Troian Bellisario: Just Me & My Girl

There's Nothing Like the Flu

The Next Day
Troian's Pov

"Are you playing baseball?" I ask Aspen, trying to guess what she's acting out in our game of charades.

"No...I think that she's a ninja with a sword." Keegan says, giving Aspen a hopeful look.

"No!" Aspen laughs "Candy!"

"Asp you can't tell us what you're acting out!" I laugh "And you're not even supposed to talk!"

"I didn't tell you!" She giggles "Candy was your hint."

"Candy?" Keegan question "What does candy have to do with a ninja?"

"I'm not a ninja." Aspen laughs.

"Oh..." He replies, a look of realization washing over his face "Act out your thing again." She nods and puts her arms over her shoulder as if she's going to swing a baseball bat. She swings her arms foreword, then repeatedly pretends to hit something in front of her.

"A piñata!" I shout "You're hitting a piñata!"

"Yes!" Aspen exclaims "That's right mommy!"

"Man, it totally looked like you were a ninja with a sword." Keegan sighs.

"Well, she wasn't. Too bad, so sad. You lost, now it's my turn." I say jokingly. He just pouts sarcastically. After choosing what I'm going to act out, I stand up in the centre of the living room. I pretend to scuba dive, making swimming motions with my arms.

"A fish!" Aspen calls. I shake my head.

"Someone swimming?" Keegan questions. I chuckle before telling him no. After a few more guesses between the both of them, Keegan gets the answer right. He starts cheering loudly for himself, making me and Aspen laugh. Suddenly, standing up there in the middle of the living room, my stomach begins to churn. The horrible feeling surges through me like a wave, and I throw my hands over my mouth as I feel myself gag.

"You okay Troian?" Keegan asks skeptically. I don't answer, but instead keep my feet right where they are in hopes that the nausea will pass. After a few seconds which really feel like minutes, the gross feeling goes away enough for me to at least nod. I silently make my way to the couch and flop down, leaning my head back.

"Hey," Keegan says, scooting over next to me "You sure you're okay babe? You don't look like you feel too well."

I close my eyes and sigh, nodding "I'm fine."

"Okay," He replies quietly "We can take a little break if you want." I nod again, leaning on his shoulder. Taking deep breaths, I will the nausea to go away completely, wanting to be able to enjoy my time with Keegan and Aspen. After a few moments, the feeling leaves almost as quickly as it came. I sit up straight, exhaling loudly.

"I'm okay," I huff "Wanna keep playing?" They both nod, giving me uneasy looks. I just ignore them, telling Keegan that it's his turn to act out something. He cautiously stands up, eyeing me as if I'll suddenly wither away to nothing. I sigh, hating the pity he's taking upon me. It's not like I'm dying; the worst that could happen is me running to the bathroom to vomit.

~~~

I lean over the toilet, violently gagging as I throw up my dinner from no more than an hour ago. Funny how it tasted so good going in but so bad coming out. I hear footsteps behind me and feel my hair being pulled back out of my face. I would thank Keegan if I had the energy to. I collapse into a slumped over sitting position on the floor, too physically drained to get up.

"Hey, let's get you to bed." He sighs, gently pulling me up so I'm standing. I lean heavily against him, knowing I would have already fallen over if he wasn't there.

"I-I need to..." I trail off, pointing to the sink. Each word is almost painful to say. I grab my toothbrush and sloppily squirt some toothpaste on, hoping I won't throw up again as I run it through my mouth. After I'm done, Keegan leads me to my bed where I collapse on top of the blankets. He struggles to pull them out from underneath me, trying not to move me too much. I would help by moving until he's done, but I don't think I could get up if my life depended on it.

"There," Keegan huffs as he covers me with the duvet "Get some sleep. I'll make sure to get Aspen in bed on time and take Ella outside before she goes in her crate. You just get some rest and hopefully you'll feel better in the morning." After he kisses the top of my head, he quietly leaves the bedroom and closes the door with a low click. That's the last thing I think about before I'm asleep.

~~~

I open my eyes to see Keegan sleeping next to me. Sunlight streams through the window, casting long rays throughout the room. I can hear the low murmur of Aspen's cartoons from downstairs, and glance curiously at the clock on the wall. 8:36, not bad at all, at least for me. Considering that call times for filming are most often before sunrise and that I have a four year old, I'm not used to sleeping in very late. I've deemed staying in bed past eight as an accomplishment.

I sit up and rub my eyes, realizing that I no longer feel like puking my guts out. I let out a sigh of relief, glad that whatever little sickness I had has passed.

"Good morning beautiful." I hear Keegan's raspy morning voice say from beside me. I turn to face him, giggling at how tired he looks.

"What?" He questions tiredly.

"Nothing." I smile "I just love you." He pulls me so I'm laying down next to him again, his arms wrapped around me.

"I love you too." He says into my hair. For the next five minutes or so, we just lay there and enjoy each other's presence. It's so quiet that I can hear his heartbeat and both of us breathing, along with the added hum of cartoons from downstairs. Though it's nice to just lay in bed, I know I'll have to get up soon to see how Aspen's doing and make breakfast. Almost as if she knows I'm thinking about her, I hear the unmistakable sound of a little kid's bare feet against hardwood floor. The bedroom doors slowly creaks open, revealing my messy-haired and pajama-clad daughter. She cracks a huge smile seeing us and runs over to the bed, climbing up and wriggling her way in between Keegan and I.

"Good morning Princess." I chuckle, wrapping my arms around her.

"Good morning mommy," She replies happily "Good morning Keegan." He just hugs her the best he can with me already doing so, squishing Aspen between us. She giggles loudly, no doubt enjoying this.

"What do you say to some pancakes Asp?" I ask after a few minutes of cuddling.

"Yes please!" She says excitedly. I chuckle, before getting out of the comfy bed and making my way downstairs, the two most important people in my life following closely behind me.

I prepare the batter and begin to pour it onto the hot pan. It sizzles the second it makes contact, instantly creating the aroma of pancakes. Aspen and Keegan sit at the island preparing fruit, him cutting it and her putting it onto plates. The stack of pancakes on the plate beside me begin to grow, getting taller and taller each time I finish a new batch. Halfway through what I think will be the latch batch, I get that feeling again, that nauseous feeling. I drop the spatula to the floor as I run to the bathroom, reaching the toilet just in time to puke. I hear footsteps behind me as I begin to dry-heave, nothing left in my stomach from already puking last night. I guess whatever I have really isn't gone.