I felt better after talking to Nick, but I was still worried in general. I couldn’t shake the general sense of uneasiness and stress that followed me around every waking minute. Which were gradually increasing in number. I had struggled with insomnia for the better part of the last two years, and after numerous behaviour therapy sessions, meditation classes, and breathing techniques, I had managed to get it under control with minimal medication. I had brought enough sleeping medication with me from England to last me the whole year, but I had started using it more and more often. And still I was getting less and less sleep, tossing and turning at night and it started showing during the day.
I yawned loudly and closed my eyes briefly before class started.
“You look horrible, baby,” I heard Nick say.
I opened my eyes. “Why, thank you. Compliments are always welcome.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I didn’t sleep last night.”
“Thinking of me all night? Understandable.”
“No, you prat. I have insomnia.”
“I can think of a way to get you tired out.”
“Do you think you can put your hormones on hold for just one goddamn minute? Stop being a git, Nick. I really have insomnia.”
“Really? You should skip today, go home and get some sleep.”
“I can’t sleep, that’s the whole bloody problem!” I snapped. “If I could, I would have slept the past four nights wouldn’t I have?”
“Jesus, calm down, I’m trying to help!”
“Recommending to an insomniac that they try to get some sleep is not helpful, Nick. If anything it’s impertinent.”
“Why are you being such a bitch?” Nick asked, angered.
“If you hadn’t been able to sleep for four days and then someone told you that you’d better get some sleep, you’d be bitchy too. Just leave me alone Nick.”
“I will. Tell me when you’ve finished being a bitch and can have a normal conversation again!”
I sighed. As soon as I got a few hours sleep I would be fine. My insomnia wasn’t usually this bad. Since we moved it had been so bad that I had used all the sleep medication I had brought from England that usually lasted me the year. I pinched the bridge of my nose in an effort to make myself focus somewhat. No chemist would give me my sleeping pills without a prescription; they were too strong to just be handed over, which meant that I had to go to a doctor to get a prescription so I could finally sleep again.
As we got out of class I spotted Jack in the corridor. “Jack!” I shouted. He looked my way, stopping a conversation with a girl who had a horrible crush on him. She looked at me with daggers in her eyes as Jack came over to me.
“Jack, I need you to take me to a doctor after school.”
“Can’t you get Nick to take you? I’m getting coffee with Caroline here.” He said, nodding at the girl who was still next to me.
“No, Nick is being a prat because I snapped at him last hour. Apparently, those of us who suffer from insomnia should just try to get some sleep and when we, for some strange reason, can’t, we should be charming about it. I don’t need this, Jack. I need enough heavy drugs to knock me out for a night’s sleep so I can function properly again.”
“Didn’t you bring a year’s supply with you?”
“Yes. That unfortunately, is gone already. Is there any conceivable reason why I would ask you to take me to get medicine if I already had it? Stop arguing with me! I need those pills and I need them today. So cancel your little coffee date with little Miss English-accents-make-me-swoon and take me to the doctor after school! I’m sure she’ll still be more than willing to push back her grandmother’s funeral to get coffee with you anytime. It would be preferable to my funeral, which is a definite possibility considering the severity of my insomnia.”
“Gemma, you can still be civil, even if you haven’t slept for a couple of nights.”
“A couple of nights! Try four! Four! That’s a couple times two! Swiftly becoming five nights if you refuse to help me. Exacerbated by the last two months of sleeping poorly! Doctors recommend eight hours sleep in every twenty-four hour period. I’ve been awake for over one hundred hours! I don’t need you all bitching at me, just because I’m a tad bitchy because of serious lack of sleep! In case you haven’t noticed, heavy bags under my eyes, lack of concentration, fatigue, and extreme irritability all point to a serious case of insomnia! My short-term memory is going to pieces, I can’t remember a thing we’ve learned in the past two days. I’m going into microsleep sporadically, luckily not while I’ve been in motion yet, but that’s only a matter of time. Sleep deprivation is still considered a form of torture you know! I’ll sue you under the Geneva Conventions if you don’t stop being a prat and help me!”
“Okay, okay, calm down, Gemma. I’ll take you,” Jack relented. His want-to-be girlfriend huffed unhappily. “Do you have an appointment?”
“No. But how many people in this tiny, god-forsaken town can be ill at once? I’m an emergency that doesn’t take long to diagnose and even shorter to treat. It’ll be fine.”
“Fine. I’ll meet you by the car after school.”
“Directly after school. And thank you.”
Jack took me to the doctor and just as I had predicted, there was hardly anyone there, so it wasn’t long before I had a new prescription for three months supply of medication going by my new intake. A stop by the chemist quickly saw the pills in my hands, and we were home before five-thirty that evening.
“Thank you, Jack. I’m going to bed, all right? I have sleep to catch up on.”
“Yeah. Sleep well. And sorry I put up a fight about taking you. I didn’t know how bad it was getting. You already used up your whole year’s supply?”
“Well, I didn’t get it so badly in London. I’ve been having to take double the dosage almost every night since we got here.”
“Is everything all right, Gem?”
“Sure. Everything’s brilliant. I have no real friends, the people are generally insufferable, and my boyfriend won’t stop making sexual innuendos, even when I’m fatigued from insomnia. Couldn’t be better.” I sighed. “I’ll be better after some sleep, Jack. Who knows, I might even sleep so deeply that I’ll sleep through this year. Good night.”
“Night, Gemma.”
YOU ARE READING
Unexpected Love
Teen FictionSenior year in a new school and new country. The local teenage god calls first dibs on Gemma, but ends up frustrated, actually caring about her. Is it enough? You always find love in the places you least expect it and you aren't always loved back.
