"You know where I live?"  I asked as Jay made a turn to my street.

He chuckled keeping his eyes on the road. "I drove your brother to school remember?"

"Oh yeah,"  i mumbled pushing myself back into the passenger seat. My body still felt a little heated and I couldn't wait to get home to my bed. 

I was dozing off when his car jolted to a halt making me jump. 

"Thanks again, Parker," I smiled weakly and opened the door of the car to hop out when he grabbed my arm. 

He looked at me squinting his eyes again, and I wasn't sure what he was looking at. "There's a halloween party this weekend." He paused. "If you want to come.."

"I can't," I cut him off quickly and hopped out the car pulling free from his grip. If my mom saw a new guy dropping me home she would think I was sleeping around. 

"I would like it if you came," he added nicely.

I sighed and nodded before thanking him one more time running into my house.

The way my mom greeted me wasn't what I had expected because she had received a call from school about me being ill.

"You should take care of yourself, Azari," mom said worriedly as soon as she saw me. "Go upstairs. Get into bed and I'll make you some soup."

I smiled at her warm touch on my cheek. She didn't realize how nice it was to have her be warm towards me like that.

Sighing, I plopped down onto my bed and dozed off. My body was tired and exhausted, and a good sleep was what I had needed.

/
/

The time I woke up, it was around 8 pm and I saw mum had placed some medicine on my side table. My body temperature seemed lower but I still ached.

I reached out for my phone on the table too and the first thing I noticed was my 20% battery. Groaning, I decided to find the charger later.

There were a couple texts from Lana and a few from Travis asking me to call him as soon as I could. And a text from an unknown number.

Quickly, i typed a message to Lana telling her I was okay now. Jay had probably told her what had happened since I remembered seeing his texts on her phone.

My heartbeat started to race checking Travis' texts. Not because of something he had said but because of how I had felt looking at Jay earlier. I felt guilty and I wasn't sure what to do about it.

I'm worried.
Lana told me you were sick. Call me asap.
Babe? I hope you're okay.

Sighing, I thought of how stupid I was acting. Ofcourse I liked Travis and I could possibly even fall in love with him.

I just woke up. I am fine, how are you?

There was an instant ding on my phone. It made me a little bashful to think that maybe he had been waiting for my reply this whole time.

-Oh thank goodness. Nevermind how i am, how are you? x
- I am okay. Just a mild fever.
- I know you're mad at me. I had something come up
- Like what?
and I am not mad.
- I had to take care of something.
- Right.

The next thing I knew Travis' name was flashing on my phone, calling. I gulped and answered it after letting it ring for a bit.

"And you say you arent mad at me," I heard his beautiful voice on the other end. I was melting onto my phone by just the sound of him and I couldnt be more sure of the way I felt about him.

I couldnt help but smile and answered, "I am not."

"I missed you," he said softly and I died just a little.

"I missed you too," I whispered clutching onto my phone hard trying to make sure nobody could overhear me.

"I promise I will explain everything to you. But tell me this, can i come see you?"

"No! No you cant. We will have to see each other in school."

He sighed. "I get it. I am just glad you have your phone back."

"Me too, Travis."

"Take care of yourself, Azari. I gotta run, but i will text you."

"Oh," I mumbled feeling disappointed. Okay bye Travis."

As much as I didnt want to be a clingy girlfriend, the more I felt like one.

I decided to go back to sleep after taking the medicine mum had left for me but first I had to check my remaining text from an unknown number.

Hope you're feeling better, pork chop. Dont get too excited about me texting you, I got your number from Lana. ;) -JP

And I never bothered to reply.