The New American Dream

Part Four: Amsterdam | Chapter Thirty-Three

The next morning you could have thought I had been the one drinking the night prior. As well as my stomach had behaved the day before, now it was just going feral.

I woke up with the immediate need to puke and just dashed for the bathroom, I made it just in time and emptied my stomach. That was followed by intense stomach cramps, so by the time Cassie had woken up due to me making a ruckus and had found me, I was a whimpering mess on the bathroom floor, with tear stains all over my cheeks and pajamas.

"Holy fuck, Allie!" she exclaimed and knelt down next to me, her hands on my shoulders.

"My medication," I whimpered, I felt like I was dying. To be honest, I over-dramatized things when I felt uncomfortable but my stomach really did hurt a lot.

Cassie dashed from the room and dug through my backpack, after what felt like a little eternity she hurried back into the bathroom, handing me both pill bottles and a bottle of water.

It took thirty minutes for the medication, at least the one for the stomach, to start working, but in reality if felt way longer. Cassie sat down next to me and calmingly rubbed little circles into my back, telling me it would get better any moment in a low and calm voice. I was incredibly grateful for her, the feeling almost overwhelmed me once my stomach stopped hurting.

"Jesus Christ woman, don't scare me like that," Cassie said with a little laugh once I was finally able to move again.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to."

"I know," Cassie replied warmly and helped me get to my feet. "Alright, tell me what you ate yesterday."

"Uh, you were with me for breakfast and lunch and then I ate a bag of chips and Dan and I got Burger King at midnight."

"Okay, I will definitely watch over what you're eating today."

"Why? I didn't eat anything particularly bad."

"I don't want to have to wake up to this again when my own head feels like it's exploding," she told me.

Only then I remembered that she had been at least somewhat drunk the night before. She truthfully didn't look all that good.

"And you're taking your medication, no matter if you're feeling good or not. Maybe that was just a reaction of you not taking it," Cassie added.

"Alright, alright. I don't want to repeat this either..." I still felt a little dizzy and my stomach felt strangely hollow. "But..."

"No but!" Cassie protested.

"No, listen to me. Dan and I want to go to the Van Gogh museum. I would prefer it if we could go alone, you know," I said shyly, blushing again.

Cassie's lips curled into a grin but her eyes were full of love. "I see. I can make an exception, if Dan takes care of it. I'll take care of making sure you'll be alone."

"Thank you so much," I said relieved.

"Alright. Good. No that that's taken care of and we're both up we should probably get ready. You lie down on your bed again, I'll shower first," she ordered.

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"I really don't feel like doing my makeup, my head hurts," Cassie complained a good hour later.

I had also showered and cultivated myself and was currently doing my own makeup. "You know, if you want me to do your makeup you could just ask."

Cassie laughed. "That's not what I meant. But I wouldn't turn it down."

I rolled my eyes and finished my makeup. That day I didn't feel like doing any super elaborate makeup, for obvious reasons, so I kept it simple; foundation, concealer, powder and bronzer, then eyebrows, a little eyeliner and mascara. That had to suffice. I even skipped lipstick and just put on a tinted chapstick.

"Alright baby, sit down," I told Cassie and made space for her.

She took a look at me as she sat down. "Whatever you did with your face, do me up. I don't want to be plastered with makeup today either."

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"Are you coordinating your makeup or something?" Nate asked when we arrived for breakfast. The sitting order we had established on our first day was still going.

"Let me guess, Allie you did Cassie's makeup," Dan said with a smile towards me.

I nodded. "Yup. We were both not feeling great and didn't want our faces to be caked with layers of makeup. But I guess we didn't want to look like zombies either."

Nate's head perked up immediately. "What do you mean you don't feel great?"

"I found her whimpering on the bathroom floor," Cassie said like it was no big deal at all and bit heartily into her croissant.

Three boys looked at me with wide eyes.

"Well, my stomach decided that yesterday it was okay to behave but only if it could repay me for it today," I explained. "I woke up and had to throw up, then I had really bad stomach cramps."

"Jesus Christ..." Nate mumbled.

"But you're better now?" Dan asked concerned.

I nodded. "Yeah. Pretty much. I took my medication again and have strict orders from nurse Parker here that I keep taking it."

Cassie nodded at that remark. "And I will be watching over what she's eating. She needs to eat enough and drink enough," she said, we had rehearsed the following conversation. Cassie thought it was a way of getting Dan and me privacy.

"You're going to have to come with Dan and me today then," I told her as casually as possible, while I got my sketchpad and a pencil out.

"What do you mean?"

I bit into my own croissant and added a few little details to my drawing from the park. "Dan and I want to go to the Van Gogh museum."

"Oh, well. As much as I enjoy art, I don't really want to look through an entire museum," Cassie said, she was great at acting apparently. "And somehow I feel like the others aren't really interested either."

"No problem, we can go on our own. I'm sure Dan can look after my eating and drinking habits." I joked without looking up from my drawing.

"Well alright, you do that then," Cassie said and then immediately engaged the boys in a conversation of what they could be doing today instead.

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Madame Tussaud's was like I had imagined it. Kind of interesting but mostly repetitive. Sure it was crazy to see how well people could make things out of wax but it got somewhat boring after a while. I had been the the one in Los Angeles a few years back so I had seen the best of it already. We walked through the museum rather quickly, as we all had different plans, but we did remember to vlog here and there. I was happy when it was over though.

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So, this chapter is a little short. I cut a scene from it because I didn't like it and then it ended up so short, I really don't know what else to do with it though. I hope the next chapters will satisfy you instead ;D