A Silent Soul- Chapter 22
#25 of A Silent Soul
Chapter 22! ^~^
Yaaaay I'm back! Had a lot of stuff I had to get situated with my new semester of college starting and I was missing uploads like crazy so I figured I would do myself and you guys a favor and put everything on hold for the week to get everything back in order. And now that I have my feet back under me it's time for uploads to pick up again! And to celebrate how about a new chapter of the favorite story on my page, A Silent Soul! Here you go! Hope you enjoy and I'll see you at the bottom of the page!
Jasper's P.O.V.
I awoke to the feeling of my hands being pried away from the waist of the husky in front of me, causing me to sigh heavily and rub the sleep from my eyes. Elijah was seated at the edge of the bed rubbing his face.
"Hey, what's wrong?" I asked groggily.
"Just feeling a little nauseous, I'm fine though, you can go back to sleep." He replied. I frowned slightly at him and opened my mouth to speak but froze when he doubled over in pain clutching his stomach.
"Okay maybe not, fuck!" He choked out painfully, a whimper laced in with his statement. The sleep in my body evaporated as I rolled across the bed to sit next to him, hugging him with an arm over his shoulders.
"Do you feel like you're going to throw up?" I asked him. He nodded vigorously, covering his muzzle with a paw.
"Alright come on." I helped him off the bed, leading him into the small bathroom in the back of the room. He fell to his knees, gripping the toilet bowl with an iron grip before violently retching into the toilet. I rubbed his shoulders encouragingly, hoping he could get it all out in one go and not have to get up later in the night.
Finally after a few minutes of dry heaving I felt his muscles begin to unclench, his grip on the toilet bowl relinquishing. He panted heavily, resting on the rim of the bowl, body trembling even after he'd finished.
"Done?" I asked quietly.
"I think so..." He replied.
"Hey, let's go get you a shower it'll make you feel better." I told him, helping him up from the cold tile floor. He nodded silently, letting me guide him out of the bathroom. Glancing at the clock I noted the time, still just only after 2'oclock in the morning. I grabbed a towel for him, not bothering to grab the shower gear as he didn't need to completely wash up.
I led him down the hallway towards the showers, gently guiding him inside. Not surprisingly the showers were empty at this time, so I hung the towel up on the hook on the door and helped him start the shower. He was still shivering, however I couldn't tell if he was cold or still shaken up from a few minutes ago.
"Do you want me to stay with you?" I asked him. He nodded, shuffling his boxers down to his ankles and stepping into the warm stream of water. I did the same, making sure to hang our boxers up to make sure they didn't get soaked. I stepped in, wrapping my arms around him from behind.
Elijah sighed contentedly, letting the warm water warm him up and loosen up his muscles. I began swaying in a gentle side to side motion, humming a soft tune while lightly stroking his stomach. I was pretty sure we stayed like that for almost 20 minutes before I finally turned the water off.
"You can dry off first, I'll wait." Elijah exclaimed. I rubbed the top of his head, grabbing the towel from the hook before beginning to towel him off. His protests fell on silent ears as I ran the towel through his fur, making sure he was completely dry before drying myself off. We both pulled on our boxers and departed the shower, heading back to our room.
"What time is it?" The husky asked me after brushing his fur and climbing back into bed.
"Almost three, still got a couple hours." I told him.
"I probably won't go to classes today, don't want to get anybody else sick." He commented as I crawled into bed behind him.
"It's Saturday silly, there are no classes today." I told him. He paused for a moment before chuckling lightly.
"Oh yeah it is, isn't it? Thank goodness." He replied.
"Although I do have a conference thing for English tomorrow morning that I have to go to, I can call Rachel to come keep an eye on you." I added.
"You really don't have to, I'm not that sick." He tried to argue.
"I believe you, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. I'll only be gone for a little while so she can watch you for a bit." I replied. He was silent for a few moments before sighing in defeat.
"Alright, that's fine." He said quietly.
"Thanks cutie." I whispered before nuzzling the fluffy scruff in front of me and tightening my grip on the husky's waist, following his lead back into dreamland.
P.O.V. Change: Rachel
"Hey wolf boy, what's up?" I said into the phone. "Aww no that's terrible!" I commented upon hearing from Jasper that Elijah was sick. "Yeah of course I'll come stay with him for a bit. I've got some medicine I can bring over?" I asked. "Alright then, I'll be there in a few. Alright see ya then. Bye." I hung up the phone and got dressed, grabbing a couple things to keep me occupied while I was with Elijah.
