𝙁𝙖𝙫𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙚 𝙎𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙧

31

She's hugging her knees to her chest, she's crying, shaking, her breathing is ragged, and she's pale.

My heart cracks, and then it shatters because I've never seen her like this before.

I shut the door behind me and crouch down by her. "Can I touch you?" I ask her. I don't think her mind is in the right state and I don't want her to mistake me for someone else if I touch her.

But she nods, so I sit down and open my legs wide enough to move her where she's now huddled up in between my legs. Her back to my chest and my chin on her head.

"Can you tell me what happened?" I ask her softly, wrapping my arms around her in a protective manner.

She takes a shaky breath in, a hiccup cutting her off as she takes another one. "I- I uhm-" A hiccup. "I don't-he-I can't-Please don't hate me." She fumbles over her words.

"I could never hate you, okay. Try and take a deep breath with me, okay?" I feel her nod.

"In." I instruct, taking a deep breath in and I think she does the same.

"And out." I say after a moment. We keep doing that process for a few moments and I think it made her hiccups go away but she's still crying and slightly shaking.

"My stomach hurts." She chokes out.

"Like you need to vomit hurts or it just simply hurts."

She doesn't answer, but in a flash she's on her knees, the toilet lid is up, and she's vomiting. I get behind her and grab all of her hair and make a makeshift ponytail so it's not in her face and then use my free hand to rub her back.

I don't know what happened, what she ate, what she took, but I'm doing my best to be here for her.

She comes back up and inhales a sharp breath. She starts shaking her head as she chants the words "I'm sorry" over and over again.

"Don't apologize, just take your time." I soothe.

"I didn't-" Her sentence is cut off when she hunches over the toilet bowl and starts vomiting again.

A wise decision would be to also call her mom but there's a possibility she doesn't want me to do that.

"Do you want me to call your mom?" I ask. She shakes her head no and I sigh.

What did you do Vee?

After a moment I think she's finally done so I move to get up and grab a rag out of the closet to wipe her mouth.

By now she's back into the corner where the bathtub meets the wall with her knees up to her chest. Her eyes are droopy, opening and closing like she's about to fall asleep. "You can't go to sleep just yet." I keep my voice soft as I wipe around her mouth.

I toss the rag in the laundry basket before grabbing her face in my hands. "Can you stay awake for me while I go get you a glass of water?" I brush a few hairs out of her face as she nods.

"I'm going to need words on this."

"Yes." She whispers.