Cole's POV

Robin and I sit with Lex and the others now. Everyday Chase talks about how he's so thakful to not have to worry about feeling guilty cause he ditched his other best friend. We were currently waiting for the girls because for some reason they were late to lunch today.

"Damn they're taking a long time." Chase whines

"I expected Cole to be the one whining..." Robin says as he eats another fry.

"Hey!"

At that moment, Lexi plops down next to me with the girls glaring at her. The tension filled the air and us guys glanced at each other in confusion.

"Alexandria Francesca Brians." Jess says seriously

"Oh shit the full name" Chase whispers quietly. Robin and I glare at him to shut up. He raises his hands in surrender. We turn our attention to the girls again.

"Go. Home." Hailey says

"I'm fine!!!" Lex says. Her voice was super hoarse and as soon as she said that she starts violently coughing.

"Yeah suurreee. We TOTALLY believe you." Jess glares at her

"Okay! What's going on here?" Robin says in exasperation

"Alexandria here is deathly sick." Jess says

"Stop using my first name" Lex whines but soon coughs again

"Your full name is Alexandria?" Robin asks

"Alexandria Francesca" Chase says

"Stop it!!" Lex exclaims. She raised her voice, causing her to practically cough out her lungs

"Anyways, back to Alex being sick. She's super sick yet she doesn't want to go to the clinic or go home to rest." Hailey says

"I'll be fine. Just a few more classes left." Lex waves them off

"Yeah! And then you're going to sneak out of our sight and go to motherfucking work. Both of them." Jess says

I lean over and place my hand on top of Lex's forehead, immediately pulling back as soon as I do. She was burning up!

"Lex...are you really sure you wanna do all that." I say slowly

"I. Am. Fine." She insists

"Alex. You're going to rest." Chase says

She huffs and stands up. She stops for a while and grabs her head. We all look up at her in worry.

"Alex-"

"I'm fine!!"

She walks off and leaves the cafeteria. I stand up and run to find her. It wasn't that hard to find her. When I exited the cafeteria, I saw Lex sitting on the floor with her back against the lockers. Her head was tilted to look upwards and she was pulling her hair.

"Lex..."

I slowly approached her. She looked at me with a pained expression. It broke my heart to see her like this.

"It hurts....Cole....please...make it go away..." she whimpered

I quickly rush over to her and hold her in my arms. She grips on my shirt and curls into a ball.

"Let's take you home...please..let me take care of you..." I whisper softly.

"Okay...okay...just make it go away...make it go away please." A tear slides down her cheek.

"Cole"

I turn around to see our friends watching us with great concern in their eyes. Even Robin who wasn't even that close with Lex.

"You take her home. We'll follow" Jess says

"No" Lex croaks. We all turn to look at her. Her head was still buried in my chest and as she speaks her grip gets tighter, as if talking is worsening the pain.

"You have to stay...don't...skip...need...to know...what I...missed" she says, breathing heavily. Her knuckles have turned white in her grip.

"I'll go. You guys stay here." I say

"I'm going with you. That's my baby sister." Chase speaks up

"She's my best friend." Jess argues

"I was her sister and friend first" Hailey joins in

The three of them argue about who will go with me. Robin rolls his eyes and turns to me.

"Take her home and take care of her. I'll explain everything to the office on why you two left. I'll take care of these three." He says

"Thanks man." I say. He nods at me. I stand up and carry Lex in my arms. Robin walks up to her and narrows his eyes at her. He pokes her cheek,making her open her eyes a bit to look at him

"Get well soon." He says

"Thanks Robin..." she whispers

"Go. Before the three follow you." He tells me

I quickly rush to my car, and drive us back home. I call out to Marie and tell her to prepare a face towel soaked in warm water. I take Lex up to my room.

Apparently, my parents were still in the house and saw me rushing to my room with Lex in my arms. They didn't even ask what's wrong when they saw the sick Lexi in bed. Mom rushed downstairs to get her some water and Dad went to get the medicine. Marie brought up the things and I immediately placed it on her head. Mom and Dad came back with the wayer and medicine and I thankfully took it from them

"Lex...gorgeous, i need you to drink this for me" I tell her. She looks up at me weakly. She cracks a grin even though her eyes held much pain.

"You're such a liar. I must look like death's wife" she says with her raspy voice

"You'll always be a holy angel, Lex." I say

"I might as well be. I feel like I'm dying." She says as she sits up

"I don't like jokes about you dying." I frown.

"Sorry" she apologizes

She grabs her head as soon as she turns to face me. She sways a bit then shuts her eyes tightly as she mutters profanities.

"Babe...please drink up. It'll help you feel better." I say. I put the glass of water and medicine in her hand. I then guide her hand to pop the medicine in her mouth ,and then I guide the hand holding the water to her lips. She drinks up all the water and swallows the medicine. She then lays back down and curls back into a ball again.

I grab a chair and sit next to her. I take her hand in mine and slowly rub circle on the back of her hand. Dad grabs a seat and sits on the other side of the bed. He held her hand and watched her helplessly. She sighs and cuddles into the blankets. She had a really high fever.

It's been a few hours and Lex has finally fallen asleep. She had a bit of trouble cause she kept coughing. I never left her side and never let go of her hand. Marie, Mom and Dad would visit from time to time to check if she was alright. Right now both my parents came to check up on her.

"What happened anyways Cole?" Mom asks

"I don't know...she just came to lunch and was coughing all over the place. Her friends said she was sick so I touched her forehead and she indeed burning up." I say

"Why didn't she go to the nurse's office?" Dad asks

"I don't know..."

