Jade Awakening

First Date

Dad, Jasper, and Melissa left for SeaWorld without me. My emotions on the matter were split. On the one hand, good riddance. I would've hated every moment of the venture – all the walking, screaming kids, stinky sea creatures, and feigned enthusiasm to keep from getting reprimanded.

On the other hand, it stung that they so readily left me behind to take care of myself. Alone.

The majority of my morning was spent laying at an elevated angle on the couch with a large bowl close at hand. Sleep wouldn't come and nausea wouldn't go away. I had to find a way to get my body back in order before 5 — there was no way that I was going to cancel my first real date with Beck.

When I found a window of time that I didn't feel utterly nauseous, I carefully walked back to the kitchen to find something bland to munch on and a glass of water to rehydrate myself. In Melissa's pantry, amidst the chaos of random cans and bags of food (for both humans and dogs), I spotted a sleeve of flavorless rice cakes. Perfect. I took one of the rice cakes out and carefully chewed off a piece.

With the tasteless snack and water in hand, I headed for the stairs rather than the couch. If there was anything I could ever depend on to make me feel better, it was a hot bath.

Having already acquainted myself with Melissa's nicer, master bathroom, I took it upon myself to use her bathtub rather than the one in the guest bathroom. She probably had nicer soaps in there anyway.

I took another careful bite of the rice cake as I turned the faucet on over the tub, making sure to turn all the way so that the water would be lava hot.

I took the extensions out of my hair and discarded my clothes on the bathroom tile. I was afraid that a sudden movement would incite the nausea to come right back, so I moved with care. The only thing I needed to do before I could lay comfortably in the tub was to remove my tampon – I never know whether it is or isn't okay to be underwater with it in, so I gravitated toward the safe bet.

Once that was taken care of, I stepped into the piping hot bath and slowly allowed the rest of myself to submerge as the surface area of my skin adjusted to the drastic change. My pale skin quickly turned to pink upon entering.

Immediately, my stomach felt better with the warmth of the water radiating to my core. It was still gurgling and digesting in a violent way, but the nausea began to subside.

When I could give my focus to anything other than myself, I snooped through the bottles of soaps that were within my reach and helped myself to them. It would seem Melissa is big into aromatherapy – who would have thought?

I poured a considerable amount of lavender bath suds underneath the running faucet to encourage some bubble to form. For once, a scent of Melissa's didn't give me a raging headache. It didn't take longer thereafter for the water level to reach its max – I put my hands gingerly over my abdomen and laid back after turning the water off.

I desperately wanted to fall asleep right there in the warmth and comfort of the bath.

Once a little time had passed, the bubbles dissipated to no more than foam that clung against the perimeter of the tub and the parts of my body that sat through the surface.

I didn't feel nearly as sick as I did 20 minutes ago, the headache was less severe, and the cramping in my lower back was much more bearable. Amazing what a hot bath can do.

Ironically, the only thing it didn't accomplish was making me feel clean. When I shifted myself slightly, I noticed that the motion must have caused muscles in my pelvic floor to contract and force a small clump of period tissue to escape. Curiosity led me to wonder if I could "force" my period to end faster by pushing as much blood and tissue as I could out of me.