A Plus In Love

*In Sickness and Health*

“I let you get about half an hour in.  My dad is going to be home soon and I’d rather you not meet him just yet. He is a real piece of work. I’ll walk you home.” I followed him down stairs and back to my house, but instead of leaving me at the door he just came right in.

“Hello Giles, Nice to see you again.” My mother was in the living painting rocks. It was her stress reliever.  We had a backyard littered with them. “You staying for dinner again? I”m making sloppy joes with mac and cheese!”

“That sounds great!” He followed me up to my room, just as I had him a few hours before. I kicked off my shoes, grabbed my comfortable clothes and changed in the bathroom. When I came out he was on my bed. I had a king size bed, after my parents decided a california king was better fit for them. If I didn’t he wouldn’t have fit. He almost stretched across the entire thing.  “Can I ask you something without you getting ...lost again?”

He has seen the worst it could be, so I didn’t think anything he could ask could make it unbearable. I sat next to his feet and put on off my few remaining stuffed animals in my lap before I gave him the go ahead.

“He mentioned something about ‘getting another one with your virginal story’. What does that mean?” Oh, well that not that bad at all.

“He said it  to be an ass but it not that complicated. My grandmother got pregnant in high school, my aunt, my mother. So  I decided that there was no way in hell I was going to carry on that tradition and the best way to do that is not have sex. How that is supposed to ‘catch em’ I have no idea. So yeah it’s pretty simple.”  He sat up and looked at me, really looked at me.

“So your a virgin?”

“Surprised?  You shouldn’t be, you know all the guys in school, they ever talk about getting with the fat chicks? No. They all talk about banging Melanie and her group and that’s fine by me. Makes it easy to keep it on lock.”  All the sudden this conversation was making me nervous. I didn’t want to talk about how desirable I was with the one guy in school I did desire.

“So have you ever do anything?” He looked at me like I was an Alien. I threw the stuffed Can of Dr. Pepper at him but he caught it with ease, of course. “I’m being serious.”

“Are you a virgin?” Very childish, but I was feeling the pressure and I didn’t like it.

“No.” His statement was simple. Of course he wasn’t . “I’ve done more than I’m proud to admit.” He looked away. I wanted to reach up and hold his face, but it didn’t feel like I could.  I didn’t know what we were really doing here. Was this just an assignment or where we really becoming friends?

“Hey, I’ve done things. Very close to it things.” Why was I telling him this. I got up off the  bed. I need to be away from him and maybe change the conversation.  I took a breath and he was behind me. “Hey, we should take some more pictures for a viewable scrapbook.”  I took a step back and pressed into him as he held up his phone. We both smiled and took a few pictures.  My mom was more than willing to help with ideas and by dinner time we had posted about ten really cheesy couple poses.  He ate about 6 sloppy joes and three helpings of mac and cheese before downing his second glass of tea and sighing with contentment.

“Thank You Mrs Beaumont. It was delicious. I’ll do the dishes.”  And he did. He rinsed off the dishes and I loaded the dishwasher. At last we were at the door for goodnight. After one last photo he grasped my arm. “I’m glad we decided to do this, it’s a lot of fun being with you.”

“Aw, hubs your so sweet. See you in the morning.”  I went upstairs, took a shower and went to bed. I jarred awake at one twenty six am with a migraine bursting out of my right eye.  I pulled out my migraine prescription and gulped down the water beside on my bedside table. I tore off my pajamas and blasted the shower as hot as I could stand it.

I stepped in and pressed my head against the wall to alleviate the pressure while the water relaxed my muscles.  I ran the hot water tank out of it contents. I put a robe on and went into the kitchen to get my cold gel pack. I put it in the freezer so it’s extra cold and still plyable. I wrapped it around my head and pulled it as tight as I could. I sat in the recliner, balled myself up and went back to sleep when the pill kicked in.

I felt a feather light touch on my shin and opened my eyes. I didn’t have my contacts in so everything was a little fuzzy and my mom, like always, had made the room as dark as possible once she found me.  I blinked a few times then jumped out of my damn skin when I realized that Giles was kneeling in front of me, and I was wearing just a robe.

“Giles! How did you get in my house!”  A sharp pain struck the back of my eye ball with each word.  I pressed a finger in the alcove between my eye and nose to give some relief. “I need you to leave, please. “ I moved  away from him and up the stairs. Each steps brough more and more pain, and nausea. I grabbed my phone and called my mom.

“Hey baby are you feeling better?”

“No, I think I need to get a shot. I took my prescription last night, it‘s not gone. Can you come get me? “ The phone slipped out of my hand.

“Hello Mrs. Beaumont, I  can take Lily to the Dr if I need to.” I went into the bathroom because my room was filled with stabbing light. “Lily, your mom is going to call the Dr, I’m going to take you. Are you ok? What’s wrong?”

“I have migraines, It’s a bad one.  I haven’t had on it a long time.” I pulled my robe tight and squinted. I went into my closet and pulled on a big tee and  baggy pajama pants. I pulled a hoodie on and dug around until I found a pair of big sunglasses and hat.  

“What do I need to do?” I came out and the light assaulted me. I wanted to dig half of my brain out of my skull.  I blocked the sun from the window and  he lead me down the hallway and we stopped at the door.  He popped an umbrella open and shielded me. All the way to my car. Once I was in a got my noise cancelling  headphones and the silence was golden.

I still buckled my seatbelt, but balled up as best I could. I tried to keep my stomach still, but as soon as I stepped out of the car, I dry heaved like I had been living my best life the night before. After it stopped, I couldn’t even apologize to  Giles. He checked me in, and in a few minutes we back in a room. The nurse turned the lights down, and I laid on the awkward exam table.

Giles hovered closely, I could feel his warmth at my back. His hand hovered over my shoulder. I was glad he didn’t touch me thought.  The pain in my head was overwhelming and I most likely would have cried if he had. My Dr came in soon after and after a few quick questions, the nurse was back with the cocktail in a syringe.

The pain was so bad I didn’t give a shit that Giles was there when she her give me a shot in my hip. We sat in dim silence for another twenty minutes until they let me go. I was already a bit loopy so I had to take his elbow to get to the car.  The  edge was off and I could relax a little bit. Giles stopped the car and I opened my eyes.

“Your mom said you would need something in your stomach and you like a chocolate shake.” I was in no mood to argue and took the shake with thanks. My stomach was settled by the time we got to my house. Once I was upstairs and in my room I finally looked up at Giles.

“Thank you so much for this. You should get to school. It’s the first week, it really is too early to be missing. They know about my migraines, but mom has already called for me.”  I feel down on my bed without another thought of another thing.