My Best Friends Brother and Me

Chapter 7 – I don’t feel great

Leah’s POV

Kaya and I were officially done with school. We had the whole summer to enjoy. We had arranged to do a few things before we went on holiday with her parents and Kai to a cottage in the lakes.

I also had my driving course and test booked! We had assumed I would pass, so I wanted to make the most of having the additional freedom!

But first thing on the agenda; Kaya’s birthday. It was her birthday in a few weeks, and we were in her room making

"Kaya, you look bloody awful, are you alright?"

"Yeah, actually no, I don’t feel great."

She went to stand up and collapsed.

"MEL!!!!" I screamed; Kai came rushing in.

"s**t, what happened?"

"I, I , I don’t know, she looked pale, said she didn’t feel well and then collapsed. MEEELLLL!!!!" I was in a complete panic.

Mel came rushing in and Kai was on the phone to the paramedics.

"Kaya! Kaya!" Mel cried, trying to get an unconscious Kaya to wake up.

She didn’t move. She was breathing, but she was out. And she was burning up.

"What is wrong with her? She was fine earlier!"

The paramedics arrived and made us all leave except Mel. Me, Cal, and Kai all waited in the kitchen. The wait was excruciating, but before long, they were carrying her out to the back of the ambulance on a stretcher.

Mel came in looking devastated.

"They don’t know what’s wrong, but her vitals aren’t good. She’s burning up and she is still unconscious. They are making her as stable as they can and are blue lighting her straight to hospital. I am going with her."

"We’ll follow in the car", Kai said immediately.

"Kai, Love, there is no point in us all going. They may not have news for hours and it’s a long way away. It’s best you stay here, and I’ll go with Mum. Could you take Leah home?"

"NO!" I shouted.

They all looked at me.

"Sorry, can’t I stay here until we have news? I’ll only be home alone and worried. Please."

"Okay, call your mum and let her know what’s happening"

"Cal, I have to go, they are ready to leave" Mel had a bag ready and, with a tear-stained face, said goodbye and left, the blue lights of the ambulance flashing further in the distance as the seconds went by.

"You two gonna be, okay? I’m sure she’ll be fine; I just don’t want to leave mum there on her own."

"Yeah, we’ll be okay, dad, just go. Call us as soon as you can, okay"

"Thanks Son", he took out his wallet and left some money on the table. "Eat!"

"Yes Sir!" Kai saluted and they gave each other a hug.

"Leah, don’t forget to call your mum."

"I won’t, I promise." I gave him a hug and tried to hold back my tears.

When he left, I let out everything I was holding in, and I sobbed uncontrollably. What the hell just happened?

Kai put his arm around me, and I instinctively stiffened at the alien feeling.

"I’m sorry" he backed away, "I thought you might want some comfort."

I looked up at him, eyes full of tears, face covered in snot. "It just surprised me. You don’t usually acknowledge my existence."

"Yeah, I know, I am a dick."

"Meh" I shrugged, "you can’t like everyone, Kai. I’d rather you ignore me than be an arsehole to me."

"I don’t dislike you, Leah", he looked at me with a frown on his face.

I reciprocated the frown, confused, "You don’t? Could have fooled me! Why ignore me? I don’t get it"

"Never mind. Anyway, let me get you some tissue, you have a face snot problem" he said, waving his hands to distract me.

I laughed at his demeanour, and he handed me some tissues.

"Thanks. Kai, she’s gonna be okay, isn’t she?"

"Of course, she is."

He sounded unsure. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to reassure me or himself, but most likely, both of us.

He sat down on the kitchen chair opposite me in an awkward silence. After a few minutes of painful tension, he got up.

"Kai, wait"

He looked at me. "What is it?" He sounded concerned.

"I know we have nothing to say to each other, and it’s a little bit weird between us. But please don’t leave me alone."

He smiled softly, "Leah, I’m not leaving you alone, I was going to have a drink to give myself something to do!"

"Oh"

He put the kettle on, and, in true British style, made us both a cup of tea, because, of course, this solves everything.

"Thanks", he handed me the drink.

"I know it’s probably not what you want to do, but I can’t sit here waiting in silence, wanna watch some TV with me."

I sighed in relief, at least the TV would distract us from the silence and I also hoped the wait.

We moved to the lounge, and he sat by me on the sofa, which surprised me. After we found something we could both tolerate, we managed to get a little more comfortable, and it didn’t seem nearly as awkward as before.

After a couple of hours of hearing nothing, I was getting skittish.

"I’ll call dad. I mean, I know he said he would call, but this is crazy, it’s been hours."

"It would have taken 2 hours just to get there. By the time they have her admitted and seen, it will probably be another hour, they won’t know anything yet. He’ll call kai, give them a little longer. I’m sorry I’m annoying you by fidgeting."

"You’re not annoying me. I just want to do something more than just watch television. It seems wrong. But I know you are right. Shall I order food?"

"Yeah, that should kill some time."

Half an hour later, the food arrived, and we ate, again, almost in silence. It was painful.