"Gonna go keep an eye on my friend, he's sick in bed. Be back later." I said to my roommate Stacy who nodded. I shoved my earbuds into my ears and unlocked the new bike I'd just gotten Thursday. It was definitely a good decision on my part to invest in the bike as it would save me a lot of walking and a couple extra minutes of sleep in the mornings.
I let my mind wander to the conversation I'd had with Jasper, the amount of care and kindness in his tone. At first glance you definitely would not take him as a super kind person, but he was most certainly a sweetheart on the inside.
I dismounted my bike as I pulled up to the bike rack near their dormitory, making sure the lock was secure before leaving it. This campus was notorious for bike thefts and I did not feel like becoming one of those victims. I knocked on Elijah and Jasper's room once I'd arrived, and upon hearing the faint "come in" I pushed the door open.
"Oh you poor thing." I teased as I came inside.
"Did Jasper already leave?" I asked the bedridden husky.
"Yeah, he left a couple minutes ago. I tried to convince him that you really didn't have to come over, I was just going to sleep but he insisted. I'm not even that sick, my stomach just didn't appreciate what I had for dinner last night." He explained.
"What did you have?" I asked curiously.
"Jasper took me out to this little hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant downtown. Don't get me wrong it was freaking fantastic, but I think because it was so rich my stomach got a little upset with me." He answered, crawling out from under the covers moving into a crisscross position on the bed. He was wearing a pair of gray sweat pants and blue and white polka-dot socks that matched his fur.
"Nice socks." I commented sarcastically.
"Oh, yeah thanks." He wiggled his toes for good measure, giggling in the process.
"So what are we supposed to do for the next hour or so?" He asked me.
"Well, I figured we could just sit here and talk about life..." I trailed off, offering a sly smile to the husky in the process.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" He asked hesitantly. "You wouldn't happen to still have those magazines by any chance would you?" I prompted him, face slightly reddening.
"I do... someone want to do a little bit of peeking?" He teased.
"... Maybe." I muttered. He chuckled slightly before leaning over the edge of the bed to retrieve the box of magazines he'd hidden from curious eyes. I watched amusedly as his curly tail whip-wagged behind him, indicating his excitement. Finally he reemerged from under the bed and hauled a small brown box on to the bed. He reached inside and pulled out a magazine for both of us, and for the next hour or so we flipped through them, making comments every now and then whenever we saw a particularly cute guy on one of the pages.
The sound of the door handle rattling caused Elijah and I to exchange panicked glances. We shoved the magazines back in to the box and the husky tossed it over the side of the bed just as Jasper walked in the door. We both sat cross-legged grinning madly at him, prompting an accusing glance from the wolf.
"What were you two doing?" He interrogated, eyes squinted but grinning nonetheless at our little act.
"Nothing..." We simultaneously trailed off in response.
"You two are too much." The wolf sighed.
"So, what do you guys feel like doing?" I asked the two.
"Jasper and I had planned on going to the movies today, but that idea's kinda scrapped at this point." Elijah replied.
"I've got a Netflix account, we can throw on a movie or two if you want?" I suggested.
"Sounds good to me, what should we watch?" The wolf asked.
"We can just browse around and see if we can find something." Elijah proposed.
"Let's do it, whose laptop are we watching on? I didn't bring mine with me." I questioned.
"We can use mine." Elijah replied, crawling across the bed to retrieve the portable computer from the nightstand. We finally decided on Lion King, after a debate about why old Disney movies are were the best. We all knew the movie by heart, having watched it many times over throughout our childhood years, and with it came so many great memories of when times weren't so hard.
College was certainly proving to be a challenge; the classes were more difficult, and it was hard being away from my family, even if I was only an hour away from home and could go back to visit any time I wanted. I glanced over to the two canines next to me, smiling as I watched Jasper lightly stroke the back of the smaller dog who'd fallen asleep during the movie.
I had an overwhelming sense of relief for Elijah, knowing that he'd found somebody to care for him in such a tough time. It astounded me that Elijah was able to handle the loss of his mother so well. Either that or he was extremely good at hiding it. But as I watched the husky sleeping peacefully on his stomach next to me, content smile resting across his features, I knew that things would work out for him. I stretched out my sore limbs when the final credits started, rolling on to my back to stare blankly at the ceiling.
