This Girl

Chapter 21: I'm Cookie Monster Eating Pizza

I wake up on Monday morning with a really, really, reaaally bad DISEASE. Man flu. Nah, its just the normal, horrible cold. I had traces of it yesterday, but my pillow fell off my bed last night and all the bogies in my sinus fell down the back of my head. I can't talk without sounding like a retarded wolf. 

I walk downstairs and blow my nose with a tissue. Mum walks in. "Oh, sweetie, you look sick," she walks over and places a hand on my forehead. 

"Yeah," I croak, stepping on the bin's step and pushing it down, opening the bin and dropping the tissue in. 

"Your voice!" she shrieks. "You'd better stay home from school or you'll lose your voice for a couple of days, and that would mean you'd miss out on school, which means you would miss out on education, which means you might not get your Oxford scholarship, which would mean you wouldn't get your dream job, which means you'll have no money, which means you'll get depressed-" 

"Mum!" I try and yell, but it comes out sounding like a toad's croak. "I'll stay home."

Mum bustles off into her room, nodding at me, grateful that I won't be diagnosed with depression. I walk back up the stairs and hop into the shower, now that I'm up, I better get changed, I always feel gross just hanging around in my pajamas all day. I put on some black sweatpants and a baggy T-shirt. I pull my hair up into a messy ponytail and walk back into the kitchen. I lay my laptop and phone down on the kitchen bench, they always give me a headache if I have a cold and look at screens. I take a box of tissues, some tablets and a water bottle upstairs with me. 

I walk back into my room and pull my covers up. They are dirty so I take a sip of my water bottle, take off the sheets, throw them in the washing machine and turn it on, find new, clean sheets and take them back up into my room. I make my bed and jump in after laying my things on a dressing table beside me. Then I pull out my collection of Harry Potters and open the Philosophers stone to page one and I begin reading. 

I'm a quarter of the way through the book, at nine o'clock, when my mum walks in. "Nat, I'm gonna go to work now. Just stay here, you know the rules, but since you're pretty sick I've called over someone to stay with you for a little while."

"Mum," I groan. "I'm seventeen now, I don't need a baby sitter."

"But if you get too hot, you might have a fit or something!" she says, slipping her phone into her pocket and drawing out the air conditioning remote from its spot in the wall. She turns on the air con and chucks the remote at me. I roll my eyes and turn it off. Bloody hell, Mum, I've got a cold I cannot have the air con on! "Stay safe, get well soon." 

She walks out the door shutting it behind her. I lie back on the stack of pillows I've propped up for myself and let out a sigh. All I wanted to do was stay home in my bed with little old Harry Potter. I decide to wait for the person to ring the doorbell and keep reading my book. 

I'm just about half way through the book when I hear the faint dinging of the doorbell. I place my Harry on the bedside table and swing my legs around and onto the ground. I walk downstairs and open the door. I groan when I see who is standing there.

"Go away," I say, trying to close the door but he places a hand on it and pushes it back.

"Your Mum sent me," he says, flicking up his ray bans and walking in. I sigh and close the door, walking into the kitchen behind him. He fills up the kettle and I raise my eyes curiously and sit down on a stool, lying my head down on my hands. 

"What are you doing here, Alex?" I croak.

"What I said before," he says, flicking the kettle's switch down and leaning his arms down on the bench in front of me. "Your mum asked me, so here I am."