"Alex can't go to the nurse's office." Jess' voice fills the room. Our friend come in and all rush to Lex's side.

"Why?" I ask

"The school thinks that Alex is still living with her adoptive parents. If she goes to the nurse's office, the nurse will have to call her "parents". The school doesn't know that her "parents" ditched her and that she lives-well used to live in a dump. She changed the number of her parents phone to be her own and the house phone into the one in her neighbors apartment since she couldn't afford one. Since Lex is still 17,she's not yet a full adult. She's not allowed to be living on her own yet." Jess explains this all to us.

We were all in shock. We didn't really think of that. After a few minutes of silence,Jess suddenly gasps. We look at her in confusion, but she stares back at us with a look of horror.

"Oh my god...I just spilled Alex's secret to everyone in this room." She mumbles to herself. Even if she mumbled, we all heard her clearly. Chase, Hailey and I widened our eyes in alarm. Mom gasps when she realizes what Jess just said.

"This pure and kind hearted angel...she was left by her birth parents and her adoptive parents..." Mom whispers to herself

"Yeah...and she was also bullied." Jess mutters. Chase, Robin and I flinch at that. I hated myself so much for that.

"Son...what do you know about that" Dad glares at me

"I...I..." I didn't know what to say.

"It's obviously something if you flinched." He says

"I...started...the bullying...she got on my bad side so I kinda...bullied her..." I look down. Guilt consumed me. Surprisingly he didn't scold me, instead he blamed himself.

"I guess this is what we get for not being there for you..." Dad sighs.

Silence enveloped us. No one spoke after that. Until...

"You know I can hear you guys right?" Lex's voice breaks the silence. Our heads all snap to face her. Her eyes were still closed but she was talking.

"I heard everything. I'm really not in the mood to be upset with Jess right now so I guess it's just whatever." She says. Jess look down in guilt.

"Lex are you okay?" I ask her

"No..."

"You're so strong gorgeous." I say

"Yeah okay. Now I advice you guys to get out of the room before I get you all sick." She says

"I'm not leaving my little sister." Chase says. Jess and Hailey agree with him.

"I will cry and I will not talk to you in a long time." Lex says. They were hesitant but didn't budge

"I'll give you the cold shoulder."

Jess and Hailey immediately gave Lex a quick hug before wishing her bye and get well. Before they leave Jess says to Cole

"It really really sucks to get a cold shoulder from Lex. Don't risk it Chase."

Chase sighs and hugs Lex. He then tells her bye and to get better before running of to catch up with the girls. Robin wishes her to get better as well and leaves.

"You too Mom and Dad" she mumbles

Mom and Dad's eyes widen in surprise. Minutes later Lex's eyes widen too.

"I'm sorry!! Oh geez. That just slipped out." Lex quickly sits up, momentarily forgetting her headache. The thing about head aches is that they don't like being ignored or forgotten. If they are being ignored, they worsen and worsen until you finally acknowledge it and take care of it.

"Fuck" she grabs her head in pain. I touched her arm and it seems she was hotter than before. I lay her back down and put her hands to her side. I sit on the bed, and massage her pounding head.

"Sweetie. It's really not a problem. We're not upset about it." Mom says

"Far from it actually. You're like another daughter to us..." Dad says. Mom nods her head in agreement

"You just met me not too long ago" Lex whispers. You can still hear the pain in her voice.

"Well either way you're going to call us that in the future once Cole finally decides to propose and marry you." Dad says.

"Yeah. Might as well start now" Mom nods her head. Lexi blushes bright red. I groan and sink down on the bed so that I'm laying next to Lex. I bury my head on her neck to civer my embarrassment, all the while I'm ignoring her burning hot body against mine. I didn't even care if I got sick. I just needed to hug her so bad.

Mom and Dad are laughing at our embarrassment. They think it's funny. Why do parents always find humor in embarrassing their children.

"Okay. Okay. But in all seriousness darling, you are like a daughter to us. You've helped this family so much and we're ever so thankful. And we'll let you in on a secret" Mom says. She looks around to check if no one was listening

"We love you more than Cole." She whispers loud enough for all of us to hear. Dad bursts out laughing and Lex giggles a bit.

"Wooow. Jee thanks Mom and Dad. I love you guys so much too." I say sarcastically

"We're joking son. But if ever you break her heart, we're taking her side." Mom says. There was hint of seriousness in her voice

"Yeah. You'll be in big trouble." Dad says with the same hint of seriousness.

"Thank you...but please leave before you get sick." Lex says. The two of them nod before kissing her forehead and telling her to get better. They then walk outside, leaving me and Lex.

"I wanna see you try and get rid of me." I chuckle

"I wasn't." She says

"Good."

"I know how stubborn you are. You're just like me. If you were sick I wouldn't leave no matter what you'd do or say. I had a feeling you'd do the same." She says

"Absolutely right." I snuggle into her more

"But you don't have to worry 'bout me. I have a strong immune system. It's like Dad and I get sick once or twice a year, but when we do it's really bad." I say

"Same here. That's why you might wanna prepare for the worst." She says as she snuggles closer to me.

"Stop talking and go to sleep. Let the medicine do its job." I say

She nods her head and turns lay on her side,making the towel fall from her forehead. I wrap my arm around her and used the other one to keep the towel on her for head.

I hated seeing her sick. She looks so weak and vulnerable.

Please get better soon Lex...

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