Sickness

It’s been a couple of hours since Frank has left into his room, I’m such a fucking idiot for persisting into his whatever ten year relationship was, I was nothing but a stranger to him and I shouldn’t have even kissed him let alone talk to him that way, but who would’ve guessed he would get that upset for mentioning it.

Finally I hear the lock of his bedroom door unlock and footsteps coming towards me, my eyes met with his and then to his hand that was wrapped up in a white cloth. I am still standing in the kitchen like the idiot I am and he walked passed me turning the cooker back on and he let out a sigh.

“I’m sorry for lashing out on you like that, it’s kind of a sensitive subject to talk about” he finally say.

“It’s okay I shouldn’t have brought it up” I reply feeling a little bit awkward now.
“Don’t worry about it, it’s like it never happened” he smile lightly his eyes still full of sadness.
I nod and leaned against the counter letting out a sigh, I’ve known this guy for two days well one to be exact and I already fucked everything up I shouldn’t have done that move he was right I was just a kid and he was….an adult.

We ate dinner which tasted pretty good and made small talk the air around us thick and awkward, then it was time to get to bed, we said our goodnights and he was back in his room leaving me on the couch. The night returned and my illness came back, the air was cold but I was sweating like a pig, my nose was stuffed up again which gave me trouble in breathing properly and my cough sounded like I was a dying man with tuberculosis and no matter how much I tried to suppress each one the worst the fit has gotten. The room was dark the only light source was the flickering image of the television that sat in front of the couch, there was a little clock hanging on the wall showed that it was two in the morning and I still did not have a good shut of an eye. I sat up on the couch trying to suppress more coughing which sounded more like a trombone, I reached for another tissue from the nightstand and blew my nose in it trying to get some air through the pipes but all I got was snot down my throat almost causing me to gag, I hurriedly sat up and ran towards the bathroom gagging into the toilet my vision blurring, i cursed and pulled myself from the sink rinsing my mouth with tap water;

“There’s some medicine in that cabinet, if I was you I’d take some before you’d end up coughing your lungs out” Frank’s voice came from behind me scaring the snot out of me, I turned around quickly looking at him, my hands gripping against the soapstone of the skin.
“How- where- Did I wake you up?” I asked feeling shameful as I am fully aware that my coughing fit is keeping everyone in this apartment block awake.

“I couldn’t sleep even if I want to” he said coming into the room and opening the cabinet behind me, he took some medicine out and gave them to me then he exited the room and a few moments later he returned with a glass full of water “Here swallow these, they might not be strong enough to help whatever you got there because they’re over the counter pills.” he continued i mumbled a thanks and managed to swallow the bright yellows pills followed by another sets of coughing.

“You need to get checked out” he said as we made our way out the bathroom and back into the living room. “It’ll pass” I said my voice hoarse from all the coughing before sitting down on the couch, Frank made his way towards the kitchen turning on what from the clicking sounded like an electrical kettle. I look around the darkroom feeling my head spin I closed my eyes and shiver lightly at the cold sweat that went down my forehead this is a mess.
Frank came into the living room holding two mugs he set one in front of me on the coffee table and the other next to it before he flopping down on the couch, i still feel somehow shitty about our little argument I shouldn’t have even dared to try what I did and although I apologized I still feel like I crossed a certain invisible line that shouldn’t be walked over.
“Thanks for all this” I said looking over at him, he seemed tired as he looked at me a smile on his lips. “It’s not a problem Gerard, I bet you would’ve done the same thing”. I nodded and luckily enough there was a box of tissues on the table, I reached and took a tissue and blew my nose in it.

“And I’m sorry for keeping you awake” I said trying not feel as shitty as I feel about keeping him awake but to no avail I still do. He practically saved me and here I am keeping him awake all night cause of my coughing.

“It’s no problem I’m used to staying up late with work and all” Work? Now that peaked my interests.

“Work? What do you work as? I mean only if you want to tell me that is, don’t want to cross another line” I said cautious as to not wanting to invade his personal space.

He laughed a bit and relaxed more into the couch after he reached for his coffee and took a sip. “I’m in the music industry, I play in a band and when I found you I was coming back from a tour we just finished” I reached for my own mug and tried to sniff the caffeine but to my luck nothing, I frowned and sipped at the warm liquid as he spoke, in a band huh? He’s gorgeous and in a band that explains why he had a towel and a shirt in his car. “What do you do then? Are you the singer?” I asked he chuckled again and shook his head as if it was the most oblivious question. “Well since I’m backing vocals means I’m somewhat a singer” he looked at me “But I’m the guitarist”.

We spoke about his band and his guitar skills, he’s pretty passionate about his job his band is called ‘Leathermouth’ and it’s a punk themed band, the way he speaks about his guitar which he called ‘Pansy’ showed so much love towards the object. He showed me his guitar which was a white les paul with PANSY stickers on it. I talked to him about my passion for art and how when I was younger I used to sing but gave up on that when I started smoking and to my luck Frank offered me one of his cigarettes before retreating back saying it would totally kill the little life I have left in my lungs, we spent the whole night talking getting to know each other more until I somehow passed out on the couch.

Notes