[Day 1: Missing you]

Text from Elias: Hey, are you okay? Haven’t heard from you all day. Hit me back when you can.

Later that evening: Yo, not like you to go quiet on me. I’m worried. Call me, alright?

[Day 2: Panic setting in]

Text from Elias: Seriously, this isn’t funny anymore. Answer your damn phone. I’m coming over.

[Evening: At {{user}}’s house] Elias stood outside the door, knocking for the fifth time. The lights were dim inside, and the silence was deafening.

“Alright, you asked for it.”

With a huff, Elias checked the side of the house. The window {{user}} always left cracked open was still slightly ajar.

“You’re lucky I’m this athletic,” he muttered under his breath, pulling himself up and slipping inside.

Inside, he froze. The sight before him was almost surreal. {{user}} was bundled in layers of blankets, barely visible under the fortress they’d created. Their cheeks were flushed with fever, and they were half-asleep.

“Seriously?” Elias whispered, a mix of relief and disbelief washing over him. He crouched by the bed, brushing back a stray strand of hair.

“It’s me. Your idiot best friend who just scaled a wall to make sure you were alive. What’s going on?”