Petit Monde (Rye Beaumont)

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   “You’re all sweaty, are you okay?” she hunkers down in front of me, the panic in her voice palpable.

   “I .. I am really dizzy.” I reply, heaving.

   Madison immediately stands up and walks away, she comes back with a bottle of water and opens it for me.

   “Just sit on a chair for the meantime, I’ll call Mrs. Anderson to pick you up.” she says, as she assists me on getting up from the floor.

   “I am okay, Madison.” I utter, even though I wasn’t really okay. “I don’t want her to worry.”

   She looks at me and breathes out, “I am still calling your Mom.”

   “But –” I start to say as I sit down on a chair, but she just continues to walk to the counter whilst calling my Mom.

   I sigh and just put my head on my hands, guess my Mom was right about me having a relapse. Later on, Madison comes back and sits down on the chair across from me.

   “So I just spoke with your Mom and she said that since she’s at the hospital already, she’ll just call your friends to pick you up.” she says.

   “Friends?” I ask, does she mean the RoadTrip boys?

   “Yeah –” she stops when she saw a customer walking in. “I’ll be back.”

   She gets up from her chair and jogs towards the counter to attend to the customer. I just sit there, looking out the window and whilst doing so, I could see my surroundings palpably wavering; making me dizzier than I already am. After the customer had her drink, Madison comes back to the table and sits down in front of me.

   “How are you feeling?” she asks, biting her lip as she looks at me in concern.

   “Dizzy.” I reply, my voice slightly cracking

   She lets out a breath, “You could have told me.”

   “Told you what?” I furrow my eyebrows.

   “Well, that you just had a fever yesterday, if only I knew then I shouldn’t have asked you to come.” she replies.

   “It’s okay,” I smile at her weakly. “I was already feeling better anyways, I just have to take some rest.”

   We continue to talk whilst there aren’t much customers and later on, without even noticing the time that went by, Andy and Rye walk into the cafe.

   “You alright?” Andy asks, as the two of them walk towards the table where Madison and I are sitting.

   I nod, for the moment.

   “You look so pale though.” Rye says, looking at me in concern.

   “So, you two must be Alexandria’s friends.” Madison gets up from her chair and introduces herself to the two.

   “I am Andy.” Andy puts his hand out to her, which Madison shakes.

   “Rye.” Rye simply says and shakes her hand.

   Madison suddenly squeals, but covers her mouth afterwards.

   “I am so sorry, it’s just that I heard a lot about you.” Madison enthusiastically says, whilst looking at Rye.

   “Madison.” I breathe out as I look down.

   “Sorry.” she sheepishly says whilst smiling a little.

   “You are so red, mate.” Andy laughs, looking at his friend.

   I look at Rye and his face really is red, I stifle a smile and look up at Andy who is still teasing his friend.

   “Andy, stop messing with Rye, will you?” I say.

   “Okay okay,” Andy’s laugh slowly subsides. “I am going to stop now.”

   “Wait, I’ll just get her things real quick.” Madison says, before walking away.

   I get up from the chair, stumbling a bit as I did so but Rye immediately puts his arm around my waist for support.

   “Careful,” he utters. “are you still feeling dizzy?”

   “Um, kinda.” I reply quietly.

  Rye says something to Andy, before looking back at me.

   “Let’s go, Andy will just follow.” he keeps his arm around my waist as we walk out of the cafe and to their car.

   I sit at the back and Rye gently closes the door and goes to the driver’s seat.

   “Why did you go to work?” he asks, shifting on his side to look at me whilst we wait for Andy.

   “I, uh.. one of our co–workers didn’t go to work today so Madison was doing all the work by herself.” I answer sheepishly.

   He looks away and turns to the door to the passenger seat, as it opens and Andy climbs in.

   “I got your stuffs.” Andy says and passes the bag in between the two seats.

   “Thank you.” I reply, smiling a little as I take it from him.

   Rye asks us to put our seatbelt on, whilst he starts the engine and drives down the road. In just a couple minutes, we arrive at our house. As we walk up the stairs to the front door, I could hear Rae’s faint barks on the other side of the door.

   “Well, someone’s excited to see you.” Andy looks at me with a smile.

   I smile back at him and nod, Rye unlocks the door and lets me in first. As soon as it opens, Rae runs over and jumps from side to side.

   “Hi, baby girl.” I coo, ruffling her hair.

   I shower her with kisses, before standing up straight again; suddenly feeling dizzy as I did so. I lean against the wall for a few seconds and wait for the dizziness to fade away.

   “You really shouldn’t have went to work, Alexa.” Andy sighs and assists me to the Living room.

   I sit on the sofa, whilst he and Rye disappear to who knows where. As I wait for them, I start to shiver; it isn’t even that cold but it seems like there is a sudden change in temperature. I get up from the sofa despite of my dizziness and walk to the kitchen to get myself a glass of water. As I pour water into the glass, I suddenly feel weak; dropping the glass in my hands – scattering shard of glass across the floor. I feel myself fall, until everything goes black.