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rickybowensfever · 27 days

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Sick on Belly's Birthday

NEW FIC ALERT (The crowd goes wild)

“What a coincidence, you’re sick today” Belly scoffed as Conrad walked into the kitchen in a black robe with rosy cheeks holding a digital thermometer in his hand.

Conrad looked at her giving a side eye, “I can’t just plan to have” he looked down at the thermometer in his hands, “an 102-degree fever” he barked, squinting at the thermometer in disbelief.

Laurel stood by the kitchen island, preparing breakfast. She stopped stirring the pancake batter in a mixing bowl and looked up at him. She frowned then pointed at him, “No way, mister. Back to bed. I’ll have someone bring up some medicine and fluids” then gestured her pointer finger toward the front of the house where the steps to the bedroom were.

Conrad groaned. “But Laurel, I have to help my mom for dinner. She’s making a lobster dinner and needs me to shuck the corn and ---”

Laurel sighed, slumping her shoulders. “Honey, Steven and Jeremiah are more than capable of helping out. You go rest” she commanded.

Conrad sighed in defeat and nodded, obeying Laurel’s orders. He took some medicine from the cabinet and turned, walking out of the kitchen and back to bed.

Conrad knew being sick on Belly’s birthday sounded suspicious given their fight the night before. When she came in from her date, he was in the kitchen taking a pain reliever for the killer headache he was at war with which unfortunately turned into a fever throughout the night. The headache came on when they left Laurel’s book signing and got worse when they got to the drive-in. He stuck it out until the throbbing became constant.

When Conrad got sick, he was usually quiet, stubborn, and irritable. He tried his best to hide it from everyone so as to not bother them and bring attention to himself. After ending the night with Cam, Belly walked into the kitchen smiling as she thought about how great the night was. Those thoughts quickly dissipated when she saw Conrad standing by the kitchen island drinking a glass of water. The mere sight of him made her furious. Her blood boiled as the embarrassing moment replayed in her head like a movie.

After Laurel’s book signing, the boys decided to go to the drive-in to embarrass Belly on her date with Cam. Her first date. She was mortified when they pulled in next to them.

She and Conrad started to argue when he made a sly remark about it. The two exchanged some cruel insults that either could take back now.

“It all makes sense,” Belly said under her breath. Conrad’s irritability should’ve been her first sign that something was off. However, she still held a little belief that he was trying to avoid her at all costs, even if it was her birthday. Of course, if he was *really* ill, that didn’t excuse his choice of words stabbing her in the heart last night. His irritability was all too familiar. She should’ve put the pieces together.

“Bells, relax. I can vouch for him. He really wasn’t feeling great after we drove home from the drive-in. He almost fainted in my car” Jeremiah said, recounting the events of the night before.

The sheer mention caused Belly to shoot him daggers with her eyes, furrowing her brow. Jeremiah put his hands up in defense and muttered a “sorry”.

“Maybe it’s his guilty conscience then,” Belly said, scoffing at Jeremiah. He shrugged his shoulders, not wanting to debate his brother’s health.

FLASHBACK - The Night Before (Int. Jere’s car)

As they made their way back to the house, Conrad leaned his head on the window, sitting in the backseat. The cold window hitting his face felt nice against his pounding head.

Steven turned to face his friend and noticed he was pale as a ghost. "You okay? You look like you're gonna pass out" the rowdy boy shouted from the passenger seat making Conrad groan. Steven laughed loudly over the music playing from the car’s radio. Jeremiah chuckled at Steven. “Don’t worry, we’ll be home soon” he announced, turning into their neighborhood. Conrad groaned, “Can you turn that down?” he said, pointing to the radio.

“Sure thing” his younger brother said, turning down the dial. Jeremiah never knew when he could take Steven seriously as he was always joking around. So once he stopped at a stop sign, he looked into the rearview mirror and to see exactly what Steven was talking about.

His older brother lay his head against the window holding the temples of his head, his complexion pale. It was hard to see through the darkness, the only light they had to rely on was from the street lights. Conrad’s face illuminated from the street light that shined on the car. Jere looked down at his cup holders and saw a plastic water bottle half empty.

He looked down Jeremiah pouted his lip in suspicion and acted quickly. “Yo, pass this back” he commanded Steven.

