Love Storm (64 page)

"Well, where do you want me to sit?" I replied.

He patted the empty spot next to him in his bed, and I laughed softly.

"Please?" he said, begging me with puppy dog eyes. "Do the sick patient a favor." He had already reached out and was pulling me by the hand.

Ah. Hell. Damn those eyes!

I reluctantly crawled onto his bed.

"Under the covers," he commanded.

"I'm wearing
jeans
," I said, feeling that the argument was more than a little fruitless.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Zack asked humorously. "If you don't like wearing them you could always…oh, I don't know, take them
off
." His eyes were grinning wickedly at me.

"In
your
bed? Hah, I don't think so. I'll keep them on, thanks very much," I said firmly, wriggling under the covers.

"Prude," he teased with a wink.

"Horny perv," I countered with a reluctant grin as he looped an arm around me and pulled me to him so my right side was pressed up against his left. His body was very warm and his hand came to rest on top of my stomach. I don't think he was even thinking about the action, but he was tapping his fingertips in a pattern that I knew must have been some piano piece.

"Only horny for you," he said with a very toothy smile. I couldn't figure out if he was joking or not.

"Someone's playful today," I said, trying to ignore the warmth that spread from his hand.

He shrugged.

"U-umm,
so
…what happened? How'd you get sick?" I asked, more to start a conversation to distract myself from the way he was gazing at me intensely than anything else.

"Same way everyone else gets sick," Zack shrugged again, then yawned. "I'm beat."

"Haven't you been sleeping the whole day?" I asked. It was then that I noticed the dark circles under his eyes.

"Well…" He averted his gaze from mine.

"Zack," I exhaled, half exasperatedly, half worriedly. I reached out and traced the evidence of his sleeplessness lightly with my fingertips. It was his silent confession that made something in my chest wrench. He'd been avoiding this topic for too long. And I berated myself, too, for not catching on sooner, for not recognizing the signs, for not confronting him about the suspicions I'd had.

"Zack…" I said, still running my fingertips over the dark circles under his eyes. I sat up closer to him, curling my legs underneath me. His eyes had closed upon my touch, and I stroked his cheek, my chest tightening painfully.

"You've figured it out, haven't you?" It wasn't a question; not really, because he already knew the answer.

"I wish you wouldn't do this to yourself," I whispered. I moved to pull my hand away, but he covered it with his own to hold it there. He turned his cheek into my hand and caressed it, almost as a form of apology.

"I can't help it," he said hoarsely, not meeting my eyes. "I don't know how to make it go away. It just doesn't. I've tried everything. Melatonin pills, everything. It's not even that I have trouble falling asleep. I just can't
stay
asleep. It's hurting my health, Winter. I'm pretty sick right now."

"I know, Zack," I said, shaking my head slightly. "I just don't understand. Why didn't you go to a doctor or something?"

He gave a half-shrug. "I don't know. I thought it would eventually go away, I guess. I figured, hey, I run cross country, I'm in shape, I try to eat fairly healthy, I should be ok, right?" He laughed quietly, bitterly.

"Did you tell your doctor? Victoria said something about you having a family doctor, or something," I said softly.

"Didn't get a chance to. He was in and out of here so fast. Asked questions the whole time: how you feeling? Sore body? Runny nose? Headache? Been drinking enough water? What was the last thing you ate? I didn't even manage to get a word in edgewise. I was going to tell him. Honest, I was." His eyes begged of me to believe him.

"You don't have to try to convince me," I said with a half-smile, "I believe you."

He sighed deeply, sliding himself down so he was lying, tugging lightly on my arm to get me to mimic him, which I did. His right arm immediately snaked around me, resting across my middle, his fingers running through my hair. "I'm sorry," he said.

"For what?" I asked, surprised.

"For not telling you."

"Zack, I'm not upset that you didn't tell me. It's more that this insomnia's been plaguing you for so long and deteriorating your health slowly…that's what really gets me. I don't want you to be sick, you know?" I said. "I want you to be healthy. Seeing you sick like this…it really, uh…it
sucks
," I laughed weakly, unable to communicate to him through words exactly how much it sucked.

He was looking at me with another of his unreadable expressions, and I looked away because his eyes were so golden and so beautiful it caused my throat to ache.

He exhaled a contented sort of half-sigh, his eyes closing as he pulled me to him even closer, burying his face in my neck. Reminding myself that he
was
on heavy medication and his head was probably pretty hazy with sleepiness, I let him do so without thinking twice about the possible meaning behind the actions, and massaged the back of his neck gently. His physical presence made the little hairs on my arms stand up.

"How was your day?" he mumbled after a long moment.

"Horrible," I said honestly with a slight smile.

"Wha…? Why?" he asked, his breathing starting to slow as he relaxed more.

"Because I was so worried about you," I replied softly.

I could feel his lips curling into a smile against my skin. "You shouldn't have been worried…You can see that I'm fine…Just a little sick…little fever…flu…" His voice was thick with sleep, and he was drifting off. "My day was alright I guess," he mumbled even though I hadn't asked. "'Cept Victoria kept making me drink juice…orange juice…too much…orange…"

He had talked himself to sleep at long last. I could feel his chest rising and falling against mine as I laid there next to him, our bodies so entangled it was impossible to tell where I ended and he began.

I laid there for a very, very long time. I was too afraid too move, even after he had been asleep for a good hour, because Zack looked so peaceful and serene in sleep like he never was when he was awake, and so unbelievably handsome, that I was loathe to even risk waking him. He had been tired for so long, and now he could get a little bit of long-needed sleep. I had no idea how long it would be before he would wake again, and I didn't want to make it happen any earlier than it had to be, so I stayed there, wrapped up in him, in a warm and safe Zack cocoon.

