The show must go on

Chapter 29 - back on the road

But it takes time. As is often the case, we sit here for several hours without my stomach really settling down, and that despite the fact that nothing has been in it for a long time.

"Should I call the doctor?", Perrie asked me after a while, but I just shook my head. This is now, as much as it sucks, everyday life. It's normal for me to be and feel like this sometimes. A doctor can't really help.

Perrie put up with it, but with time steadily ticking away, she made a decision.

"Sam, we can't make eight o'clock," I hear her say stressed on the phone.

"No...she's not feeling well, we can't even get off the toilet right now because she's so sick. She can't spend five hours on the bus like this."

"Pez, I can handle it. I can throw up on the bus too," I try to say jokingly, but she just gives me a stern look. 

"I'll get back to you when we're ready," she says into her phone again. "No, I'm not discussing that either...Sam, we had an agreement....I don't care about that at all, I..." but she stops as she sees me retching again.

"I have to go, I'll call you," and without waiting for a response, she puts the phone aside and is beside me within seconds.

It takes a long time to really settle me and my stomach. And accordingly we arrive many hours later than planned.

"Sorry, guys," I say awkwardly, but Leigh-Anne quickly stands next to me, puts an arm around my shoulders and says, "Oh, don't worry about it. It gave us a chance to sleep in."

"Yeah, actually we should thank you," Jesy joins in and we laugh narrowly before re-entering the bus.

"You wanna go straight to your bunk?", Perrie asks me and admittedly my eyelids are far too heavy and I would love nothing more than to sleep through the entire journey, but still I shake my head.

"This bunk is so terribly uncomfortable."

"Then what do you want to do?"

"Can we just lie on the couch and watch a Disney film?", I ask, wide-eyed and pouty, which makes Perrie grin widely.

"Of course, Baba," she says with bright eyes.

"May we join you?", I hear Leigh's cautious voice.

"You don't even have to ask," I quickly clarify.

We cavort on the big corner couch in front of the TV, I snuggle into Perrie's arms.

"Five hour drive means there'll be definitely two movies, right?" Leigh says happily.