The boy complied, turning toward the back of the car and tapped Conrad on his knee. Conrad looked up in confusion and grabbed the water from Steven’s hand. He nodded a thank you and began to chug the last of the water.

Once Jeremiah saw his brother was hydrating, he continued driving.

“Where’s Connie?” Susannah immediately asked as she stepped into the kitchen noticing her oldest son was the only one missing from the pack.

Laurel sighed, standing by the stove as she flipped the last birthday pancake. “I sent him back to bed about twenty minutes ago. He’s running a fever of one hundred and two. Poor guy, he looked awful. It must be the flu” she explained, remembering his rosy cheeks and hoarse voice.

Susannah stood quietly before answering, scanning the room. She knew something was up last night when Conrad went to bed early and was quieter than usual after they all came home from Laurel’s book event. He had been acting differently since April, but this was different.

Susannah put a hand on her hip, “That bad? I need him to help me make dinner” she said in a disappointed tone.

Laurel rolled her eyes, turning off the stove and grabbing the plate of pancakes to serve. “Jere and Steven will help you,” she barked, putting her hand on each of their shoulders.

“Let the boy rest, Beck” she began, remembering his blood shot eyes and rosy cheeks from moments ago. “We’d hate for him to get anyone else sick, right?” Laurel added.

“Yeah! We’ll help, Mom” Jeremiah said, smiling a big toothy grin at her from his seat at the breakfast bar where he finished signing Belly’s card. Susannah returned the smile. “Like I told Belly, he wasn’t feeling great in the car on the way home last night” he mentioned, adding to Conrad’s credibility.

“Yeah! He almost passed out in the backseat!” Steven added. [Everyone groaned]

Susannah pouted her lip and sighed, “I’m sorry. You’re right, I thought he was acting a little strange last night. Let’s hope it’s just a 24-hour bug. We can’t have everyone getting sick around here, especially before The Ball” she said as she turned toward Belly with a smile. “Belly! Happy Sweet 16, love!” and started talking about the festivities in store for the day.

Conrad didn’t expect to wake up to his younger brother barging into his room. After barely sleeping the night before, when he got back to his room that morning, he melted into his bed and dozed off. Despite the feverish chills that felt like they were never ending, he was relieved to finally get some rest. Until he was rudely awakened by the sound of his bedroom door flinging wide open.

Conrad jolted out of bed and awoke with anxiety.

“Sorry!” Jere whispered. Now he was quiet.

“What’s up?” Conrad croaked, looking his younger brother directly in the eyes. Conrad’s complexion was pale and flushed, his cheeks were pink, his blue eyes glassy, and the bags under his eyes were dark.

Jeremiah was in his swimsuit, holding a tray of sick supplies. “Mom and Laurel sent me to check on you. Man, you look rough” he said, examining his brother’s complexion. The younger boy placed the tray of supplies on his brother’s bed — a bottle of Cold & Flu medicine, a reusable water bottle filled to the brim with cold water, a box of tissues, some honey-medicated cough drops, and a cold compress.

Conrad rolled his eyes, lying back down and pulling the covers on top of him, covering his head, “I think I have the flu” he muttered.

“Yeah, you’re pretty sick,” Jeremiah added. He frowned as he saw his brother in distress, shivering under the covers. He took the cold compress and leaned over his brother’s body trying to find his forehead under the comforter. Jeremiah grabbed the comforter and attempted to pull them down.

Of course, Conrad fought him. “Dude, c’mon. I’m trying to help you. You’re running a high fever. This will really help” Jeremiah cried, trying to be as patient as he could.

“Fine,” he mumbled. Conrad slightly pulled the covers out from under his head allowing Jeremiah to place the compress onto his brother’s sweltering hot forehead. The heat radiated off of him like a portable heater.

Jeremiah frowned. He felt bad for his older brother that he was this ill and worse, missing out on the fun outside.

“Thank you” Conrad whispered, his teeth chattering.

“Do you need anything else?” Jeremiah asked, smiling softly as he tried to comfort his brother.

“Sleep,” Conrad said and began to yawn. He pulled the covers over top of himself once again.

Before he left, Jeremiah explained, “Sounds good. Rest up! We’ll be in the pool. Call or text me if you need anything,” he said. “I’m leaving everything here if you need it. Hydrate!” he gestured to everything he left on the nightstand.

“Love you, man. Feel better” were his parting words as he silently closed the door.

