Kelsey is here. Outside my hospital room. With a doctor, showing her how to put on a hazmat suit. She told me she was leaving her hotel, then getting in a cab, then walking into the hospital, so I don’t know why it’s so surprising to see her. But it is. I wonder if she’s seen my post about Flora yet.

I didn’t think it was possible to look adorable in a hazmat suit, but she does. She tries to take a quick selfie, then follows the doctor into the antechamber, and now she’s in my room. Kelsey’s eyes are wide in the mask as she looks around.

Flora is watching her. “Hi, I’m Flora,” she says in a voice I haven’t heard her use before.

“You’re the roommate! I hope you’ve been taking good care of my Oliver. I can be his nurse now.”

“Yep! Though he’s not actually sick!” Flora says, still in the weird voice.

“And he won’t get sick, especially if I’m taking care of him,” Kelsey says.

The girls are looking at each other, and I wish I could have some privacy with one of them, but I’m not entirely sure which one I’d want to be alone with.

I clear my throat, and both of them whip their heads toward me. Flora has a weird smile on her face to match the weird voice she’s using, but Kelsey is just beaming at me. “Oliver!” she squeals. She runs the short distance to my side of the room and throws her arms around my neck. I’ve never even touched her before, and now suddenly she’s hugging me. I notice how small she is in my arms. I smell vanilla; I think I can smell her hair through the hazmat suit? She pulls back, and my brain feels like it might explode from trying to process all her features so close up.

“You don’t look sick at all!” She grabs my face, turns it from side to side in her hand, looking me up and down.

“Oh. Ha-ha. I’m not actually sick.”

“Right. I keep forgetting that part. Quarantine is confusing. She’s sick, though, right? She looks awful!” Kelsey doesn’t even bother lowering her voice as she jabs her finger in Flora’s direction.

“She had a fever. She’s not sick. And she doesn’t look awful.” I feel so nervous all of a sudden that I realize I can’t feel my fingers. I cannot have a panic attack, I cannot have a panic attack.

“Wait, so she had a fever, but she’s not sick … why are you here, then?”

I hear Flora softly snort.

“Um, it’s like the articles and the news have been saying. I’m here out of ‘an abundance of caution.’ ” I don’t know why I can’t just tell her that Flora kissed me. I could tell her that I like Flora, and maybe Flora likes me, and we really just need some time alone, but we’re never alone with all the vitals checks and doctors and now all the visitors.

“How was your flight?” I blurt out.

“Um? It was annoying? Like I said, we were an hour late taking off!”

I try to muster up some outrage at her ordeal, but all I come up with is, “I’m sorry.”

“S’okay. It’s not your fault. Actually, it is, because I’m here visiting you. I mean, taking care of you! Speaking of, I need to take care of you!” She looks around the room again. “Um, do you want some water? I know it’s good to stay hydrated if you’re sick.”

“I’m not—”

“Right, sorry. I mean, to keep from getting sick.” She grabs the plastic pitcher off my tray. “Oh, there’s no water in here. How do I get you more water?”

“Uh, I don’t actually know. Joey brings it in for us.”

“Oh. Who’s Joey?”

“He’s in charge of taking care of us, sorta.”

“So he’s a doctor?”

“Yeah, something like that.”

“And you call him Joey.”

“I guess he’s an intern or resident or something.” I hate that we’re talking about Joey.

“Shouldn’t you have someone, like, higher up taking care of you?”

“There are other doctors too. Lots of them. And nurses. They’re all pretty nice.”

“Well, that’s … nice.”

“Yeah, it’s nice.” I cringe, unsure why my vocabulary skills aren’t working.

“So! What should we do?” Kelsey says.

“Do?”

“Yeah, I mean, what do you usually do all day?”

“Uh, text with you?”

Kelsey looks pleased, but then says, “Okay, and what else?”

“I talk to Flora. We post stuff on Twitter. I posted a picture of her last night! I figured people might want to know about the other quaranteen. I mean, other people besides me. I mean, other people should know who she is and what she looks like.”

Kelsey lets me ramble, but I feel like she’s only half listening. She says, “Cool.”

There is an awkward silence, and I hear Flora clear her throat.

“Are you sure she’s not sick?”

“What? No, of course not.”

“Okay, then.”

Another awkward silence. I don’t understand how we had so much to text about but now in person have so little to say to each other. And I also don’t understand how we’re going to get through three visiting hours a day.

“How long are you staying?”

“Jeez, Oliver, thanks. Trying to get rid of me already.”

“No! It’s not that at all. I’m just … trying to figure out how much time you’ll be here. How much time I’ll have you, I mean.” I feel my face heating up.

Kelsey grins at me. “Mrs. Guise said I could count my time here toward research for my biology project. Because of that and ‘unique extenuating circumstances,’ I’m here as long as you need me.” She touches my face with her hazmat hand again, this time much more gently.