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CHAPTER 15
Ella
There was a warm hand on my back, running a soothing motion over my spine, over and over. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been held like this. Maybe when I was a kid, and my mom had taken care of me? I snuggled in deeper, thankful for the soothing presence.
“Ella,” a warm voice called. A voice I wanted to burrow into. “Ella.”
“Mmm.” I buried my head into the warmth, inhaling a familiar, comforting scent. Spicy and delicious, and maybe a little like…Charming.
“Ella, baby. I need you to wake up and take some more medicine,” the voice spoke again as a cool hand rested against my forehead. “We gotta get your fever down.”
Groggily, I blinked my eyes open, finding my face buried in Cameron’s chest. “What?”
He held out a hand with some pills before offering me a bottle of blue Gatorade. “Take these.”
I nodded, gulping them down and chasing them with a swig of liquid, before his hand settled against my head again. The cool sensation almost made me moan, with how stark of contrast it had to my overheated body.
“What time is it?” I managed to get out, trying to focus even though my eyes hurt. We were supposed to leave for laser tag in the late afternoon after classes were over for the day, but looking out my window, it was dark outside.
It had started as a headache with some minor body aches until whatever I had hit me like a landslide.
Cam rubbed at my back, and I slumped against him.“Sorryyouhaftatakecareofme,” I blurted out, slurring the words.
“It’s fine.” His voice was a rough chuckle. “Go back to sleep now.”
“Okay.” I sighed into his chest, letting my eyes flutter shut. “Why are you so cozy?” He had no business being the perfect pillow.
And I drifted back off into sleep.
The sun was shining through the window the next time I woke, and I groaned as I looked at my phone resting on my bedside table.
I’d missed my first class.
Pulling the covers back, I went to stand up, trying to ignore how weak my body felt.
“Oh, no you don’t,” came a voice slipping back in my door, carrying a tray of?—
“Did you stay here all night?” My eyes grew wide.
Shit shit shit,I was so dead if Ilene found out. She didn’t enforce a lot of rules, but we werenotsupposed to have boys stay over. If they were even in our rooms during the day, we had to keep our doors open.
He set the tray on my desk before coming over and forcing me back in bed.
“You’re not going anywhere, missy.”
I pouted. “Cam. I have to go to class. And you can’t be here.”
“You’re still running a fever, so no, you most definitely cannotgo to class, Ella.”
I rubbed a hand over my face. “You… stayed.”
“Yes.”
“And you took care of me.”
“Yes.” He said it so matter-of-factly, like he couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
“Why?”
