Chapter Sixty One
Raleigh
I hear the front door shut and I run in that direction, watching as his car follows the driveaway away from the house, heading toward where I couldn’t say since I don’t know where I am at the moment.
With a melancholy sigh, I make my way back into the expansive living room and turn on the Xbox. Excitement fills me when I see that it automatically logs into Brady’s account and pulls up his gaming account. My curiosity is piqued as I see that he has some of the same games that Lincoln does and I wonder if I could pull up a chat queue to talk with him.
But then, I remember that it’s a school day and that he’s likely in school. With a huff, I get up and grab one of the DVDs that had caught my eye earlier and instead load it into the console. While I’m waiting, I hear a noise come from the other room, and a few moments later, Julia comes into the room carrying a plate and a glass of juice, her mouth stretched in a smile.
“I’m glad to see that he finally came to his senses,” she says, setting the plate of eggs and toast down before taking the empty seat next to me. I just give her a curious look, not understanding what she’s meaning. She chuckles and shakes her head, “I’ve been pestering him for days about letting you out of that room and letting you roam about,” she says with a satisfied shrug.
I mutter a confused, “Oh,” and hit play when the menu comes up for the movie.
I mull over the disquiet I feel at her revelation and I don’t understand why I feel let down that it was Julia who managed to convince Brady to let me move freely about the house, and not because he wanted it himself, but I do and it find it kind of unsettling.
“Aren’t you going to eat?” Julia questions, pulling me from my thoughts.
Shaking my head, I pull the plate onto my lap and begin picking at the eggs, but for whatever reason, the smell makes me feel sick to my stomach. With a shake of my head, I sit the plate back down on the end table, “I don’t think I can,” I murmur. “I’m sorry but thank you.”
“Is everything okay?” Julia asks, seeming concerned. The mild nausea becomes stronger, to the point that I think that I may actually vomit just as she states, “Umm…you don’t look too good.”
I jump up and glance around, realizing that Brady never showed me where the bathroom is down here. Turning back to Julia, I hold one hand against my stomach and bring the other to my mouth as I barely manage to utter the word, “Bathroom?”
“Oh, dear, come on,” Julia gently grasps ahold of me my my forearm and guides me around the corner and into the bathroom, and not a moment too soon because as soon as she turns the light on for me, I fall to my knees and begin dry heaving into the toilet.
“Oh, God,” I murmur as I fall to my butt, resting my back and head against the wall with my eyes closed, praying that my stomach settles and that another round doesn’t hit me before I’m able to make it back to my room.
After a few moments of silence, Julia asks, “Do you think that you would be able to make it back to your room and I will bring you up something that should help to settle your stomach?” I nod my head but don’t make any attempt to move, not yet sure if I’m ready to chance it.
I hear the pad of her footsteps as she heads toward the kitchen and I slowly make my way to my feet, waiting a moment to see how I’m going to react before taking a step. When I think I’m okay, I begin to make the slow ascent to my room. When I make it to the steps, my stomach lurches again, and I fall to my knees and place my head on the step above me, the cool wood helping ever so slightly. Taking them one at a time, I crawl up the steps, only having made it about halfway when I hear Julia gasp from behind me, “Oh my Jesus, here, let me help you,” she insists. I hear her put the items in her hands down and then she’s climbing the stairs and helping me to my wobbly feet.
We take the steps at a snail's pace, inching our way up them, and once we get to the top of the landing she breathes a sigh of relief at having helped me make it as if the short distance was some kind of a feat.
“Come on, your room isn’t much further,” Julia insists, pushing me to keep going when all I want to do is drop to the floor, curl up into the fetal position, and either cry or go to sleep, perhaps both.
“I don’t understand why I feel like this,” I mutter in confusion. “I was fine until I smelled the eggs…” at the mention of the eggs, the nausea hit me again and I began to dry heave once more.
“So, you didn’t feel sick before? Only after?” She asked with a quirk of her brow.
“No, I felt fine, great even but now, I feel absolutely awful. I don’t understand it. Could it be food poisoning or the flu or something?” I ask, suddenly worried about getting her sick.
“Something like that,” Julia muttered with a strange look in her eyes but the look was gone just as quickly as it appeared, and instead said, “Do not worry, my dear. You should feel better with some rest,” and then helped me the rest of the way into my room.
After helping me into my bed, she pulled the covers over me and then went down to retrieve the items that she had sat down when she’d seen me on the stairs, but as I lay there waiting for her return, exhaustion overwhelmed me and I found that I was unable to keep my eyes open even a moment longer. With my eyes growing heavier and heavier, I was asleep before she was able to return.
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