Sprinkling Fling ✓

25.

I give up.

After being pushed against the wall and collapsing, I stay on the floor. I can't find the strength to stand up right now.

The room around me is spinning. I feel nauseous even more than I was before.

I think I—

Before I give it a second more of my thoughts, I feel the contents of my stomach come up. Quickly I scramble myself together and get on my knees, one hand covering my mouth. Clumsily, I push myself into one of the toilet stalls, a different one than I was before.

I fall to my knees again. This time instead of dry-heaving, I actually throw up. I'm one of those people that always cries when throwing up; it naturally happens. It just makes me feel more miserable.

As I'm emptying the contents of my stomach, I feel someone rush up to me from behind. They gather my hair, moving it out of my face and holding it in a makeshift ponytail. A hand comes to rest on my upper back, softly stroking my bare skin.

I can feel it is Del's big hand as I'm hunched over the toilet—my arms are resting on the toilet seat.

"Shh, it's okay, darling." He whispers as I pathetically cry. "I've got you."I groan miserably before I feel more coming up.

He acts like the perfect guy while I am disgustingly throwing up my guts.

"I'm s-sorry for ruining the night," I whine.

I flush the toilet. The sight in front of me only got me more nauseous.

Del senses I'm done puking, so he sits back against the wall and pulls me to sit in between his legs. Both his arms wrap around my waist, tightly holding me against his chest.

"You didn't ruin anything tonight. I'm happy you let yourself go—you seemed to be having fun."

"I did." I hiccup, "at least until I ran into h-her."

"What did she do?" He asks, now worried, "when I saw her come out of the restroom with that evil-conniving smile on her face, I knew she did something, so I rushed inside here, only to find you in this state." He says to me softly, but I can sense the anger, "so what did she do?" he presses again.

"I just—I think—I ugh..." I struggle. Now thinking of it, I feel even more embarrassed about the whole thing that went down. Throwing up made me feel a little better and also soberer. I'm still not perfectly in the right mind, but my mind is definitely less clouded, "I forgot about everything and came to give her a hug. She d-didn't—she wasn't too happy about that."

I pause, having to recall the moment again."She threw her pink drink all over my white dress and then pushed me into the wall, and I fell," I say, my bottom lip slightly quivering. I don't want to cry again, but I feel so emotional tonight.

I feel him tense against me. He is not liking what I'm saying.

"Fuck." He grits through his teeth. "This is not acceptable. She cannot just do that. We need to find her."

He goes to stand up and pulls me up with him.

"No, no, we don't. It's fine." I say. I have turned around to face him now. My hands naturally rested on his chest.

"Of course, we have to. You need to stand up for yourself, show Tamara that she can't treat you like this," Del looks me in the eyes before he whispers, "not anymore."

I toy with his bowtie avoiding looking at his face.

"I don't know. Tamara still scares the hell out of me, and I don't want my night to be ruined fully by her. I also am not drunk enough anymore to have the courage to do something like that." I say and look back up at him, "I need at least two more shots for that." I add.