Finally, Jeremiah met everyone in the backyard at the pool.

Laurel and Susannah sat lounging on chairs wearing their bathing suits, watching the kids laughing and splashing around in the water.

He waved at everyone swimming in the pool as he walked over to his mother and Laurel.

“How is he?” Laurel immediately asked.

Standing in front of them, he shrugged. “Oof. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him that sick” he grimaced, remembering his brother’s feverish condition from minutes ago.

Laurel frowned. “Poor guy. He’ll feel better when the fever breaks,” she said, hoping putting a positive sentiment out into the universe would come true.

Jeremiah ran over to the pool to join Belly, Steven, and Taylor. He ran and held his knees as he hit the water in a cannonball, splashing everyone and making them scream. He and Steven laughed at the girl's misery as a splash fest broke out.

Although they weren’t on good terms, Belly could feel Conrad’s absence. On one hand, she was happy he wasn’t here to dampen the mood on her sixteenth birthday but the other half of her felt sad. Turning sixteen is a special moment, one she envisioned spending with him. She looked up at the house to the window where his bedroom was as if any second he would open the window and see her.

Alas as the sun went down, she realized that fantasy was dead.

###

That night, Susannah and Laurel suggested they all play board games and watch rom-com flicks on Netflix. As Belly defeated Jeremiah in Battleship as Clueless played on the TV, suddenly they heard faint footsteps. Everyone turned to see who it was.

Conrad stood in the kitchen waiting for the toaster to go off.

“Connie,” Laurel said softly, “What’re you doing out of bed?” she asked, getting up from the couch and walking toward the kitchen.

Conrad ran his hand through his hair and looked at Laurel, his eyes glassy. “I took some Tamiflu and it said to eat with it. Plus, I just needed to get out of bed” he said, looking back at the toaster where the waffle he placed was mere seconds away from popping up.

Laurel pouted her lip. She wasn’t thrilled about him getting out of bed since she didn’t want this spreading to the rest of the house. Albeit, it was inevitable as he had been contagious a couple days prior. Laurel pressed her cold palm on his forehead; still warm to the touch. “Have you checked your temp at all? You don’t feel as hot as before, " she mentioned.

Conrad nodded. He hadn’t even thought about checking on his fever, despite realizing the chills had temporarily gone away. He had been in and out of sleep all day, only waking up to blow his nose or drink water.

The waffle was finally ready. Laurel stepped in the way, grabbing a plate from the cabinet. “I’m sorry honey, but I don’t want anyone else to catch this. Please go get back in bed and I’ll bring this up, okay?” she said, feeling bad but knowing her decision had good intentions.

Conrad groaned but he was too achy and tired to put up a fight. So he nodded and did as she said and walked himself back to bed.

Four Days Later

A few days later, Conrad was starting to feel like himself again. His fever had broken that morning and he was in good spirits. But that could just be the medication doing its trick.

He walked into the kitchen where Belly sat eating a caesar salad and scrolling on her phone watching TikTok and giggling to herself. Conrad opened the refrigerator to reheat some leftover chicken noodle soup. He turned and looked at the girl then turned toward the microwave, placing the bowl in, closing the microwave door and setting a 1 minute timer.

Belly avoided eye contact. She was still annoyed with him from their argument after the drive-in ambush. But that didn’t stop her from looking up at him when his back was turned.

Conrad turned away from the microwave and looked at Belly. Her head down looking at her phone. That wasn’t good for her neck, he thought.

“Hey, happy birthday. I was so out of it that day, I realized I never said it” the boy said in a low voice.

Belly looked up at him and gave a thin-lipped smile then looked back at her phone, scrolling to a TikTok of a dog jumping in a pool. She let out a loud laugh, tapping her phone to like the video.

Her mother had told her earlier that Conrad was feeling better, so she shouldn’t be surprised if she finally saw him after days of being cooped up in bed. She hated to admit that she…missed him even if she was still furious at him. She hated seeing him ill.

Conrad looked back at the timer on the microwave. It had about 30 seconds left. He looked around the kitchen, noticing Jeremiah cleaning the pool out the window.

Conrad ran a hand through his hair as the awkward silence lingered. Finally, the microwave dinged and he took the bowl of soup out of the microwave. He opened a drawer to get a spoon and walked over to a seat at the kitchen island away from Belly.

