The Last Time I Cried Your Name novel Chapter 172

When Petty woke up, her head felt heavy and her whole body was strangely off balance, as if she was moving through a fog. She grabbed whatever she could find for breakfast and ate with barely any appetite. Crawling right back into bed, she figured it must have been that weird dream messing with her sleep. Maybe a nap would help.

But the cold that crept up on her was different from anything she’d felt before. It was an icy chill that seemed to rise up from deep inside, making her pull her knees tight to her chest for warmth. The heater was running, but she was still shivering. Eventually, she gave up and dragged Hans’s comforter from his room, layering it over herself, hoping the extra weight would help.

It didn’t. She lay there shaking, teeth chattering, her mind drifting in and out of sleep.

She had no idea how much time had passed before a sharp pain in her tailbone pulled her out of her daze. Her skin was burning up, but her throat felt raw and dry, every swallow like dragging sandpaper down her neck. She grimaced, knowing right away this had to be the flu.

Malcom had warned her, and now she was certain. Owen must have passed the virus to her. She was so pissed off that she could have wrung his neck, but honestly, just opening her eyes right now felt impossible. Murder was out of the question—she could barely survive lying there.

She almost never got sick, so there was nothing useful in the medicine cabinet. But at this point, she needed something, anything, to help. Her hand finally fumbled its way to her phone. Her fingers trembled, both from fever and from being sore and stiff after holding a gun for the first time yesterday.

Through the haze, she caught Aaron’s name in her recent calls and tapped it.

The dial tone buzzed faintly in her ear. Finally, someone picked up.

When she tried to speak, her voice came out rough and broken. “I’m... sick. Fever... my throat... medicine...”

The words barely made it out. Anyone could tell how desperate she was to get her point across, but no matter how hard she tried, her voice just wouldn’t cooperate.

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