"How bad is it?" I asked still lying on the bed, feeling my eyes burn.
"Better but still not good enough," said Larry while holding the thermometer above his head.
"Take your shirt off..." said he, eyes still fixed on the thermometer.
"Take my what now?" I almost choked.
"I'm gonna give you a cold sponge-bath. We gotta find a way to decrease the temperature...Aspirin's barely helping," he exclaimed with his hands on his waist. "Your fever is at 40-degree Celsius, normal body temperature is 37. That's 3 notches higher. If we won't do something, you'll either pass out or experience convulsion, worst seizure."
I was waiting for him to add death by fever on his list of recommended outcomes for not taking my shirt off bud he didn't.
Larry looked seriously alarmed. It's funny how all his emotions were registered on his face like receipts.
"I'll be back, I gotta go get the ice pack real quick over there."
I trailed on him with my eyes while he ransacked Ms. Sanchez cupboard looking for an ice pack.
"Why aren't you taking your shirt off yet?" He asked looking confused.
I pointed my lips towards the IV stand.
"Oh, sorry I forgot..." he scratched his head.
"I could use some help..." I cleared my throat.
Reluctance peeked from his blue eyes for a moment.
"You'll be taking a lot of shirts off of your patients one day doctor, better practice on me now," said I looking at him from the edge of the bed where I was seated.
He stood in front of me and arched his back to unbutton my polo shirt. Our faces were an inch closer that I could hear him breathe. The sweats from his temple dropped down on his cheeks. He was a mess--a beautiful, charming mess.
"Relax doctor...I'm not gonna die yet. Not today..." I said jokingly.
After undoing my polo shirt. He straightened his back and blurted, "Florante where'd you get all these muscles from?"
Larry's mouth was too honest for its own good.
I felt a sense of embarrassment when he saw the baby hairs on my chest and under-arm which have grown quite untamed.
My torso has been exposed out in the open and I felt the hair on my chest stood as I shivered. Larry stared at my half naked splendor, his face turning red.
"So what now doctor? Are you just gonna stare the fever down?" I teased him.
"Oh, sorry lemme...lemme...get a clean towel," he stammered.
I shook my head and smiled.
"You sure this is still a part of the fever-decreasing procedure doctor?" I smirked while he placed the ice pack on my forehead.
"Two things Florante; first I'm gonna clean your body from the dirt that could worsen the infection. Secondly, the icy-water on the sponge can help decrease the temperature."
"Sounds obvious to me," I replied challenging him even more while he's rubbing the cold towel on my bare chest and under-arm.
"A fever is your body's reaction to an infection, which in your case, the bruise on your knuckles. I bet you could feel enlarged lymph nodes on your under-arm. Your immune system is fighting the infection, hence the fever..."
Does it explain the enlargement I am feeling under my shorts?
"Alright, doc...understood."
"Stop calling me that..." he rolled his eyes and ran the cold towel on a circling motion down on my navel area..."
Damn it. Friend down-south. Calm down!
"So you really wanna be a doctor like your dad when you grow up?" I asked enclosing both my legs to cover the enlargement I was feeling there. I turned up 100 degree Celsius on the thermometer scale.
"Yep, helping people who can't afford basic medical care, especially kids and elderly sounds fun...just like my dad and mom," he said it like he was totally invested with the idea of community service.
"Sounds nobler to me than fun..."
"How about you Florante? What would you wanna become one day?" He looked at my eyes. I looked away.
I'd like to tell him that I'm gonna grow up and be a man like my father someday...and die somewhere because that's the only thing my family is good at. But I just said, "Dunno, maybe a potato..."
"You're funny..." he chuckled and his dimples were two quagmires pulling me in. I clasped the bed-sheets tightly.
"You can be a movie-star you know that? With your perfectly chiseled abs, tanned-skin complexion and strong jaw-line, you're gonna break a lot of girls' hearts one day...In fact, you might have broken one heart already..." his lips twitched sideways and he looked sad.
"Don't flatter me, doctor...I can't even bring to like my own reflection in the mirror..." I said.
"Do you have a girlfriend?" He asked shippishly. His cheeks turned to a pink rose bud I so badly wanted to pick from his perfect garden of a face.
"Nope..." I answered. I bet he smiled. I dunno. Larry's face looked like it's beaming all the time like a light-house.
"When will you introduce your best-friend to your parents?" He asked bouncing on his side of the bed like it was a good idea to meet my non-existent parents.
I hesitated if I should answer the question. But I did. "I've got no parents Larry...I stay with grandma"
Dead-air...
"Care to expound that?"
The rain was falling hard against the roof and the water from the gutter flowed spontaneously through the glass windows making hazy of the view outside. A thunder rolled faintly from a distance.
"Dad died when I was just a kid, mom left home when I was 8 so she's as good as dead to me now."
If it were a normal person he would've said cliche phrases like, "I'm sorry for your loss, or I'm sorry to hear about that..." but Larry was not normal in any kind of way so he fell silent and sniffed softly.
"Are you crying doctor?"
"No..." his voice cracked as he wiped his tears with his knuckles.
"You're crying..."
"I can't help it..."
"You're such a baby you know that? I should be the one crying cos it's my story don't you think...?"
"I said I can't help it..." said he while bursting into silent tears. His long noodle-hair fell on his face. I fought the urge to comb it with my fingers.
"It's fine really, somewhere in the world people are dying; their loved ones, their friends, their acquaintances...and someday we'll die too... My case is not special. Death comes to all of us when the time is due." Said I, looking at the rain outside.
"Will you weep for me when I die, Larry?"
"How could you say such a horrible thing?" He scowled at me.
"People die, Larry, at this moment a husband is saying goodbye to his dying wife, a mother to her dying child. Death is the only thing that is definite in this world."
"Yes, that's true..." said he. "But death is just one sad aspect of the multitude of aspects of being alive Florante. There's a lot more to life than death...All you need to do is break your walls open and let other people in. It's the life that counts and the people you spend it with. The memories you have with them and how it made you feel to wake up each morning looking forward to making new memories with the people that matter to you the most. It's something that even death can't take away from you, Florante..."
I thought of what he said about waking up in the morning and the birds came to my mind. How I woke up each morning plotting to murder all of them while they sleep.
I wanted to tell him that even memories fade in the end but you can't win an argument with Larry Davis so I just stared at the mist forming by the windows. Outside, the rain had already subsided and the sun tried to penetrate the curtains that separated Larry and I from the room and from the rest of the world.
I rose from the bed where I was laid and sat next to him. "You said that because you're afraid to die...well, I'm not. Death can pay me a visit and be my guest any time of the day."
"No, Florante I said that because I'm not afraid to live..." he argued.
As I said, you can't win an argument with Larry Davis.