Her big brothers

Chapter 78: migraine

I stayed up a bit longer before going to bed. The next day, I woke up feeling awful. I had a pounding migraine, and my stomach felt queasy.

I snoozed my alarm and continued to sleep, hoping miraculously I'd feel better if I slept a bit longer. Eventually, Aiden woke me up.

"Emma, why aren't you up yet? You're gonna be late!" He scolds me, opening up my blinds. "How long were you even up last night?" He asks, turning towards me with a brow raised.

"Not long," I mumble incoherently, slowly sitting up, finding out that even doing that caused my head to ache.
"Yeah, sure." He scoffed, opening my door to leave. "Hurry up and get ready, even Cole's up,"
Someone's a crank.

I stumble to the bathroom, quickly realising how sick I actually was. I felt extremely dizzy, like I was gonna throw up. I decided to at least try and get ready. It was way more difficult than I had anticipated. Every movement was excruciating, and the bright morning sun peeking out my window made my head throb even more.

I slowly walked down the stairs, clutching my head. I collapse on one of the kitchen stools.
"Woah, what's wrong with you?" Cole snorts beside me.

"My head and stomach hurt," I mumble.
"Em, there you are. What do you want for breakfast?" Aiden asks me hurriedly. I swallow hard, trying to suppress the queasiness in my stomach. The thought of breakfast is very unappealing.

I was about to tell Aiden I didn't want anything, but Mason called him to the kitchen, and he left.
I got up and slowly walked to the kitchen, realising going to school would be challenging, and frankly stupid.

"Aid, I don't feel so good," I say, undermining how horrible I felt.
"Yeah? What's wrong?" He asks absent-mindedly, fixing himself a cup of coffee, not even looking at me.
"I have a migraine and my stomach feels horrible," I say, truthfully.

He turns to me and I see him roll his eyes. "I know what this is about,"
"What?" I snap.
"The test. You're not skipping school over it. You'll be fine, Emma." He said, shaking my concerns off, turning back to his coffee.

My eyes widen. Does he really not believe me? "Aiden, I'm not lying. I feel like I'm gonna throw up. I can't go," I beg, hoping he understands that I'm not just trying to play hooky.

"Emma, I've heard this excuse before. I was in High school too, you know? I'm not letting you skip this test. If your head hurts, take some ibuprofen or something,"

With that, Aiden sent us off, and I was sitting in the car, trying to not throw up. I had reluctantly forced down a banana, for breakfast, realising that having something to eat, even if it was just a banana, was better than nothing at all. I was now slowly regretting that decision.

"You look awful," Cole says bluntly, sounding concerned.
"Well, that's what I was trying to tell Aiden how I felt all morning," I say, clutching my stomach as we go over a speed bump.

"Why didn't he let you stay back home?" He asks me, unaware of the unsuccessful conversation I had with him this morning.

"Cause he was convinced I just wanted to skip my test," I grumble.
He chuckles nervously. "Probably my fault. I used that excuse a bunch,"
"Great," I respond sarcastically.

The loud, busy school hallways didn't help with my migraine. Once I made it to my class and stumbled to my seat, I was dreading the prospect of spending six more hours there.

During class, my nausea reached its peak, it was taking everything in me to not throw up.  Just when it felt unbearable, the teacher called on me.

"Emma, are you alright? You look like you're gonna throw up," She says worriedly, walking up to me.
"I-I feel like I am," I say, covering my mouth.
"Do you think you can make it to the nurse's office?" She asks me, and I nod.
She looks to the boy next to me, Zach. "Zach, could you please help her to the nurses' office?"