"So now what?" I asked, turning my head to my companions, only to sigh as I observed the two slumbering males. They'd both rolled on to their sides facing each other, noses pressed together and snoring quietly. I shook my head amusedly, closing the laptop and placing back on to its original resting place on the end table. Gathering my belongings up I made sure to close the door quietly behind me as to not disturb the sleeping couple.
"What to do now..." I mumbled to myself as I unlocked my bike from the rack. Pulling out my phone, I texted the hyena brother's to see if they were busy. Dan replied saying that they weren't doing anything at the moment so I told them to meet me at the dining hall. I sent Trevor a text as well as it'd been a couple days since I'd seen the coyote.
Satisfied with my current plans I planted my earbuds in my ears again and pedaled off in the direction of the dining hall. I found the twins stationed outside the cafeteria, as well as the before-mentioned coyote who'd never responded.
"Hey nerds." I exclaimed as I locked up my bike once again at the bike rack.
"Hey Rachel, how's it going?" Dan (or at least I'm pretty sure it was Dan, I still can't tell the difference) replied.
"Pretty good, just got back from visiting with the loverboys." I responded, handing my ID card to the person at the entrance so she could scan me in.
"Oh? I heard about their date night last night, did they say anything about that?" Zan asked.
"Elijah said that Jasper took him out to this really fancy Italian restaurant downtown. Poor Elijah got sick though so I went and watched him while Jasper was at some conference thing for English. We just watched a movie and they fell asleep on me so here I am." I explained.
"Sounds like it's been a pretty interesting morning overall." Trevor commented.
"Yeah, it's all good though." I replied. We all got our food, finding a table as usual towards the back where we wouldn't be bothered too much.
"Aren't you two supposed to be working today? I thought there was a game?" I asked the hyena brothers.
"It's an away game, can't really work if the team isn't here." Dan replied with a chuckle.
"Oh, I guess that's true. When's the next home game?" I questioned.
"Next week, but I don't remember if we're playing Temple or Houston." Trevor replied.
"It's Temple next week, Houston is the week after but we're at home for that one too." Dan finished the answer.
"Ah okay, not sure if I'm gonna go to either of them. The last one was kind of boring, except for the ending I guess." I commented. The three boys all simultaneously looked at me as if I'd sprouted a third ear at my statement.
"Are you kidding? That game even being the first one will probably be the game of the year. You know how long it's been since we beat a ranked opponent?" Zan exclaimed.
"Yeah Rachel, that game was fantastic. Doesn't get much better than that in terms of intensity." Dan added.
"I don't know, football never really appealed to me that much. I mean if it's on TV and I know the teams I'd probably watch it, I'm just not a super fan." I explained.
"Nothing wrong with that, just gotta know the difference between a good and bad game." The coyote across the table from me replied.
"Alrighty, Zan and I have to scoot, we've got conferences as well to go to." Dan exclaimed, gathering his plates and belongings.
"Thanks for inviting us Rach, see you around." Zan added, following after the older of the two twins.
"Well, then there were two." Trevor observed.
"Got anything going on today?" I asked him.
"I was gonna just hang out in my room and play video games honestly." He replied.
"Mind if I join you? My roommate is super boring so I might as well hang out with you." I responded, handing my dishes to the coyote when he offered to take them.
"Gosh, you make it sound like a crime to hang out with me." He chuckled, toothy grin shining brightly.
"Well you are a thief, so it is technically a crime." I replied, leading him on. "Oh? What is it that I've stolen from you that's got you all riled up?" He asked mock curiously.
"Wouldn't you like to know..." I snorted, secretly admiring the coyote's dusty brown coat from behind.
"Alright, let's get out of here, gonna give you a couple lessons in video games." I exclaimed, running ahead of Trevor.
"In your dreams fox!" He shouted pursuing me out of the dining hall.
Aaaaaaaaaaand done! Had a little bit of trouble finding content for the rest of the chapter but I figured we needed to pay the other somewhat major characters in the story a visit. I've been trying to develop relationships a bit more during the last few chapters as I felt things were moving too quickly. Hope you all enjoyed nonetheless, and I'll see you all either Wednesday or Thursday with the next chapter of In My Time of Need! Cya! :D
Thought I'd add this in cause I thought it was pretty funny, as I mentioned I wrote the first half of the chapter last Monday and ironically I ended up getting sick over the weekend as well. Guess the connection between Elijah and I runs deeper than I thought. :P