• Troublesome • Rhett x Reader •

• Chapter Twenty •

"And so, I took all of his bullshit- his phone, his wallet, belts, etcetera- and tossed them in the washer. Then, of course, I took some super glue and glued his lips shut while he was crashed on this couch. When he woke up, I said 'I'd like to see you talk them bitches up now'." Everyone's clearly amused. Everyone loves a good payback story. Even if it's completely fabricated.

After the giggling dies down, another friend of hers (I think her name is Chloe?) speaks up over someone who starts coughing up a lung.

"So, you work for Rhett and Link, right?" She smiles, her single-wire braces flashing with her smile.

"Oh, yeah." She looks at me for a moment before returning her gaze to Chloe. "(Y/n) and I both do."

"That's cool, that's so cool." She smiles from her to I. "You should invite them here. I have a big thing for Link."

I suddenly have to stop myself from laughing right in her face. If he's anything like Rhett, I'm sure she'd change her mind.

No. I know how people like her are.

"Yeah, Nicole, you should." I tease. "Then again, do you think two 40 year olds would want to kick it with a bunch of young, hip adults?" I attempt to deflect my passive aggressiveness in my previous statement with sincerity.

"They basically do that at the studio." She smirks, digging around in her purse, and finally pulling out her phone. "I'll call them."

"Do Link first." Chloe practically glows in excitement. I'm both surprised and not surprised that Nicky's entertaining her little request in the first place. After all, she almost shanked me for even implying I had a thing for Rhett. Bullshit.

"Y'all have fun. I'm gonna head upstairs." I stand up, a sudden wave of nausea floods over me, and a coldness settles on my skin. My leg aches. It does that sometimes, but now it's just inconvinient. All I'm thinking about as I slowly make my way down the hall is whether or not I'll make it up the stairs before I upchuck this chocolate splooge.

Finally, I open the bathroom door in a rush, but stumble to a hault when I see a guy ramming a girl on the counter. Dizziness slowly eases over my head like goo. I manage to mutter "come on, that's her new marble counter" before dragging myself like a zombie up to the bedroom across the way, this time knocking first. No answer. I slowly open the door and am relieved to find it empty.

"Well why the hell are you guys fucking in there when there's a bedroom right... here..." I fall back-first onto the neatly made sheets, feeling my mind oozing in and out of awareness. I've had panic attacks, I've fainted, but I've never experienced this before. Not ever.

Of course, some aspects of it are familiar. The deafness. The fading vision. But the hypersensitivity of my senses is new. The soft sheet of the bed tingles against the exposed skin of my arms and calves.

My clammy hands fumble for my phone, somewhere in my pockets... Somewhere...

The car. I must've left it in the fucking car. I don't feel my keys either.. What the... Where's my stuff?I lift my head, eyes wide open, yet unable to see anything clearly.

"This is bad." I groan. "This is so bad. Bad bad bad.... Mmm." I trail off into another bout of unconsciousness.

I hear the bang of the door opening, and moaning. I come to, opening my eyes a bit, and catch a glimse of Jackie and Nicky making out, completely sucking face so much that I'm apparently not in their sights.

"Can... You two... Stop... And..." My voice is brittle and airless. "Fucking... Help me...."

"Oh, Jesus Christ, what the hell?!"  Nicole leaps out of Jackie's arms and rushes to my side, pulling me upright by my arms, to which I flop right back onto the bed like a wet noodle. "Are you having heat stroke again? Are you wearing too many layers?"

"No, I... I don't know what's happening." I turn my head to it's side, looking up at her dim face. "How long have... I been up here..."

"You disappeared like an hour ago." She slides the hairband out of her hair and ties mine back sloppily. That's when i realize I must've thrown up all over her comforter at some point, seeing a pile of bile a few feet from my head.

"Oh... I'm so sorry.... I'll... Give you... Some money for that...." I muster up.

"She needs a hospital." The urgentness makes her words sharp. "Shit. I knew i should've gotten a car. Shit." She weeps. Actually weeps.

"No hospital. I just want to go home."

She sits up and looks at Jackie, who's standing in the doorway, looking lost.

"Link drove here right? Ask him if he can drive us to the hospital." She turns back to me.

"She said no hospital, Nicky, she's-"

"Go fucking ask him." She repeats, fanning my face.

Being able to keep conscious for this long must mean I'm coming down ever so slightly. But I'll take anything at this point.

"Just take me home... Please. I can't afford... the... Hospital..."

While that's sort of true, the reality is that the hospital freaks me the heck out. I've nursed myself ouy of situations like this on several occasions just to avoid going to the hospital.

She stares at me, in deep thought. After a moment she closes her eyes and nods.

"Fine."

"Link's starting up the car. Let's get her out." Jackie reappears in the doorway.

"I'll give him her address." Nicky says, sliding her arm under my armpit. "Let's get this show on the road."

The face waiting for me at the bottom of the steps nearly makes me fall to my knees again. It doesn't help when I feel him take me into his arms. Rhett adjusts me against his chest, holding my weight.

I feel another wave of nausea hit me, and i begun struggling to turn my head away from him.

"What're you-"

I throw up all over the concrete. More brown bile splattering and leaking into the grass. The hotness of it stings my throat.

"Ugh...." I groan, and thank the gods that Rhett couldn't see the stomach substance past my shivering body.

I hear Nicole's muffled voice from behind us.

"The fudge. My fudge? No... Drew's fudge. Fuck. I'm gonna kick his ass." She sounds pissed, but I'm too out of it to speak again. Instead, I just allow my eyes to flutter closed as I feel the world spin around me.

"Hang in there..."