Chapter Eight

That same night, two hours later, Chad answers the door and lets his friends into the house. His friends all go over to the refrigerator and each grabs a beer. Just then, there is another knock on the door.

Chad: (Yells) Come in!

Jay opens the door and walks right into the apartment. Chad hands him a beer as his friend Den goes over to the TV stand and turns on the CD player. He turns the volume up really loud. An hour later, the guys have had several beers and Chad has to turn the volume up on the CD player again so they could hear the music. Alex got woken up by the sounds of loud music. It made her jump out of bed she looks around to see where she is at. She sits back down on the edge of her bed and rubs her eyes. She tries to yell at Chad from her bedroom to ask him to turn the music down, but she cannot yell because her throat hurts too much. She stands back up and puts her gray robe on and ties it closed. She grabs a large handful of tissues and puts them in her robe pocket. She takes one more tissue out of the box on her way to the door to cover her mouth with as she coughs. When she walks out of her bedroom, she sees that the living room/kitchen/dinner area is full of Chad’s friends and that Jay is even there sitting on the couch talking to Chad. Alex walks over to the couch and stands in front of Chad. She gives him an evil look.

Chad: Yes, Lexi, what do you want? Don’t you have to work tonight?
Alex: (Ah-Choo) I called in sick tonight. Paige is covering my shift.
Chad: So what do you want?
Alex: Can you turn the music down? My head is killing me.
Chad: No, just deal with it.

Alex coughs into the tissue that is in her hand and at the same time, walks over to the CD player and turns it off. She puts her hands on her hips and clears her throat.

Alex: (Yells) Everyone get out of this apartment now, besides Chad and Jay! I mean it! Out!

Chad’s friends look at Chad, then back at Alex, and then pick up the cans of beer they were drinking and head out of the apartment. The last one out closes the door behind him. Alex then leans up against the wall. She knows that Chad is mad at her for making his friend’s leave the apartment, Chad stands up. He then walks over to Alex, he grabs her arms.

Chad: LEXI, WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING MAKING MY FRIENDS LEAVE?
Alex: (Whispers because her voice is going from yelling) I’m sick Chad . I just want the apartment quiet so I can get sleep. (Coughs) Besides, where did you (Ah-Choo) get the money for all the food, beer, and the new CD, Chad?
Chad: From your top dresser drawer, out of the jar that you keep your money in, Lexi.
Alex: How much did you (Ah-Choo) take Chad?
Chad: All of the money in the jar!
Alex: Chad, what were you thinking? I need that money to pay the rent on Friday and to pay all of the bills! (Coughs) Now what are we going to do?
Chad: We’ll be fine. I got the job, Lexi.
Alex: (Yells) No, we will not be fine, Chad! You won’t get a paycheck for two weeks! The rent is due this week, plus Emily’s hospital bill is also due! Chad, you did it this time! How am I going to come up with that large amount of money by Friday? Tomorrow is already Thursday, Chad!
Chad: Lexi, stop yelling at me!
Alex: No!

Chad grabs Alex’s arms again and throws her against the wall that on the other side of the room. Jay runs over to Chad and makes him go into Emily and his bedroom to calm down. Jay then helps Alex get up off the floor and over to the couch. He kneels down in front of Alex and feels her forehead.

Jay: Lexi, you are burning up!
Alex: I know that, Jay. I am sick.

Alex starts coughing and this time ends up coughing up a lot of stuff into the tissue she was holding in her hand. Both Jay and Alex look at what she has coughed up and see that it is a yellowish-greenish color. Alex stands up and throws the used tissue into the trash can, then looks at Jay.

Alex: Jay, can you give me a ride to Paige? I’m going to crash there tonight.
Jay: Sure, Lexi. Do you want me to get you anything from your bedroom?
Alex: Yeah, a clean pair of jeans and a tank top.
Jay: Ok, Lexi.

As Jay goes into her bedroom, Alex takes her robe off and puts her long-sleeve, black jacket back on and then takes the tissues out of her robe pocket and puts them into the jacket pocket. She picks her book bag up off the floor and slips her shoes on. Jay walks back over to her carrying a gym bag with her change of clothing in it.

Jay: I put the box of tissues into the gym bag for you too, Lexi.
Alex: Thanks.

Jay drives Alex to Paige place. Once there, Alex gets out of Jay’s car and grabs her book bag and gym bag. She waves goodbye to Jay as he pulls out of the driveway. Alex walks up to the front door and rings the door bell. She sees Dylan running down the stairs and over to the door. He opens it up and looks at Alex.

Dylan: Paige is not home from work yet, Alex.
Alex: (Shivering) I know that. I need to crash here (Coughs) tonight. Chad’s in one of his drunken fighting moods again and he threw me across the room because (Ah-Choo) I made his friend leave because they were too loud and I could not sleep.
Dylan: Alex, come on in and get out of the cold air. You already sound awful.

Alex walks into the house and Dylan takes her bag for her then helps Alex upstairs to Paige bedroom so she could lie down and get some sleep. Alex sits down on Paige bed and unzips her gym bag. She gets the tissue box out of the gym bag then sits the tissue on the night stand. She takes the tissues out of her pocket and puts them back into the box. She then stands up and pulls the covers back. She gets into bed and pulls the covers up over herself. Alex has just closed her eyes and has just start to fall asleep when Mrs. Michalchuk walks into Paige Bedroom and over to Alex. She sits down on the edge of the bed and feels Alex’s forehead. Just then, Dylan walks back into the room and hands his mom the thermometer.

Mrs. Michalchuk: Alex, I am going to take your temperature.
Alex: (Coughs) Ok, Mrs. Michalchuk.

Alex sits up in the bed, then takes the thermometer from Mrs. Michalchuk and puts the thermometer into her mouth. The two ladies then wait for the thermometer to beep. Thirty seconds later, Mrs. Michalchuk takes it out of Alex’s mouth when it beeps because Alex was shivering so much that she pulled the covers all the way up and her arms were now under the covers. Mrs. Michalchuk looks at the thermometer and then at Alex. Dylan hands Alex some Tylenol.

Mrs. Michalchuk: Alex, you have a fever of 104.3. I want you to go take a lukewarm shower and take the Tylenol that Dylan just handed you to see if the two things will help get your fever down.
Alex: Ok, Mrs. Michalchuk.

Alex gets out of bed and takes a lukewarm shower. After she is done in the shower, she put her nightshirt and PJ bottoms on. She then goes back into Paige Bedroom and gets into bed. She falls asleep as soon as her head hits the pillow.