Olivia Beckham

I wake up to the sound of Sofia crying.

 I groan and look at the clock; 3:30am. Why in the world is she awake?!? 

Nevertheless, I quickly walk to her room for fear of her waking anyone else up. I pick her up and notice instantly that she's all hot. That's just lovely. I mean I guess it could be from sleeping but she usually sleeps really good. That probably means that her temperature is most likely sickness and not from sleeping. 

I decide against waking up my parents because my mom has a 15 hour shift, and my dad has a 20 hour shift. Plus, it's not like I've never handled something like this before. I go downstairs and make her a sippy cup of water. Then I bring her back upstairs and attempt to put her back to sleep in her crib but she seems determined to stay awake and out of bed.

In the end, I'm too tired to fight her on it so I just bring her to my room to lay down with me. She falls asleep quickly after that and soon I feel myself drifting off again too. 

I wake up again at 5 o'clock to a slobbery hand hitting my face. I stop the hand and open my eyes to look at my sister. She looks like she's about to cry. I sit up and feel her to see if she's still warm and sure enough, she still is. I get out of bed knowing that my mom is awake and getting ready to go to work. I walk into the kitchen with Sofia on my hip. My mom senses our presence and looks up from where she's making eggs. 

"Sofia is really warm and she woke up at three thirty this morning. I didn't  want to wake you because I know you have work today" I say handing her over.

She takes her and feels her forehead before going into our medicine cabinet and grabbing the thermometer and putting it on her head. 

I go back upstairs and grab my clothes so I can take a shower. I grab my phone off my nightstand and see some text messages. 2 from Charlie, 1 from my dance teacher, and 5 from my dance club group chat. I open Charlie's thread first: 

Charlie: Want a ride to school?

Charlie: I don't have BP today

Olivia: Sure and we don't have to take my siblings 2day

Then I open my dance teacher and I's thread:

Coach James: Can you come in today at five? I know we don't have practice today but I want to go over your solo for our next concert and I want to go over the details and start teaching you some choreo.

Olivia: Let me see if I'm available, how long is the practice?

She doesn't reply immediately so I move on to our dance group thread:

Rachel: Who's absolutely ready to start dancing again? 

Makenna: I'm going stir crazy I'm not only ready, I NEED to dance

Maddie: I've been going over the choreo nonstop i need something new

Maddie: I've started making new choreo just for the fun of it

Amelia: coach is gonna whip my butt guys I haven't stretched all break 

Olivia: LOL Ur right she's gonna kick your butt why didn't you stretch

 Amelia: I've been all over the country during winter break visiting our one million relatives so i haven't had much time

I turn off my phone, starting to get distracted, and go take my shower. 

After my shower, I go downstairs and I see my siblings all eating breakfast and my mom still holding half asleep Sofia in her arms. "I'm still going to send her to Ms. Ava. I've texted her and she knows that she's not feeling good. As long as she's not throwing up, she will still take her." she says. My mom is taking all the kids to school and Sofia to Ms. Ava's today because she doesn't go to work until 9. 

I go back upstairs and start to get ready when I get an incoming call on my phone from Charlie. I answer the call and continue going to my room where I put him on speaker phone. It's kinda cold today so I'm wearing a pair of light pink sweatpants with a white baby tee shirt, a beige zip up jacket and my mini boot UGGs in the color of white and they're my absolute favorite shoes like ever. Charlie is asking me when he should pick me up because he wants to go grab some food before school starts. "So can we leave in like 10 minutes?" he asks  "Yeah that's fine. I'll see you soon then." we exchange goodbyes then hang up. I quickly throw up my hair in a super messy bun and throw on some makeup. Charlie texts me that he's here so I run downstairs with my backpack in tow and tell my mom that I'm leaving. I walk outside to see Charlie leaning against the side of his car. When he sees me he says, "milady" and opens the passenger door for me. I get in the car and he goes around to his side where he gets in and starts driving. "I never asked what food you wanted, that's my bad. So what food do you want?" he asks 

"I'm not really hungry, What were you planning on getting?" I ask back 

"I'm in the mood for AJ's cafe. I need a carbs." he says, giving me a sideways glance. I give him a smile and we continue driving. He pulls up to the drive thru and orders before turning to me and asking what I want "I don't want anything" I reply he gives me a look between curious and confused before telling the cashier that that's it and driving forward. 

