Star-gazing: Eric Coulter

Chapter 10

TW- swearing, emetophobia, violence, sa,

If you have any problems with anything above please DO NOT read this chapter. Reader digression is advised.

Song: To You Alone
Artist: Tom Rosenthal

Four's pov:

Currently, it is seven in the morning and there is no sign of Eric or Layla. They better not leave me to teach this lesson all on my own again (like last year), because there are so many transferred initiates in our training group that it may be impossible for me to remember all of the rules off the top of my head. And the fact that it's their job too!

I shake my head, taking a seat on the end of a table. There are about five more spaces around me, whilst the rest of the bench is filled with the transfers. A couple of minutes later, Zeke stumbles in (Shauna and Tori holding him up) he is placed next to me and I chuckle slightly at the state of him.
"I told you drinking that much was a bad idea." I laugh under my breath, Zeke just groans to respond.
"You're boring, Four." He retorts as Shauna fills his plate and he starts to stuff his face with a bunch of overly salty bacon, "At least I had fun last night."
"Hey! I had fun, I just didn't have to get drunk out of my mind to do so."
Shauna shakes her head, "At least we aren't as bad as poor Layla." She tries to hold back a laugh when I roll my eyes.
I sigh, "Well, that explains why they aren't here right now and probably won't be here until lunch."
"Good luck, Four." Zeke's response is muffled by the large amount of food stuffed into his mouth— yet again. He pats my back: hard.
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." I sarcastically mumble, flailing my arms back at him as an attempt to stop him being weird. This is going to be a long day: with the lessons and then visiting day starting in just a few hours (at eleven).

Max wanders up to us a few moments later, "Adams and Coulter won't be joining you until later." He sternly tells me. It's clear that he's already been to their apartment and been turned around (told to 'fuck off').
"I gathered, since they aren't here." I say, eating some more of my morning meal.
"Visiting day is later. Make sure there's no stragglers." He says one more thing, before leaving to sit at the leadership's table at the small balcony at the top of the stairs, "Especially the new initiates. Remind them later: Faction. Before. Blood." I nod as he walks away, leaving our group to chat for a bit before I have to leave to plan for later.

Eric Coulter's pov:

She's asleep next to me again, she has been for the last few hours. She's so pretty when she sleeps, so peaceful, so naturally beautiful— even with a monstrosity of a hangover. A lot of the time I still wonder how I pulled her, my wife. I couldn't ask for anything else, all I need is her in my life. However, without her I think I would end the world— or Chicago anyway.

"Eri-" Her voice sings in my ear before getting cut off by another stage of her hangover that we like to call—
She's throwing up again. Extremely violently this time, the small portion of plain toast that I had forced her to eat earlier is coming straight back up again.
"I... I—" I put a hand on her shoulder, as she coughs and almost chokes on her own vomit, "Sorr— sorry."
"Just calm down, baby." I pull the hair out of her face as she wipes her hands on the bedsheet she's just puked on.
"Deep breaths, darling." She's crying, she always hates being sick, she thinks it's a weakness, she always has and probably always will. "Breathe with me. In and out, in and out." I hate seeing her like this. Bet it's reminding her of her bulimia or whatever Shauna told me she had.

A moment later and she's still panicking, she's trying not to throw up and takes a deep breath in at just the wrong time. Unfortunately her vomit spills from her nose and back up her throat again. "It's okay, you're okay." I try my best to comfort her, holding her head to my chest with one arm, the other still around her shoulders. "Do you think you're done for now?" She nods, she hasn't been this ill from a hangover in a while so I have no idea what's going on, nor why it's happening again. However, I notice the colour coming back to her face now.