Purple Velvet: Diaries of a Rainbow Teen

13

Fri 14 Jul 1995
Hey Journal,
    Its me Jessie  again. I got a call from Tori before she went off to the coast. She invited me and Alex to come with since they have a house that's huge there with its own private beach. Alex's mom and mine agreed as long as we minded Beth and Mark and were nice to Stephanie and James their kids. Then we were told that James who's 18 is driving with his friends down to a rented place before he starts college. Stephanie is coming with her friends. They all sat in the back of the van giggling to each other and listening to their CD players.
    Beth and Mark packed an ice chest full of cokes, sandwiches, chips, red grapes and chocolate chip cookies. Tori was sitting in the front row of seats behind Mark and Beth and she smiled as i hurried in, pulling my bag in beside me.
    Alex was next and she dragged her bag in but had to have help with it. Once we were on the road Mark tried to ask us questions on how long we've known Tori. I answered most of them while Alex sat listening to her CD player and clapping her hands. One of Stephanie's friends laughed at her and whispered, "Dork." At Alex but she was so in her own world that she didn't hear or notice.
As we were driving we all smelled something. As Tori only needs diapers during seizures, when she's sick, or sleeping, or on a long trip and she can say if she has to go to the bathroom we all knew it was Alex. Tori said, "Oh Alex." Before Alex opened her mouth and spewed all over herself. "Yuck." Stephanie said before Alex started to cry, and spew again and again. "Oh eew gross." Said one of Stephanie's friends. "We hadn't even eaten our food and suddenly I wasn't hungry anymore.
Mark had to pull over and Beth had to take Alex into a bathroom in a gas station to change. "Can I get some help here?" Asked Mark as I looked over and saw puke all over the floor around where Alex was sitting. By the luck of God she didn't get it on her CD player which had slipped into the door. Then tori screamed. Alex had thrown up on her.
She started to hum and tap her leg which wasn't covered in puke. "Eew eew, oh my God, eew she, she threw up on me." "Eew!" "Tori its ok, calm down, take a breath." "It smells." She said softly whimpering a bit, "I would be freaking out if it was me." Said Stephanie.
"And there's puke on the seat." "It's vinyl so its easily cleaned. Beth came back without Alex and started pulling out towels and wipes and stuff. Tori was squirming and freaking out but trying to keep herself calm. "Tori needs to be cleaned up too." Said Mark, "Alex threw up on her." "Eeew eew, Its on me, its on me." Said Tori starting to really freak out, "Its going to make me sick." She gagged and Beth had her unbuckled from her seat in no time.
They were all gone and I with more vision than Tori was able to help clean things up, though I had to take a break because the smell made me gag. Then a ton of air freshener was sprayed around and it started to smell better.
Finally the three of them came out of the bathroom. Alex was crying softly, Tori was still upset, and Beth was tired and upset. "We're almost there." Said Mark with a heavy sigh, before he said a bad word.
"Alex." He said trying to keep himself from yelling, "Can you tell if you are going to throw up?" "I put one of Tori's diapers on her, just in case." Said Beth, "I don't know." Said Alex, "You can't tell if you need to be sick?" Asked Mark. "Better give her a bucket then." Said Beth, "I think we still have one in the trunk from when we laid down some gravel last week."
We drove on and Alex was sick in the bucket twice before we got to the coast. Changed and feeling better with fresh clothes on Tori was calmer now and jumped out of the van when it stopped, "We're here Jess." She said.
Alex was put to bed after a long call to Alex's mother who said she'd be down to pick Alex up since after Beth checked her temperature Alex was running a fever. The last thing we needed was for Tori or I to get sick.
Everyone else felt better as we sat down on the beach to eat our picnic as Beth watched Alex. She cried when she was told she was going home. I heard her as we came back from the beach sandy and feeling great.
"I don't want to go home." Said Alex, "But you're sick, you don't want everyone else to get sick do you?" "no." Wailed Alex, "But I want to stay." She kept crying and wouldn't calm down so Beth had to leave her there to cry while she helped Tori take a shower. Alex's mom came to get her and she apologised to Beth and Mark, "I don't know what made her do that." "She's not allergic to anything we know of." "thanks for taking care of her." Alex had another full blown temper tantrum before she was put screaming back into the car as they drove off.
We all went out to a seafood restaurant. Good thing Alex wasn't here. I can be picky but was able to at least eat some of the clam chowder from this place called Mo's while Alex would have wanted a burger or something. It's time for bed so I'm going to stop writing.