The day I stopped singing in the shower

Chapter 26: Alligator

I felt the soft surface of the cloud underneath me. I couldn't believe I was lucky enough to sleep in one of them. My arms and legs felt heavy, I just needed to sleep more. I turned on my side and close my eyes harder.

All of a sudden, I felt like falling. The cloud had dissipated. I couldn't do anything to avoid it, I was gonna hit the floor. When my head was about to hit the hard surface, my eyes burst open.

I felt a pair of arms leaving me and I heard an alarm that was not mine. I saw Ace carefully pulling apart and turning it off from his phone.

He got out of the bed and I watched him as he did. I couldn't move, all my body ached, but I didn't want him to go. He stretched out and rubbed his eyes like a little kid. I suddenly felt really bad that I made him sleep with me. I didn't ask if he wanted to. He surely preferred to sleep in his bed. He won a game and I was pretty sure the last thing he wanted was taking care of the sick and silly girl. I watched him as he sat down on the bed and put on his red soccer boots. He then got up and turned around to glance down at me. I could tell by his face that he didn't expect me to be awake.

"I'm sorry." I muttered.

He frowned and leaned down on my bed. "Why?"

"Because instead of celebrating last night, I made you take care of me." I said lowly.

"Martina, I wanted to." He said firmly, his eyes meeting mine. He leaned over and gave me a kiss on the forehead. "God, you're burning up." He mumbled to himself.

He got out of the room and I could hear him talking with Sarah. They were talking about me having a high temperature and Sarah saying that it was the time for me to take my medicine. Sarah then walked into the room.

"Hi, sweetie." She said softly.

She handed me a glass of water and an aspirin. I sat up and swallowed it.

"Thanks."

She smiled at me. "Nathan's coming later to bring you some soup that his grandma made for you."

My lips curled up into a weak smile. That was sweet of her.

Sarah got out of the room. I hadn't realized Ace was there all the time, watching us. He approached me slowly.

"Now sleep." He just whispered. I obeyed because that was the only thing my body felt like doing. I lay down on my side and closed my eyes. I felt a hand caress my forehead and my cheek and brush the strands of hair away from my face.

I heard Ace and Sarah talking again. He said he didn't have classes but he said something about studying for a test. Sarah told him not to worry, she would stay for an hour or two. I felt so bad, they looked like my parents taking care of me when I was little. I heard Nick's voice too. He said they'll see each other at practice later. I didn't know how could I hear all that because my head was pounding like crazy. I felt more and more tired. I just let that feeling surround me and I surrendered and fell asleep.

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"He was like: you have one hour for the test, you have no right to ask any questions, if the answer's right you get one point, but you get half of a point taken off for every incorrect answer. Any kind of calculator is prohibited and you can not ask for any more sheets." Nathan mocked his teacher. "I swear to god I thought he was gonna say: oh, and I just let out an alligator, you'll have to finish the exam before it eats you alive!"

I burst out laughing.

"Seriously, how can we do a math exam without a calculator? That's just stupid!"

"Trust me, you can-"

"Oh, shut up. I'm complaining, you should be supporting me."

"Sorry, yeah. What a dick." I frowned trying to hide my smile.