"Why don't you want anything? You didn't have to pay for it, it's my treat" he says, giving me a disappointed face. 

Why is my heart breaking right now? 

Clearing my throat, I look down at my lap and say, "I'm not hungry" 

He gives me a concerned look before continuing driving.

We get to the school parking lot and he parks the car. "You can go visit your friends or something. I don't want you to feel like you have to stay here." He says. Seeing as all my real friends beside him are at a different school, there's really no where else I would go. "It's ok I'll stay" I tell him. He gives me a smile and starts to open and eat his breakfast which is an egg sandwich, bacon, a biscuit, and fruit. It honestly does not look that appealing. I close my eyes and lean my head down on the head rest. I didn't have breakfast this morning but that's nothing new. I usually don't eat till like later in the day. As Charlie is eating, I reflect on this morning's events. I'm so tired. I didn't go to bed until like 1:30ish because I was finishing a project that's due today, and I still had to work on my dance routines, so I didn't get a ton of sleep last night. I got at most, like 3-4 hours. Usually I get like 6-7 hours so I'm going to be a zombie today. And to make it worse, my wrist is still hurting from Monday and I'm starting to get impatient. Especially because it's still swollen and bruised so I have to be careful that Charlie doesn't see because he'll freak out again and I don't need him worrying about me. It was weird. I feel bad for poor Sofia. She doesn't get sick often so when she does, usually it's more intense and miserable. I wish that she didn't have to be sick. I open my eyes and look out the window when I feel myself starting to relax. 

Someone clears their throat and I realize that I'm still in Charlie's car with him. "what's going on with you?" he asks softly 

"Nothing. I'm just worried because Sof is sick. She woke me up at 3:30 crying and didn't fall asleep until 4 and she wouldn't sleep in her crib so I ended up bringing her to my room where she fell asleep but then I started to worry that she might roll off or that I might accidently suffocate her or she would puke all over me or that she died- then she woke up at 5 again and by that time my mom was awake so I brought her to mom but it was too late to go back to bed so I had to stay awake and I only got like 3-4 hours of sleep last night because I fell asleep at 1:30 so if I fall asleep in class you have to make sure that I don't miss any of my other classes and I seriously don't want to be at school right now like I'd rather hibernate like a bear and crawl into a cave or I would just be a hedge hog and that way no one would touch me or run into me and everyone would leave me alone but I would still be cute and cuddly to the people I actually like being around because did you know that that's what hedgehogs do? Also my broth-" 

"Olivia" he says, cutting off my rant "Take a deep breath, It's ok. Everything is fine"

I take a deep breath and look at his hands which are currently clasped around the gear shift, too embarrassed by the word vomit I just did to look at his face. I reach up to grab my necklace and start playing with the charm and the chain that's on it.

"Are you ready to go? the bell is going to ring soon" he says 

grateful for his perceptiveness, I say, "great idea" and we get out. 

He walks me to my class, finally getting to know the layout of the building and can confidently guide himself around the school. He looks at me after walking me to my desk and asks, "Are you sure you're ok? You're not going to fall asleep right?" giving him a small laugh I shake my head. "No, I'm not going to fall asleep yet. I'll wait until 3rd hour for that." We have third hour English together and I swear English is made to lull babies to sleep; or me. English is my sleepy subject, not math, English. The first bell rings signaling that Charlie has 5 minutes to get to his class.

 For some reason, I don't want to let him go. I want to stay in his orbit and never leave it. I don't know what this connection is and I don't know if I like it. I've never felt this way about someone before. Does he feel it too? It's a weird feeling. Like I want to know everything about him but I also want to never leave his bubble. 

I want to be there when he's 80 years old.

 Whoa. What was that? That thought shocks me to my senses. I'm only supposed to be a temporary friend. What is happening to me? I think I need a therapist for that thought. 

Charlie clears his throat, making me aware of his presence for the second time this morning. I look up into his eyes and see a mix of confusion and amusement.

"I'm gonna go now ok? Are you good?" he asks again 

"I'm fine. I won't fall asleep. I promise." I answer him

He starts to walk out of the classroom when he suddenly turns around and says, "wait outside your class for me ok? I want to walk with you to second hour." he pauses then asks, "will you wait?"  

"Yes I will, now go you're going to be late." I answer him

He smiles at me and then turns around and walks out the door and to his class.