So You Used to Be Human - Book 3 (Original Version)

Chapter 32: A Girl's Life

"I'd like to introduce you to a friend of mine," Sammy said and she gave the King a very aggressive middle finger. "Oops, I'm sorry, it's just my fucking middle finger!"

"You don't have to be so hostile--"

"Wait! He's got a friend!" Sammy shoved both middle fingers into the King's face. "And they're both yelling fuck you buddy!"

The King just shook his head and remained silent.  Sammy sat back, satisfied that her message had been delivered.  She nodded towards the listening horizon.

"You better drive faster or I'm going to leave your ass in the sun to get toasty."

***

Jaime woke up sometime after midday.

It was the pounding head that convinced her that she needed to be awake and upright as soon as possible, because lying down was about to be a lot more uncomfortable, especially if the taste of bile in the back of her throat and that rush of saliva was any indication. It usually meant she was about to hurl very unfashionably all over whatever surface she was lying on and she had no intention of doing that. Having gone on several benders over the years, she had become attuned to certain warning signs from her body and as a result had perfected the ability to always make it to the bathroom on time and never ever puke on herself. She had never been able to understand how other people just didn't know when they were going to puke and always seemed to embarrass themselves or make a mess of wherever they were. In her experience that rush of saliva in the back of throat meant only one thing, and that was to haul ass to the bathroom and to gather up her hair in one hand and tie it back if she could. Puke in the hair was the last thing anyone ever wanted to deal with.

Countless taxi cabs and friend's cars had been spared the indignity of having her dinner splashed across their varied surfaces. Jaime considered herself to be a national fucking treasure.

So when she woke up, the taste of balche still strong in her mouth and her memory, and there it was, that first warning sign, she had rolled off the bed like a champ, steadied herself on her wobbly legs that threatened sudden but inevitable betrayal of the most heinous kind and had somehow managed to stumble forward, trying to find the nearest door in what was obviously a motel room.

The why or the how the hell she got there wasn't important at the moment, just that it was a motel room and since bathrooms tended to be located in the same place in every motel room she had ever been in, it made finding it a lot easier.

She made it to the toilet just in time and spent the next two minutes worshipping ye ol' porcelain god is a very determined manner.

She realized that it had not even been a week ago that she had been in a very similar motel room in a state close to death and Bob had been there holding her hair out of the way for her while she had trembled at the spasms in her stomach as her body ejected pretty much everything it didn't want, which was essentially everything.

Now Bob was gone and all she could think about was how to get him back... especially now that he wasn't there to hold her hair out of the way while she puked. It was those little gestures that showed he cared that had drawn her to him in the first place because he could be so considerate, and she missed it despite all of the huge ways he had chosen to be a complete fuck up.

"Oh good: you're up," Sammy said from outside the doorway, and Jaime whipped around, startled at not having heard Sammy enter. "How are you feeling this morning?"

"Like the Lochness monster took a shit in my mouth," Jaime spat into the toilet and then flushed. She got up to wash her mouth out. "What the hell was in that drink anyway?"