Bad Karma

twenty-four

Leilani Elrod

Episode 6. Parcel 9

"Go home, JJ." I said for the hundredth time, speaking loud enough so that he could hear me from my place on the bathroom floor. I had gotten much sicker once we had gotten back to the Chateau. I wiped my face, riding it of the new tears, but more just coated my cheeks as I threw up again.

"No, Lee. I'm fine. Just come out when you're done, okay? Are you good?"

I sighed, "I'm fine, J. Seriously, I don't want you seeing me like this."

"Nothing I haven't seen before, Lee. I'll get you some water." I heard his footsteps inch away from the door, leaving me alone finally.

I waited a few seconds before standing up, having to lean on the counter for support. I refused to look at myself in the mirror as I brushed my teeth, making sure that there were little to no traces that I had been constantly throwing up for the past half hour. John B had been taken by the ambulance and Sarah was the only one to ride with them, assuring us that she'd be responsible for the costs. The crew assured us that he was going to be fine before hauling him away.

Now, our only concern was DCS. They were sure to nab him while he's in the hospital and there's is a zero percent chance that Kie's parents would vouch for him after I bailed at Midsummers. Maybe try Heyward?

A knock on the bathroom door startled me, "Lee? You ready to come out? We can go lay down or something."

"Mhm." I croaked, not trusting myself to say anything. I unlocked the door and took a deep breath before pulling it open, refusing to look at JJ as I walked past him and into my bedroom, sitting criss-crossed on the bed.

JJ trailed after me, setting the water he had gotten on the bedside table before joining me on the bed.

"Lee." He said softly, "Lee, look at me." I bit my quivering lip and looked up at him, tears brimming my eyes. He pulled me into his chest, keeping one arm wrapped around my torso and his other hand on the back of my head, keeping me firmly pressed against him, "It's okay."

"I don't- I don't think I can do this anymore, J." I sobbed, grabbing a fist full of his shirt.

"I know, I know. Talk to me, Lee, please."

"I just-" I sniffled and swallowed deeply, trying to get enough composure to at least speak, "It's so triggering and I hate being a basket case. I thought- I thought I was getting better, but I'm not. DCS is always on me and- every time something works out, someones angry or something bad happens. I don't want to be apart of this treasure hunt anymore. I just want things to go back to normal, J. That's all I want. I don't care about the money anymore. I don't."

"Lee.. come on.. don't say that."

"I'm serious, JJ." I wiped the tears from my face, "I don't want to be a part of this hunt. I don't care about Hawaii, I don't care about the gold, I don't care about finding Big John, and I don't care about being sent away."

I don't think I really meant the words coming out of my mouth, but I was just spewing out whatever I could think of. I was word vomiting, which is much better than actually vomiting.

"That's a shame.." I could heard the smile in his voice, ".. because I thought we'd go to Hawaii together, you could sit on the beach watch me catch sweet swells and then we could, like, make bracelets or whatever out of the shells."

"Nice try, bud." I laughed, "Since when are you coming to Hawaii?"

He raised an eyebrow at me, "So you admit you still wanna go?"