Since his fever broke and he had been taking medicine routinely, he was no longer contagious but he still didn’t want to risk anything. He blew on the soup as steam radiated from it and waited for it to cool down, then took a couple bites.

“That’s it?” Belly finally said, getting angry now. Conrad looked at her, his eyebrow furrowed and puzzled look in his eyes.

“Huh?” he replied, coughing, catching them in his elbow, releasing the phlegm from his chest.

She walked over to him and touched his cool forehead once he stopped coughing and sat up. Conrad raised his eyebrows,

“What are you doing?” he barked.

“Checking to see if you’re delirious! Seriously, not even an apology? Jere apologized! And you can’t?” she shouted, stuffing her phone in the pocket of her sweat shorts.

Conrad shook his head and sniffled. He was feeling better but he was still congested and his throat was sore. He touched his temples as his head ached from the motion.

Even though he started to feel a lot better, Laurel demanded he take it easy in order for his body to fully fight off the virus which meant he had to cancel his sailing lessons with Cleveland for the next week and no surfing. The only surfing he would be doing is channel surfing through various streaming platforms and/or just scrolling on his phone watching IG Reels from his favorite surfers.

“Belly. C’mon. We can talk” he said, getting up from the chair.

Suddenly, he felt hot and his vision got blurry. He looked down and gripped the counter, trying to balance himself. He stood in place looking down at the ground as shadows started to move around his vision. He immediately closed his eyes, trying to stop the sensation.

“Woah” he muttered and sat back down, taking a sip of water from his reusable water bottle.

Belly turned and frowned as she saw the boy struggle.

“Um, are you okay?” she asked, immediately her tone filled with concern.

Belly ran over to him.

Conrad released a train of hacking coughs, catching them in his elbow and took another long sip of water when the coughing fit came to a halt.

“Yeah, I just got a little dizzy,” he said, putting his cold water bottle up to his forehead to dissipate the hotness that overcame him.

Belly ran over to the sink, turned on the cold water and wet a rag.

He groaned. “Ugh, I don’t feel good,” he moaned, mumbling to himself.

“I thought you were feeling better” she mocked, a hand on her hip, smirking at him.

Conrad looked up at her realizing she heard him complaining. “I thought I was” he barked back, “Guess not” he swallowed and winced, the pain panged at his throat.

He groaned as the water barely helped. “I’m feel really hot ” he mentioned just as Belly laid a cold rag on the back of his neck. He sighed in relief.

“This will help. You’re probably dehydrated” she mentioned, speaking the medical language from doctors that come across her TikTok For You Page every so often.

Conrad looked up at her, his eyes still glassy and he drank more water. He set his water down and looked at the soup still steaming. Suddenly, he didn’t have an appetite. It came on all at once, he was fatigued, his body ached, and he felt miserable.

Belly frowned looking at him. The flu took at least a week or two to recover from and he was only on day four. It was inevitable that he would crash and burn.

“I think the medicine’s wearing off” he muttered, yawning.

“Oh, you poor baby. Let’s get you over to the couch” she suggested running a hand through his matted hair. Conrad nodded and followed her, holding his water bottle.

Belly grabbed a blanket as he slowly began to lie down. She laid the blanket over top of him and sat down beside him.

“I thought you were mad,” he said, sniffling.

Belly scoffed. “Conrad, I’m still mad. I’m pissed at you, actually. But I’m not going to make you suffer through the flu. I think that’s punishment enough” she said laughing to herself.

Conrad smiled. “I’m sorry. I deserve it. I was being an asshole. I shouldn’t have said any of those things to you. I didn’t mean them, honest. ” he said in a low voice.

Belly smiled at his sentiments, “Why don’t we talk when you’re feeling better?” she said, patting him on the leg. Conrad yawned and nodded, agreeing to her statement.

“I feel like shit” he said, pulling the blanket up further to his collarbone and coughing into his shoulder.

“I know. The flu really sucks. I’m sorry” she said, frowning again.

“Why don’t you try and get some sleep. It’s quiet” she suggested. The house was empty for the most part. The boys were working at the club while Susannah and Laurel were at the beach. Conrad nodded at her statement and closed his heavy eyes.

Belly smiled. She hated being mad at him but she could give him a break just this once. But once he was feeling better, she wouldn’t let his crabby attitude slide.

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