I wasn't tired like he was, and though I tried to fall asleep, it didn't quite work out. My thoughts were completely stuck on the teenage guy I was in bed with. I winced.
In bed with
. Eva would have had a field day with that phrase.

A light sigh slipped through my lips as I pushed a wayward curl off Zack's forehead, a little bit past the first hour of his being asleep. Why was he so….so…I didn't even have the right words for him. I gently tapped the bridge of his nose, which was sprinkled with those adorable freckles. He was just one person.
One
person. One guy.

So why in the world did he mean so much to me?

He could have been no one, just a stranger, just a classmate, just one of Eva's numerous ex-boyfriends, just a person who I had no particular inclination or disinclination for. He could have been any of those, all of those.

But he wasn't.

What was it about him, exactly, that made it so that he could be doing something absolutely obnoxious, and yet instead of blowing up at him, I'd end up laughing at his little antics? What was it about him that made me not only willing, but also wanting to do anything to preserve his happiness? What was it about him that was special anyway, so special that my heart was telling me every day with every glance in his direction and every smile for him, that he was someone to hold on to for always?

I don't pretend to be genius or anything, because I'm not, so to be completely honest, I didn't know what the answers to any of those questions were. Maybe the answer was nothing. Maybe it was everything. Either way, it would have implied a lot more than I was willing at that moment to delve into.

So I just relaxed in Zack's arms and took comfort in his slow, steady breathing, hoping he was enjoying a deep, restful sleep.

-Zack-

I don't know how many hours later it was that I woke up. The first thing that I noticed was that my bed smelled absolutely heavenly. The faint scent was sweet and feminine, and I automatically turned my face into my pillow and inhaled it deeply. My mind still muddled with sleep, I unconsciously reached out blindly to the other side of my bed, and it wasn't until my hand met thin air that I realized I was searching for the warm body that the scent belonged to, and that she wasn't there. I opened my eyes blearily, yawning and stretching luxuriously. I hadn't felt this well rested or contented in I didn't know how long. Now, the only thing that was making that moment incomplete was that I didn't know where Winter was.

I rolled onto my other side, rubbing at my eyes. A glance at my digital clock told me it was 3pm. My still groggy mind was only able to accept that without asking any questions, and I staggered out of bed, shivering as cool air hit my body. I managed to find a pair of sweats and a sweatshirt which I pulled on over my t-shirt and boxers, and I left my room for the bathroom. I did the old bathroom, brush teeth, wash face routine and headed downstairs.

I found Victoria in the kitchen, cooking something.

"Oh, you're finally awake," she said with a warm smile. "Feeling better?"

"Uhh, I guess," I said, trying to focus my mind.

"You should be," Victoria said, grabbing a clean spoon and dipping it into the pot. It looked like soup. "You slept for a whole day. Here, try this. Is there enough salt in it?"

A whole day?
I dumbly took the spoon from her and tried the soup.

"Well?" she prompted me.

I choked as the hot food slid down my throat. "It's fine. A whole
day
?" I coughed.

"Yes," she replied with an arched eyebrow.

I took another look at the clock. 3:12pm, it read.

"Oh man," I said, holding a hand to my forehead. "So that makes today…" I shook my head, trying to clear it of all remnants of sleep. The events of the past few days flashed by me in
chronological order. Winter, punching me – that had been Friday. Saturday and Sunday, spent at home in a foul mood. Monday, getting into the brawl with Gavin, getting taken to the hospital by Winter, having dinner with her, driving her home. Tuesday, waking up sometime in the early hours of the morning with a sore body and feeling freezing cold though my skin was burning with heat. Tuesday…Tuesday in my mind trailed off into a blurry memory. I had spent the day in a half-asleep, half-awake haze, feeling absolutely crappy and way too far gone on ibuprofen. Winter had come sometime during the afternoon…I had fallen asleep…

"It's not Wednesday already, is it?" I asked.

"It
is
Wednesday already, actually," Victoria said.

"God, I feel like I got cheated out of a day of life," I muttered.

Victoria laughed gently. "That girl of yours was here all of yesterday afternoon. I had to use all of my best persuasion skills to get her to go home and get some sleep for herself."

"Oh, really?" I said, smiling softly.

"Don't go all the way off into Winter La-La Land yet, Zack," she said.

I was slightly offended. "Winter La-La Land? There's no such place," I scoffed.

Victoria gave me a "yeah, right" sort of look and said, "Mmm, well then, you tell me why your eyes glaze over every time someone mentions her."

I had no reply for that. "Did she really stay here all afternoon yesterday?" I asked instead.

"Yes, it was so sweet," she said, going back to stirring the soup and adjusting the heat of the stovetop. She shot a stern look at me over her shoulder. "You hang on to this girl and don't give up on her, you hear me?" she said severely.

I held up my hands defensively. "Wasn't planning on it," I said honestly, hiding a grin.

"Good," she murmured approvingly. "Winter said she'd drop by again today after school."

"Really?" I asked eagerly.

"Yes, she should be arriving –"

The doorbell rang. Lovely how telepathic Victoria is, isn't it?

"I'll get it!" I said quickly, and dashed as fast as my still weak body allowed to the front door.

"Hey," I said as I opened the door for her.

"Hey, you okay?" she asked, concerned as she saw me bringing a hand up to my head in a sudden but short bout of dizziness, probably initiated by my quick sprint.

"I'm better than okay," I said, wincing a little as the foyer stopped whirling around me.

She gave me a beautiful smile that warmed me from the inside out despite the chilly air that was blowing in from the open door.