Nocturnal Creatures

18

Makoto had trouble waking up that morning. He hadn't been able to sleep well and when he woke up he felt heavy. He didn't feel sick exactly, but he definitely wasn't hungry. When he went down to the kitchen that morning before school, he was shaking on his feet and his mom noticed. "Do you feel alright sweetie? You look paler than usual."

Makoto smiled, "Yeah, I'm fine." It was a lie but he didn't want to worry his mom. He went over to get something to eat but immediately put the food back, the smell made him nauseous.

His mom narrowed her eyes at him, "Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah," Makoto tried to smile again, "I guess I'm just not hungry."

"You know if you're not feeling well, you can take the day off," his mom put a hand on his arm, "You can stay home today."

"No, it's alright. I'm sure it's nothing," Makoto actually wanted to go to school to see Sousuke, this was the 14th day of their engagement. Makoto's mom let him go to school but made him promise to call her if he started to feel worse.

At school, Makoto tried to sit through his morning classes but the classrooms were so warm. He was getting overheated, it was not good. During the middle of his second class, it got harder to put up with. He moved his chair back enough so he could lay his head on the desk. He sat hunched over with his arms over his stomach.

"Are you sleeping Tachibana?" He heard the teacher call him out.

Makoto tried to sit back in his chair. He looked at the teacher, saying, "I-I'm fine, it's nothing."

The teacher looked at him suspiciously. "Do you need to go to the nurse's office?"

Makoto did his best to smile, "No, really I'm fine."

When Makoto began to cough and practically threw up in his hand, the teacher said, "Let me rephrase that, you need to go to the nurse's office." This time Makoto didn't resist, he got up shakily. The teacher added, "You should probably take your bag with you." Makoto nodded and walked to the front of the classroom. The teacher handed him a slip to give to the nurse. Makoto took it and left the classroom, he was feeling too ill to care to be embarrassed about the other classmates that were surely wondering what was wrong with him.

As soon as he got to the nurse's office, he felt like he was going to puke. The nurse saw and quickly gave him a trashcan and guided him to a seat. As soon as he was seated, he started heaving his guts into the trashcan. He didn't know what was wrong or why he felt so sick. He just felt completely worn out.