Then the phone rang.

"Dad! Hang on, I’ll put you on speaker"

I mouthed 'thank you' to Kai, who smiled back and held the phone between us.

"Is she awake?"

"Yes"

We both sighed in relief.

"But Kai, she is very unwell. They think she has sepsis; they are running tests. She’s in intensive care. They have put up IVs for fluid and antibiotics to treat it. She is very weak."

"Can we visit? She’s going to be okay, isn’t she?"

"You can visit tomorrow. Tonight, she needs to rest. We are going to stay with her. She isn’t very stable."

"Dad, she’s going to be okay, isn’t she?"

"Honestly, Son, I don’t know" his voice broke and I struggled to hold back the tears.

"Kai, is Leah with you?" he must have handed the phone to Mel.

"I’m here Mel" I croaked out.

"Can you check with your parents if it’s okay if you stay with Kai tonight; we don’t want him on his own, and if you are both coming tomorrow, it makes sense you are together?"

"Sure" I struggled to say anymore.

We hung up with the promise of a call if they received anymore news. I called my dad; I couldn’t be doing with my mum right now. I was meant to be here anyway. I wasn’t asking for permission to stay, I was just letting him know about Kaya.

"Sorted?"

"Yeah"

Silence engulfed us yet again, then Kai started to cry. I held him in my arms as we cried together and when we were spent, he pulled away.

"s**t Leah, I’m sorry, that was pathetic"

"No Kai, it was real. Come on, I’m drained, let's go watch crap on tele in bed."

He followed me upstairs. I had never been in his room before, not as it is now anyway. But I wasn’t about to sleep on my own, I was too anxious and upset. I needed company and comfort. I opened his door and walked in.

He stood in the doorway for a minute,

"Kai, I don’t bite. I just, I don’t want to be alone"

He walked in and we both got into his bed fully clothed.

"I googled sepsis" he said, gauging my response.

"Well, that was dumb."

"Why?" he protested.

"It’ll scare you half to death and make you think all sorts. Don’t you think it’s best to leave the medical stuff to the doctors and nurses?"

"Well, now you mention it."

I rolled my eyes "Do I even want to know what it says?"

"No. But it’s weird as it says you get it from already having an infection. Did she have an infection?"

"Not that I know of. Before this morning, I didn’t even know she was unwell!"

"Hmmm. Ok. Well, I guess we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out more."

"Awwww, look at us talking without being weird", I laughed.

"Shut up Leah, why do you keep saying it’s weird?"

"Ummmm I don’t know, because I have practically grown up in your family and you barely acknowledged I exist. The definition of weird is out of the ordinary. Us talking is the epitome of that, don’t you think?"

"I guess" he put the tele on and we started watching some show neither of us were paying attention to.

I must have dosed off, because I woke with a start, and I was cuddling into Kai’s chest with my arms and legs wrapped around him. He was still sitting up slightly in bed watching TV.

"s**t, Kai, I’m sorry" I said, embarrassed.

He laughed a little. "It’s fine, it was quite nice" he smirked.

I slapped his chest, "I’m going to the loo and putting my PJ’s on!"

I left the room and got changed into my shorts and t-shirt Pj’s intending to go to bed in Kaya’s room after embarrassing myself by mauling Kai in bed before.

I contemplated going to see Kai to say goodnight, but I wasn’t sure if he would think this strange. I was overthinking everything. It would be strange if I didn’t go back and say goodnight!

I walked to the door and contemplated whether I should knock. I mean, he could be getting changed. I thought about it for a moment, as my mind started to wonder, mentally undressing him. Ugh, I need help.

Just as I was about to internally give myself a slap, I heard his phone ring, all thoughts of knocking went out the window and I rushed into his room without a second thought and plonked myself on the bed.

He gave me a fleeting look that I couldn’t quite decipher and then answered his phone.

I suddenly realised I wasn’t wearing a bra and my filthy thoughts from moments ago were making my body defy me, my hardened n*****s clearly visible through my top. f**k.

I inwardly rolled my eyes, got under the duvet, and pulled the covers up over me as Cal spoke.

"We just thought you would want to know she has stabilized; she has a severe kidney infection and sepsis. She felt mildly unwell on Friday. She had no idea how serious it was. She didn’t want to miss the party so she thought she would just go to the doctors on Monday. Unfortunately, it was worse than her symptoms led her to believe. She’s weak, but comfortable. She’s looking forward to seeing you both tomorrow."

"Thanks Dad"

"Thanks Cal, can you tell her I love her!"

"Of course, we’ll see you tomorrow."

Relief washed over us, and I hugged Kai. He was a little taken aback, but he held me for a moment.

"I’m wide awake now!" happy I had received good news "Wanna watch a movie?"

"Sure, what do you wanna watch?"

"Something easy. And old school"

He flicked through Netflix's "50 first dates?"

"Well, I don’t usually do chick flicks, but I do love Adam Sandler, so yeah, why not?"

He pressed play and as the credits rolled at the end of the film, I had fallen to sleep.