Grace Notes

Chapter 23

Lola's POV-

The next morning when I woke up, it felt like something was tearing my stomach apart. I was laying in a pool of sweat, my forehead perspiring so much that my hairline was soaked. Groaning, I sat up, hugging my arms around my tummy. My head was spinning, making it hard for my eyes to focus.

Taking a deep breath, I wiped the sweat from my head and slipped off the bed. I felt nauseous, like any second my stomach was going to give up and I was going to puke everywhere. 

I walked to the door and opened it up, quickly making my way to the bathroom. As the feeling began to rise, I dropped in front of the toilet and lifted up the lid. Almost immediately, I began to heave. And of course once that started to happen, it only made me need to throw up more. 

My head continued to spin, my vision growing dark. I gripped onto the edge of the bowl to keep myself conscious as I simultaneous struggled to catch my breath so I'd stop puking.

"Lola?"

I shut my eyes, feeling nearly too bad to be embarrassed. But Harry was already on the floor next to me holding back my hair.

"Are you okay? You're face is white..."

Nodding, I retched one last time before collapsing back into him.

"Hey" he shook my shoulders a little. "Lola!"

I could hear him, but I couldn't see anything. And everything sounded like it was under water. I knew it would only be seconds until I came back fully conscious. I was lucky I hadn't fallen into something hard like I had other times.

"Lola!" 

The voice sounded so distant, like it was in another room. Though senses were weakened, I could feel my head lowered. Only a second later, I felt something cold on my forehead. My eyes could finally flutter open and things were becoming more clear.

"Oh, thank God" Harry sighed, softly patting my forehead with a cold, wet towel. 

"I'm sorry" I murmured.

"No, no, don't apologize. What happened?"

"I think it's my period" I mumbled. "I usually get really sick on the first day."

"Pass out kind of sick?"

I nodded and wiped my mouth.

"Do you want an ibuprofen?"

Again, I nodded.

"Do you need anything else?"

"I..." my voice trailed off, unable to find my words.

"Let's start with an ibuprofen" he stood back up and left the room, then returned a minute later with a glass of ice water and two, circular red tablets. "Here you go, Darling"

I took the pills from him and popped them into my mouth, then took two good sized sips of water. "Thank you"

"I have some...stuff in the cabinets I keep around in case my sister ever visits" he said. "Help yourself"

"I think I just need to lay down for a minute" I said quietly. "I think if I get up I'll pass out again"

"Here" he bent down and put one of his arms behind my back, the other under my knees.

Then he lifted me up bridal style and carried me back to his room. Carefully, he laid me down onto the bed and fluffed the pillows around me.

"Do you have a preference to which product? I can grab one for you"

"If you have a pad, I'll take that so I don't have to change it every couple hours" 

He gave me a small smile and walked out. My stomach began to knot up again, twisting and pulling like there was something inside of me that was determined to get out. Except I knew I wasn't pregnant. I couldn't help, but wonder if being pregnant would be worth it if it meant I wouldn't have to deal with this every month. I knew the labor pains probably wouldn't be worth it, but at least right now I couldn't imagine it possibly being any worse.