As soon as I woke up this morning, I knew it was going to be a bad day.

I felt awful. My throat was sore, my head felt woozy, and all I wanted to do was go back to sleep. Nevertheless, I dragged myself out of bed to go start the day.

I checked my phone and saw I had a text from Kaz telling me to meet him at the bus stop in 15 minutes so we could go to school together.

I went to make myself my usual bowl of cereal, but my stomach churned and I realized I didn't feel like eating at all. So I skipped breakfast, got dressed and went to school.

History, Chemistry and Calculus passed by and I started to feel more and more tired. By the time third period came, I could barely keep my eyes open. I almost fell asleep in French.

I've been working overtime at Mighty Med more and more these days. There's been a lot of crime in the city lately and that means a lot more injured superheroes being admitted to the hospital.

I had English next period, the one class I have with Kaz where I sit next to him. The teacher was talking about some book we were studying but I struggled to concentrate on what she was saying. I felt Kaz tap me on the shoulder to get my attention and only then did I realize he had been whispering something to me.

"-ay? You've been zoning out for like the past five minutes."

I tried to smile reassuringly at him, shrugging like everything was fine. Hopefully he bought it.

Five minutes later the bell rang, so we got up and went to lunch. We sat at our usual table in the cafeteria, with Gus and Jordan laughing and joking around. I was the only one who didn't have food in front of me.

"You're not gonna eat anything?" Jordan asked, a confused expression on her face.

"I had a big breakfast." I answered. OK, that was a lie, but I didn't want her to worry.

Fifth period was going to start soon, so I walked with Kaz to the hallway to get to my books from my locker.

As I walked towards it, I swayed a little bit and stumbled against it. Kaz noticed this and quickly reached out to steady me.

"Oliver, are you okay?" He put his hand on my shoulder, looking at me worriedly. "You're really pale."

"Yeah, don't worry. Just a little dizzy." I replied.

"Are you sick?" he asked, furrowing his eyebrows in concern.

"No, it's nothing." As I said this, a wave of dizziness came over me again and I was suddenly leaning against my best friend.

"Okay, come on. I'm taking you home." He took hold of my arm. "We have double History after lunch anyway. You're doing me a favor, trust me."

"I'm fine, I swear." I said, trying to resist as he pulled me away, but I was too weak. "Besides, I can't just leave."

"I'll text Gus or Jordan to tell the principal, you won't get in trouble."

"But- but what about you?"

"I can ditch. It's fine."

He ignored all my other protests, dragging me out of the school.

I could barely hold myself up by the time we got to my house. My face felt hot, my body was cold and my head felt heavy.

Kaz went into the kitchen while I went to the bathroom to splash my face with cold water, leaving the door open. The water helped a little but I still kept getting waves of dizziness. I stumbled into the cabinet, sending bottles of shampoo and other things tumbling to the floor with a loud crash. I tried to steady myself but just kept swaying and knocking into shelves and making a big mess.

The noise must have alerted Kaz, because the last thing I heard was the sound of Kaz's footsteps hurriedly running towards me, calling out my name, before I passed out onto the cold tile floor.

I woke up tucked in my bed, the blankets wrapped tightly around me. I don't remember going into my bedroom. Kaz must have carried me here.

I sat up groggily and realized Kaz was sat at the foot of the bed. I heard him breathe a sigh of relief. "Oh, good. You're awake. You really scared me there for a second."

"What- what happened?" I mumbled.

"You fainted. I think you have a fever. And I know you lied to Jordan. Have you eaten anything at all today?"

I didn't say anything, which gave him enough of an answer. He frowned.

He held out a plastic cup with some brightly colored liquid in it, which I guessed was medicine. "Here, drink this. It'll help."

I took the cup from him, swallowing it down quickly and grimacing at the taste. He took the empty cup from me when I was done, and he disappeared into the kitchen again to come back a few minutes later with a hot bowl of something in his hands.

"Here, I made you some soup."

My stomach felt weird again. "I don't feel like eating anything." I confessed.

"Well, you need to. Trust me, you'll feel better."

I reached for the spoon, but he pulled it away from me. "Uh uh, I'm going to feed it to you."

"Kaz, I'm not four any more." I sighed.

"I don't care. I'm going to take care of you, okay?"

He clearly wasn't going to give up, so I let him do it.

He scooped up the chicken soup, blowing on it to cool it down first before lifting it up to my mouth. He was right, I did start to feel better after a few spoonfuls.

The medicine was starting to kick in and make me sleepy, and Kaz guided me to lie down again.

"Go to sleep, it's okay." He started running his hand through my hair, which was making me even sleepier.

"I texted Horace and told him we're not coming to Mighty Med today."

"Kaz! What if there's an emergency and they need us?" I sat up suddenly, but he pushed me back down.

"Then they'll deal with it. You need to stop worrying so much."

"But... the, the book report due tomorrow." I slurred out. "We- we were gonna.. gonna do it together."

"Hey, hey. Calm down. I'm going to do all the work, okay? You're overworking yourself. Just rest."

He reached around my shoulders, and I was confused for a second before he started kneading into them with his hands. I couldn't help but let out a little sigh as he eased the tension from my bones.

"You're so busy caring about other people, you forget to take care of yourself sometimes."

I couldn't resist the pull of sleep any more, and I stopped fighting it as he pulled the covers over me and tucked me in once again.

As I was on the blurry edge between sleep and consciousness, I felt his lips pressed to my forehead. I heard him say softly,

"Don't worry, Oliver. Rest up. I got you. I'll be right here when you wake up."