Painting Sky (10 page)

“Not in a lifetime.” I lay on the couch, groaning again. Walking home was getting to me.

“What is it?” Keith seemed much happier and friendlier, lately. This morning, he’d even made me toast and orange juice.

He sat next to me on the couch and pulled my legs over his. I tried to kick him, but my strength ran out and I gave up.

“I’m tired,” I slurred the words, whining.

“I can order pizza. The restaurant staff must think we all died this summer, with you cooking, and all.”

I shrugged. Right now, anything would be fine. He shifted on the couch to get his phone from his back pocket and dialed a number.

“Margherita with onion?” he asked me, which made me sit up. How the hell had he remembered how I liked my pizza? I started ordering onion on my pizza to keep Ryan away from it, and it was a habit that stuck.

“How did you remember that?” He shrugged and talked to the person on the phone. He asked for mushrooms and meat on his, just like Cody liked. They were not so different, after all.

We waited for the pizza in silence, watching an episode of The Simpsons and laughing.

Keith stopped me when I reached for my wallet and went to the door to get our food.

“I want to pay for mine,” I stated when he placed the box on my lap.

“Not in this lifetime,” he mimicked me. If it made him happy, I wouldn’t complain about free pizza.

Another episode of The Simpsons came on and we ate in silence. I left two slices, as I was full already, and Keith surprised me by taking them. I raised my eyebrows at him, waiting for the punch line.

“Yeah—not a very good combination. But it’s not that bad.”

He took the second slice and I laughed.

“You’re weird.” I shook my head at him.

“Oh, you’re one to talk. How was class?”

I knew which class he was talking about and I groaned, throwing my head against the couch again. I placed my feet under his leg, to keep them warm. I never thought I would be sitting like this with Keith, without wanting to strangle his pretty neck.

“The usual ‘Jane-has-the-worst-drawing’ speech.”

“She doesn’t think that. Like I said, she wants to push you to be better. Was it a woman or a man today?”

“Woman: not as embarrassing, but equally difficult.” I was talking about naked people with my boyfriend’s brother.

“I told you: it’s easier when you feel something. If you don’t want to ask Cody, what about Ry?” My disgusted face was enough of an answer.

“Maybe I’ll take you up on the offer,” my mouth said before my brain could filter my words. He bit his lower lip and shot me an incredulous look.

“Really?” he slurred.

I shrugged and took the remote to change channels. Keith’s eyes took their time leaving my face.

Cody arrived at ten again, and sat between his brother and me. He kissed my lips and ignored Keith, who had removed his arm from around my ankles when we’d heard the key turning in the door.

“Hi, baby.” I chuckled, remembering Keith’s welcome from earlier. This made Cody’s brows scrunch.

“Sorry. I missed you.” I apologized.

Keith got up, mumbling something about a painting waiting for him, and left for the attic.

“You had pizza? With my brother?” He was as astonished as me. I nodded and nuzzled his neck, smelling his cologne. We settled on a movie, which was about to start—I would worry about drawing Keith another day.

I saw Cody exactly four times the rest of that week. He looked tired every time, and, instead of getting upset by his absence, I felt compassion. My school work wasn’t that simple, but studying political science wasn’t easy, either.

On Sunday, though, he woke up happier and grabbed me by the waist, ignoring his brother, when he got to the kitchen.

Keith and I had been eating breakfast together, not really talking about anything in particular. He never said anything about posing naked again and I was glad. He was giving me time to think.

Cody kissed me on the lips and then on my neck before grabbing the toast I had made for myself. He knew how irritating I found that. If he wanted me to cook for him, he could have just asked.

“Hello, beautiful,” he said, trying to kiss me again. This time, I was still chewing my toast, so I avoided his mouth. My eyes came to rest on Keith’s face, instead. His lips were set in a fine line, but, as soon as he met my gaze, the corners of his mouth lifted, as if he were sympathetic.

“Why are you so happy this morning?” I remembered asking Keith the same thing a few days ago, but, this time, I avoided looking at him.

“It’s Sunday,” he said matter-of-factly. “I was planning on spending the day with my beautiful girl.”

“Oh, no study dates today?” I didn’t mean for my voice to sound irritated, but I guess that was exactly how I sounded, by the sudden flash of pain in Cody’s eyes. He grabbed me by the waist again and kissed my shoulder as an apology. My heart contracted: I was being a lousy girlfriend, as it was and I didn’t need to make my boyfriend feel guilty.

“Hey, I’m still here,” groaned Keith from behind his brother.

“Never noticed,” grumbled Cody, with his mouth still on my shoulder. “What do you want to do today? The weather is still good. We can go for a walk or go out to eat. Whatcha think?”

“You’re very good with words, bro. How you’re going to survive being a lawyer is beyond me.”

Cody never acknowledged his brother, who just chuckled before leaving the room.

“And you say he’s behaving when you’re alone? I can’t understand why you haven’t killed him, already,” Cody said as he grabbed the milk from the fridge. I was waiting for him to drink from the bottle so I could smack his head, but, at least with me watching, he didn’t.

I shrugged at his incredibility. “He’s not that bad.” I looked up at his eyes and added, “If you ignore half of what comes out of his mouth, that is.”

I took a shower and dressed in warm clothes. Despite the shining sun, we were almost into November and it was cold outside.

The rest of the day was pretty good. I hadn’t had this much fun in a while and it made my worries about our relationship melt away for now.

