I wake up in my bed. All my junk is cleared off, and the sheets don't have sand and dust in it for once. I sit up and rub my hurting eyes groggily. I ache all over and my head feels like it's about to roll off my neck. I touch it to make sure it's still there.
I look at the clock. It's a little after 9. I've been asleep for almost 10 hours.
As I think that, my belly rumbles painfully and I let out a burp. I'm getting gassy, and I'm sure I need an antacid.
I don't want to, but I have to get out of bed to get food. I don't think I've eaten all day. One of my dads put a water bottle on the bedside table for me. I gulped it all in a second.
I quickly realize I'm in my faded Blackpink tee and Hello Kitty flannel pants. I'm filled with sheer embarrassment realizing they helped me get into it.
Ewiee! They saw your smelly ass bra you refuse to get rid off, my Mini Me mocks, and I try to shrug her off. I peek into my shirt and she returns snarkier. Guess they changed you out of that too.
Ugh! I clap my hands over my ears, trying to block out the embarrassing fact. From the looks of things, they also tidied most of my things and even helped sweep up. And my curtains are drawn all the way. Typical Larry behavior.
I smile. I have the sweetest dads ever.
I drape a blanket over my head and shoulders like a cloak and head for my bathroom, VERY happy they didn't decide to change my pad too.
Ha ha.
That would be crazy.
As I step out of my bedroom into the hallway's blinding light, I can hear them having a hushed conversation downstairs. Curious, I rush through a quick but quiet shower (so they wouldn't know I'm awake) and tiptoe down the stairs.
From the landing, I can see their silhouettes against the dim table lamp. The rest of the living area is dark. They're holding each other and facing away from me, but I'm the light so I try peeking discreetly, only poking my head out a bit.
"... I'm really worried about her," my dad murmurs to Larry. "That's all. Nobody ever tells you taking care of a kid was going to be so tough."
"It's alright," Larry says in a comforting tone I've never heard before. "I'm here. We can take care of Anya together."
"I just love her too much. I don't want to--"
"You don't have to. Just tell her."
Do what? Tell who what? Who is "her"? Is that me? What do they want to tell me.
"But I think she's right. We can't do it right."
"Well, neither could she."
Who the hell is "she" and what couldn't she do?!
"But what else can we do? I feel like I'm losing my kid. She is already so reserved. You never know what's going on with her. What if there's a lot more she isn't telling us?"
I flinch as my dad's voice cracks on his last two words. Larry makes some soothing sounds, and I just melt. My hands fist in my hair as I slide down into sitting position on the stair. It creaks, and I jump, making it creak again.
"Anya?!" Larry calls."Is that you?"
"Uh..." I reply in a small voice as I slowly step into view. "Yes."
My "yes" sounds more like a question than a statement of fact. I just want to shrink into the shell of my blanket.
My belly rumbles with heat, and I clutch my middle in pain. " Oh!" I gasp.
"Are you alright?"
"I have a little stomach ache."
Larry gets up from the couch and walks toward the kitchen. "Come have a pill."
I keep staring at my dad as I follow behind Larry. He doesn't look at me, and takes a very loud, deep breath. Then he wipes his face on his sleeve and lies down.
It's because of you, I hear my brain echo as a stab of emotion pierces through my heart. If only you weren't always getting yourself in trouble, he wouldn't always be so upset.
I sit down at the dining table as Larry rummages through the medicine cabinet and produces a bottle of magnesium trisilicate (and a bunch of other compounds that I don't know their names) syrup and a blister pack of Omeprazole.
As I take them, I hear her again. Look how well they take care of you. They love you, and you're just being a fucking failure.
They don't deserve this, do they?
No, they don't.
Why do you punish them so much?
I don't know.
What is wrong with you?
Tears fill my eyes as I swallow the capsule.
I don't know.
Larry tries making conversation with me, but I just can't seem to understand what he's saying. I'm just tired and frustrated. He keeps trying to get me to speak with him, but my voice won't comply.
"Anya?" he says in that way that suggests he's been talking for a while.
A wave of unexplainable irritation crashes over me. I push my chair away from the table and start walking out of the kitchen.
"Anya?" I hear Larry say with shock (although, at the time I couldn't really perceive this and interpreted it as a sort of threat, maybe). "What is going on with you?"
"Nothing!" I snap back. "Why don't you leave me alone?" I draw in a breath and clutch at my belly. The pain stabs at my upper abdomen and I let out a faint "gag".
My dad appears at the doorway, not saying anything. The pain fades and I attempt to straighten up. Big mistake.
I get stabbed harder this time; a hot, merciless jab from the inside. "Ah!" I whimper as my mouth fills up with a sort of sweet-tasting saliva. My mouth hangs open as it drips out of my mouth onto the kitchen tiles.
I stare at my feet as my dads stand around me, not know what to do.
"We're going to a hospital," my dad finally announces, leaving to get the car keys. As he does, my belly contracts violently sending all the water I just drank out onto the floor. I fall over on my knees l, still retching and groaning loudly.
"Anya stop!" Larry shouts at me. "Stop, you're scaring me."
But I can't stop. My body is literally lying and rolling in its own vomit. I keep retching painfully—there's nothing more to throw up!
"Got the keys! Let's go."
Larry picks me up off the floor and rushes me over to the car. In a minute, we're flying down the highway to the hospital at dangerous speeds late at night.
In fact, we have to be pulled over for speed limit violation. But they let us off because, duh, it's an emergency.
I'm taken to the ER where I'm put on some sort of saline IV and a bunch of other stuff I don't really remember. But yeah, after all the painful struggle, I eventually fall asleep.
Only to wake up again with more pain a few hours later, but yeah...
It's not good. I don't remember having another episode this bad except from that time I was eleven, and even then, it really wasn't this dramatic.