Achoo! Rachel sneezes. It's been two days since she caught the cold. Her school had declared a week long holiday due to the unprecedented amount of rainfall.

Rachel is angry at her school for not doing so two days ago itself. Then she wouldn't have gone to school. She wouldn't have given a lift to Hector. She wouldn't have gotten drenched trying to return his jacket. She wouldn't have let out her secret. She wouldn't have called him a cat lover.

But she's too tired to keep up her anger or embarrassment.

"Go rest in your room!" her mother says.

But Rachel doesn't want to move from the living room couch. The couch is warm. And she's bored from sleeping all day in her room yesterday.

Rachel needed a little change of scenery, even if it's just from her bedroom walls to their large television. She's not in a mood to watch anything though so she just stares at the black screen.

A message pops up in her phone. It's from Agatha. Her sister doesn't know she's sick but knows she's not in school because of the nationwide holidays.

Agatha wants Rachel to pick up some files at Agatha's apartment and bring it to her to the studio. Rachel gets up.

"I'm heading out," she says.

"What?!" Her mom shouts, "You're sick. Go to your bed."

"I'm fine," Rachel says, pulling over her a hoodie, "I'm bored here. I'm going to watch a movie at Annie's."

"Ask your friends to come here," her mom says.

Rachel ignores her mother's angry objections and heads out to her car. Rachel knows she's going to get sicker. And that she'll have to hear her mom's scoldings later.

But she also knows Agatha wouldn't ask her if it wasn't important.

AT THE STUDIO'S parking lot, Rachel hands over the files through the open car window to Agatha's assistant, CeCe.

CeCe quickly thanks Rachel and runs back into the studio, her rain coat barely staying on top of her.

Rachel thinks CeCe probably isn't running because of the rain but because she has no time to spare.

That's how everyone at the studio looked like when Rachel visited this place once. It was busier than a beehive.

Rachel starts the car and drives to a nearby fast-food joint she knows. She doesn't want to go to her friends' place, but she also can't return home right away because of her lie.

She decides to kill some time at the joint, eating some spicy food she has been dying to eat since she got sick. She's sure she's going to get sicker anyway, so she might as well become so because of some tasty snacks. She's tired of the porridge.

Soon, Rachel parks the car in front of the store and walks in. She orders herself some tortillas and spicy chicken at the counter.

After the staff leaves to prepare her order, Rachel touches her forehead. Suddenly she feels strange. When the skin on her forehead is hot to touch she swears inwardly.

Rachel has a high fever. And she's also getting a little dizzy. She decides to sit down first and turns around. In that instant all the lights go out.

WHEN RACHEL OPENS her eyes, she sees perforated white panels on the ceiling. Some flat white lights. The air smells like iodine.

Rachel looks to her side and sees a clear tube emerge out of a rally pack floating above. Her eyes follow the tube. It ends on back of her hand, taped to place with cotton balls and medical tapes.

Rachel freaks out and sits up.

Hector comes to her side. "Hey, slowly," he says.

Rachel stares at Hector wide-eyed, in shock. What on earth happened? She blinks trying to remember.

"What am I doing here?" She says.

"You passed out at the store after ordering. I was there when you came in. I brought you to the hospital. You had a fever," Hector says.

Exactly, she thinks. "It was just a fever. Why did you bring me to a hospital?!" She says.

Rachel is worried her mother would kill her if she found out.

Hector glares at Rachel. Even though he helped her, she's mad at him.

Rachel looks around at the room, her heart falling further down. She barely has any money left from having spent all on fuel. She can't pay for the hospital bill. And if she asks her mom... well, that's something she won't do.

Rachel grabs her forehead and shakes her head.

Hector feels even more offended. "What? You wanted me to just leave you there on the floor?" He says.

Rachel looks up. She sighs. "I'm sorry," she says, "It's just... never mind. Thank you for helping me and bringing me to the hospital. Could you also please ask for the nurse so I could be discharged. I'm feeling perfectly fine now, thanks to you."

Hector is not sure if she's speaking the truth or is being sarcastic. But she does looks healthy, either way, so he calls for the nurse.

The nurse takes her off the IV and hands her a paper bag with some pills in it.

Rachel follows Hector out the hospital. When he heads straight for the exit, Rachel stops and looks around.

Noticing she's not following him anymore, Hector stops too. He looks at her. "What are you doing?" He says

Rachel shows him the paper bag. "I have to pay," she says.

Hector presses his lips together tightly and wonders if she does this on purpose. "I already paid," he says.

Rachel silently starts to follow him out again. If it's him, she can pay him back when she gets her next month's allowance.

"How much?" She asks.

Hector abruptly stops. She nearly bumps into him.

"Why?" He asks, facing her.

"So I c-"

"Could pay me back? So I won't go broke from having to pay for some Tylenol for you?" He says.

Rachel swallows. Why does he sound so offended? She thinks. If he doesn't want her to pay him back he could let her know that nicely, in a friendly way, with a smile maybe, like most people do.

INSIDE HIS CAR, Hector asks, "Where's your house?"

Rachel freezes for a second.

"You forgot?" Hector says, worrying her fever could've been worse than it had seemed.

Rachel shakes her head. "Drop me at the store. My car is there."

Hector shakes his head. "You can't drive in this condition. I'll send someone to bring your car to your place. For now, I'll drop you at home."

"No," Rachel says, "Drop me at the store."

Hector grabs the steering wheel tighter. He liked it better when she was terrified of him and wouldn't talk back. "I said-," He begins.

"No," Rachel repeats, "Drop me at the store."

"Why are you being difficult?" He says.

Rachel looks at Hector as if he had grown horns. "Me? Being difficult? If it weren't for you forgetting your jacket I wouldn't have gotten sick in the first place."

"You could've returned it to me later," Hector says.

"Absolutely not. I wasn't going to take home that jacket, too."

Hector pauses. Rachel pauses too.

They both heard the same thing.

"You took my jacket? The one I left on the crate?" he says.

"Only because I replaced that shitty tent with a proper umbrella. I was going to put it back thinking you might come for it later, but my ride came so I just left with it," Rachel quickly and defensively narrates her reason.

Hector tries not to smile. Only tries. "So, what? My jacket is in your room? In your closet? On your bed?"

"Oh God!" Rachel shouts.

Hector laughs.

Rachel is momentarily taken aback by the sound of his laugh. It's hearty, clear and loud inside the closed space of his car.

"Just drop me at the store," Rachel says.

"No," Hector says.

"I can't go home now," Rachel says, "I'll stay at the store for a while."

Hector just looks at her.

Rachel wishes he wouldn't ask her why she can't go back home yet, and is relieved when Hector starts to drive.

It's only when Rachel sees what seems to be the entrance to a mansion, she says, "Where are we? This isn't the store."

"I'm amazed it took you this long to figure that out," he says.

"Where are we?" She says.

"At my place."

"No!" Rachel quickly says, "Drop me at the store!"

Hector parks his car at the large entrance and gets out. "You stay in my room until you're ready to let me drop you at your home. You can stay inside the car, too, if you want," he says and closes the door and heads into the mansion.

Rachel cannot believe where she is.

As she looks around, waiting in the car doesn't seem like a bad idea, since the entrance looks like a lobby of a five-star hotel.

But Rachel doesn't want to be stranded in front of somebody's home. She gets off the car and gets inside the colossal building.

End of chapter