𝔹𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕜𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝔹𝕒𝕣𝕣𝕚𝕖𝕣𝕤

𝕤𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕖𝕟

(Tw: passing out)

The rest of the ride home goes by in a blur. I know that Medda's talking to me, but I can't make out the words. It feels like I'm underwater and my head is spinning. (the poor GUYS head is spinning-) Before I know it, I slump against the door and everything goes black.

I wake up on the couch with three concerned faces staring at me. I rub my eyes and sit up. The sunlight coming through the window blinds me for a moment before my eyes adjust.

"What happened..." I bite my nails again.

"You threw up and passed out, hun." Medda pipes up. "Are you feeling alright?"

Jack presses the back of his hand to my forehead. "Jesus, you're burnin up..."

"Let me take your temperature." Medda heads to the bathroom. A few minutes later, she comes back with a thermometer. "I don't think I need to tell you how to use this." I shake my head and take the thermometer from her. It's still in the packaging. I guess she buys a different thermometer for everyone to use. Smart. I stick it in my mouth and place my head in my hands.

A minute or two later, the thermometer beeps, and Medda takes it out of my mouth. "You've got a fever, kid. Most likely, it's just a small fever and nothing more, so you should be feeling better in a few days."

Charlie sits on the end of the couch. He begins to ask me a million questions about symptoms, like, "Do you have a sore throat?" or "Does your stomach or head hurt?" When he's done, he turns to Medda and goes, "Yep! Just a small fever."

Medda turns to me, "Go lay down in your room, sweetie. Resting will help you feel better." I nod and drag myself upstairs. When I get to my room, I notice that someone, probably Medda, has hung up all of the clothes we bought earlier. I can't help but let a small smile appear on my face. It feels nice to have someone legitimately care about you.

I climb into bed and lean against the wall. I don't get sick often, so I'm not used to feeling like shit. My eyes flutter closed, the only sounds in the room being my breathing and the occasional cough. About an hour later, I decide that I want to get some fresh air real quick. I remember Jack telling me that there was a staircase that lead to the roof when he was showing me around, so I head to the staircase and onto the roof.

Once I'm up there, I can hear faint music. I turn my head to see Jack painting something that I can't see from my angle. The music is coming from his phone. I stare at him working for a few minutes before he turns his head my direction, finally noticing me.

"Antonio! I didn't see ya there." He puts his brush down and turns to me. "Feeling any better?" I nod and he returns his gaze to his painting for a moment before turning back to me. He pats the area next to him, geasturing for me to sit next to him. I move to the area slowly, sitting on my knees. I study his painting, which is a picture of the stars. Holy shit, he's fucking talented. I wish I had some kind of talent to show off.

He starts to work on the painting again. I've always had a special interest in space. i don't know what it is, but the stars and the planets and everything else out there always interested me.

"Did you know that when you look at any object in space you are seeing how it looked in the past?" I mutter.

Jack turns his head to me. "What'd you say? Couldn't hear ya."

I repeat the fact, and he cracks a small smile.

"Damn."

I start stimming with my left hand, moving my fingers like they're typing on an invisible keyboard. "Yeah! Like, the Sun appears as it was 8.5 minutes ago. The view of Alpha Centauri is 4.3 years old, while the appearance of Sirius is more than 8 years old!" I'm doing the typing thing with both hands now. Talking about space really makes me happy, and I never get to do it.

Jack lets out a hum in response, and notices me stimming. I guess he realizes that talking about this subject makes me happy, so he goes, "Got any other space facts for me?"

At first, I'm shocked. No one ever wants to listen to me when I talk about a hyperfixation of mine. They always tell me to shut up. My small smile turns into a huge grin.

"Well, did you know that the larger a star is, the shorter it's lifespan is? A massive star may live only tens of millions of years, while a cool dwarf will shine for billions of years." I say. "Or that the oldest accurately dated star chart appeared in ancient Egyptian astronomy in 1534 BC?" He actually seems interested in what I'm saying, so I continue. "Astronomers estimate there are a trillion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy! And there are at least 10 billion trillion stars in the universe! Like, there's so much out there that we haven't seen, and that's so cool!" I look up at the setting sun in the sky. "Our sun was formed 4600 million years ago and is expected to live a total of 10,000 million years! And it constitutes 99% of the total mass of our solar system!"

Jack chuckles. "You sure do know a shit ton about space."

"Oh sorry-"

"Nononono it's fine! You seem happy, and I'm interested. It's a win-win. Keep going if you want, but I won't force you into anything."

The smile returns to my face. "Astronomers hypothesize that if you could taste the dust from the nebula that gave birth to our sun, it would taste like raspberries!"

He snorts. "Please don't eat the nebula dust."

I giggle. "You can't stop me!"

"Welp, good luck with that endevor."

I lay flat on my back. Right now, it feels like we've known each other our whole lives. There's no awkwardness or anxiety or anything of the sort.

"NASA renamed sizes of early condom-based toilets from "S, M and L" into "large, gigantic and humongous" because the male astornoauts' ego would make them always grab L, regardless of the real size." This causes both of us to wheeze.

And that's how we spent the rest of the night. Jack would paint, and I would tell him a shit ton of space facts. Soon, he checks his watch, and tells me that it's best for us to go inside now. And suddenly, I'm looking at the Larkin family in a whole new perspective. A smile comes across my face again. Everything will be alright, Antonio. It'll be just fine.

My thoughts are interrupted by a voice form downstairs

"Antonio! Dinner's ready!"