October-Nick

Nick nudged a box and some furniturs aside with his foot as he took an expedition to the inside of the small refrigerator that he and his roommate shared. "Um...ice cream?"

"No, you keep that," said Zach. "Towels?"

"Yes, I use towels," answered Nick, wading his way back over his backpack and a pile of books.

"We better wet one and put it on her head," Zach tried checking the girl's temperature again. "I don't know exactly how high her fever is, but we've got to try to keep her temperature down from being too high, manually."

"Okay," Nick clambered over the foot of the bed to reach the closet. "Towels, towels, towel...."

"Some sort of large container for water'd be good too," suggested Zach. "So we don't have to go back out every time we need to rinse something."

"They're still partying out there?" Nick made a face as he threw a towel at Zach. "Something to hold water...er...I have a mug...?"

"Anything in the fridge we can use?" asked Zach.

"Not unless you count the fridge itself, which is heavy," said Nick doubtfully.

"Fine, we'll make do then," Zach carefully picked his way to the door with the towel, and paused. "And Nick?"

"Yeah?"

"You're sure about the no hospital thing?"

Nick looked nervous again. "Y-yes."

"Okay," Zach looked at him, then at the girl again. "For goodness's sake find the poor girl a blanket, will you? She HAS a fever you know." He quickly opened the door, slipped out, and shut it again behind him.

Nick grumbled to himself as he went blanket hunting among his many stray boxes, but he was also smiling because he knew that in a few moments Zach would be back, and then Mike, and that he was not going to go through with his decision alone. Then he nearly howled because he banged his funny bone against the leg of the wayward chair.