Cody was happier than usual, maybe because of the free day or because he was spending time with me. I didn’t know which, but I wasn’t going to complain.

T
he next day, when I got home from classes, I wasn’t feeling good. Cody had left to study, so I went to bed early. I woke up a couple of hours later to someone shaking me.

“You’re burning up.” Keith sat at the edge of the bed, first holding my wrist and then checking my forehead. “How long have you been feeling like this?” He pulled the covers away from me and I scrambled to pull them back, shivering.

Keith got up and paced the bedroom for a second, before disappearing into the hallway. I was alone again, but I was kind of used to it, by now. My body ached all over and I just wanted to sleep.

I willed my tears to stay put when I heard footsteps in my room. Keith sat next to me, pushed the covers back, ignoring my protests, and shoved a thermometer in my mouth.

“You should’ve called for me,” he whispered, feeling my forehead again. The thermometer beeped and he checked the temperature.

“103. That’s high. I’m going to see what I have downstairs.” He disappeared again, but this time I knew he was coming back. Even if Keith was the last person I wanted around when I was sick, I was glad at least someone was.

He helped me sit up and held the glass of water while he shoved something in my mouth. “You’re not allergic to anything, right?”

I shook my head, as I didn’t have much strength to talk. I couldn’t stop my body from shaking.

“I turned the heat up,” he said, while placing another blanket over me. “What else can I do?”

He almost looked pained to see me suffering. Any other day, I would laugh it off. Today, though, was different. I just wanted to whine. I curled into a ball under the covers and continued shivering, willing the drugs to take effect quickly.

I stilled for a moment when I felt Keith pulling off the covers again to lay next to me. I was torn between pushing him off or yelling at him, when he pulled up the back of my shirt and pressed his stomach against my back. Any protests from me disappeared.

He was warm—it felt like he was the sick one. I was grateful: my shivering subsided and it took all of my self-control to not snuggle closer.

“I shouldn’t be doing this,” he whispered, which sent a wave of cold air against my ear. I knew we shouldn’t have been this close. Cody would have killed us both if he saw, but who cared? I was comfortable for the first time since this morning and even my headache had subsided.

Keith kept talking and Cody was the last thing on his mind. “I should be cooling your body to lower the fever, not getting you warmer.” He was talking more to himself than to me, so I didn’t answer. My body was fine as it was.

I dozed off only to be awakened half an hour later. I groaned, displeased. Didn’t he know how hard was to fall asleep when you feel like crap? I turned when he got up.

“I’m going to call a friend of mine. His father’s a doctor. I need to know what to do.”

He left my room again. His face was all scrunched up, like he was really worried about me. Keith had a heart, after all.

“Okay.” He rubbed his hands together, like he was ready to perform surgery, which worried me. “He said to check your temperature again. If it’s the same, we’ll need to cool you off.”

I hated that idea. Bring on the surgery. I felt cold already. “No, I’m fine,” I said. My voice sounded rough. Keith picked up the thermometer anyway and confirmed the fever hadn’t lowered in the past forty minutes. “No, please, I’m cold,” I whined.

Keith almost looked more worried. He put his hands through his hair, pulling at the strands, which made him look even more like he had just woken up. Bed hair. Girls at our school called it something else, but I wasn’t mixing Keith and sex in the same sentence.

“Let’s make a deal: I’ll cool you down with towels for now, and if, in an hour, your temperature hasn’t lowered, you’ll have to hop in the shower, okay?”

No. I didn’t want cold water anywhere near me. The first option was better than the last, so I shrugged.

Keith came back with a big bowl of water and some towels over his arm. “You’ll have to take off your shirt and your pants. Leave the tank top and underwear.” He wasn’t even trying to make a joke and that was the only reason I didn’t refuse him on the spot. He wasn’t trying to be sexy—this was Keith on doctor duty.

“You’re enjoying this too much,” I mumbled.

“Not at all. You’re sick, Jane,” he answered, almost annoyed by my remark.

The first towel went to my forehead and, although I cringed, it was bearable. I was cold, but the lower temperature on my head was pleasant. With the second towel, he took more time squeezing out the excess water. Holding it in one hand, he pulled my tank top up to bare my stomach. This one was going to hurt. He threw me an apologetic look before pushing the towel against my skin. I squirmed and Keith tried to keep me quiet.

“Shh, it’s alright. You’re going to be alright,” he whispered as he caressed my neck, behind my ears.

The next towels were easier. I was getting colder and so tired that my eyes started to shut and I dozed off. When the towel on my stomach was removed, the breeze on my skin made me shiver and woke me up.

“Just one more time, and then we’ll check if the fever has lowered.” He changed the towels again. I had stopped feeling awkward about the lack of clothes a long time ago: maybe between the cold towel or the scared look on Keith’s face.

My shivering never stopped. After Keith took all the towels from my body, I just wanted to curl up and sleep. The sheets were wet, though, as well as my clothes. Keith left for a minute and I opened one eye to see him standing at the door, frowning.

“What is it now?”

“I can’t find any clean sheets,” he answered. I wasn’t feeling good enough today to do laundry, so the other set was dirty.

“Come on. Try sitting up.” Keith opened one of my drawers.

“What are you doing?” It was where I kept my underwear. He ignored my protests and took some black cotton panties and a matching tank top and placed them on the bed.