parent's café for a few years now.

When you started high school, a group of people, for some reason, decided to pick on you. They made fun of you, laughed at you, and bullied you in general, but one day, Eddie Munson, the freak and satan worshiper, another bullied kid, stepped in to aid you, and got himself a split lip in the process.

Since then, Eddie had befriended you, helped you navigate the isolation and challenges of the school, and stood up to your bullies, protected you from them to the best of his ability, even if he was bullied himself, while you tried to do the same for him, which most times meant you both hiding together from the bullies.

You had felt too embarrassed to tell your parents what was going on at school, but they eventually found out. When they too found out about Eddie and what he'd been doing for you, they decided to take him under their wing too, so to speak, and befriended his uncle Wayne. Soon enough, they were taking Eddie for breakfast to their café every morning along with you, before you two went to class.

When you had graduated, you had started working at the café, and Eddie, who was still stuck at school repeating his final year, was still going for breakfast every school morning.

"Your parents told me you were sick, so I came to check on you," Eddie explained.

"Well...you saw me, looking shitty." You wiggled your arms under your blanket, twirling it humorlessly. "Now go to school."

"No, idiot, I come to help you." Eddie rolled his pretty chocolate eyes, shaking his head as if exasperated with you, making his frizzy curls wobble in a kind of cute way. "Take care of a sick friend. All that."

You let out a sigh...sure, you appreciated the sentiment, your heart felt warm at him wanting to help you, and you adored Eddie, maybe a bit too much, but you didn't see him much as a nurse, with how hyper and chaotic he could be, especially when you were feeling so sick and low on energy. Besides, he should be at the school if he was going to graduate that year.

"Thanks, Eddie, really, but you have class, you gotta go."

"Nah, I can miss a day." He was already pushing past you and making his way into your place before you could say that he should not miss a day. "I told you, I'm going to help you, take care of my sick friend, all that," he kept rambling as he strode to your kitchen.

"Really? Have you ever played nurse before?" You asked him, still feeling skeptical of Eddie nursing someone sick.

However, you had to admit that you found yourself feeling kind of less shitty already. It had to be a placebo, your foolish brain playing tricks, or your silly, infatuated heart, but whenever Eddie was around, his cheerful smile, pretty doe eyes, and his energy, always made you feel better, whether you were actually sick or just in a bad or sad mood. Being with Eddie meant feeling comfortable and having fun.