Chapter 5

The Start, or the End?

          Over the past few hours, Krystal'd watched helplessly as the angle of Amber's face grew more pronounced. Her comforter was disheveled, her clothes were damp in sweat when she came here early in the day. Krystal thought it must've been a shy moment if the girl wakes up when she changed her shirt to a clean one. How not? she already having a hard time changing it without getting herself flushed upon the exposed skins. The idea of taking off her sports bra is even more difficult that she decided to only change her shirt.

Krystal looked at her watch, showing that it's already a quarter past four when she realized the girl is already asleep for 6 hours from the moment a doctor came to check her up. She was relieved that Amber doesn't really have a serious condition, it's due to her exhaustion Amber could be in that state, he said

          Krystal's eyes lifted up from the book in her hand to her face, judging carefully to the other girl's taste in book choices. Full-Bodied in the Vineyard? Really? she snorted. Among the other books, this particular one really caught her attention after she was looking for a thing in her room to kill the time. 

         Her eyes squinted at the same time Krystal reached for her hand and tucked it to her sides, finally sobered up from her rest. Amber held her head in pain making the brunette scooted closer to the bed and sit beside her 

"You awake, How're you feeling?", the hand on Amber's head then replaced with Krystal's as she gently pressing her fingers to soothe the pang away. Upon the gentle massage, Amber closed her eyes tightly releasing her pain

"Like crap-seriously. How long did I pass out?"

"Not long enough for you to be sorry about", Krystal looked down on her face, her tousled locks falling from her shoulders, "but yeah, about six hours"

          Her calm breath and the innocent squinting-eyes giving her a sense of vulnerability since it's rare for Krystal to witness her lying lifelessly in the bed like that. Krystal feeling the fever has slightly gone down when she put her knuckles to her forehead

Putting her other hand to support her weight in the bed, she noticed Amber's eyes already wide open.

"Next time, never leave me read on chat", her brows frowned, the worries getting its way back to the back of her mind. It would've been like that the whole minutes if not because of the fact that Amber closed her eyes again, sighing in the most comfortable way. It was as if she enjoyed being taken care of. 

"Krystal", she called weakly

"Hmm?"

"I'm hungry", that brought a smile to the pit of her lips, she finds it pleasing how the two words could really bring her to that feeling. She felt genuinely needed. Being sick can really change someone, huh?

"What do you want to eat?", Amber pretends to think in hum, Krystal chuckled over the silly act before the girl on the bed replied, "Anything"

"Really? Anything?", she nodded.

          When she walks in the living room, her hair is in its usual slightly-tangled hair, and she's got her basketball short and band tees on, the one she'd bought from Japan weeks ago. Amber's not entirely sure what she's coming down with, aside from the fever, chills, exhaustion and general malaise that comes with higher temperature, she feels okay. She's no longer stuffed up or dealing with a sore throat, although there's still a tingle of it, her stomach feels better. She dragged herself to the couch while looking at Krystal dealing with anything that they will probably eat later

"Don't you have work?", Amber asks, sitting innocently there

"Nah, you need me more than my work now", she smiled at the answer 

"Come on, get up, the meal is ready", she pulled her up before assisting Amber to walk to the kitchen

"Dude, I'm not a granny", Amber protested, feeling Krystal patted her

Her eyes lit up upon the home-made meals in the table, the younger girl took off her apron and hang it on the wall before sitting beside Amber,

"What's with the face?", she asked amused

"Nah", Amber shook her head sheepishly

Krystal fixes her disheveled hair when she scoots closer with a pout, "Eat more, you look thinner now", gaining an innocent nod when the other girl already digging into her home-made food. Silly, why do I enjoy taking care of you?

          It was later in the evening when Krystal decided to go home after washing the dishes. She can feel her muscle sore everywhere