Free (Sequel to Trapped)

Ch. 11

Ariana

Thursday, 12:34 am

Not even an hour after I've fallen asleep, Aviella's crying wakes me up.

"Baby, what's wrong?" Justin asks.

"Daddy, my tummy hurts!" She wails.

I yawn, rubbing my eyes. I was basically asleep with my eyes open, and could not process what was happening. 'Aviella's crying' is all I knew.

"How bad does it hurt, baby girl?" Justin asks.

She just continues crying in response. I finally sit up and lift Aviella into my lap.

"Avi, tell me how it feels."

"It hurts!" She says.

"Okay then." I place her back in Justin's lap and walk into the kitchen.

I find Aviella's old stomach medicine and a spoon. She hates it, but it makes her feel better. I walk into the living room and sit down on the couch. As soon as Aviella sees the medicine, she starts crying harder.

"Open, baby girl." Justin says.

"No! I don't want it. It'll make my stomach hurt worse." She replies.

"Aviella, when has it ever made it hurt worse?" She buries her face in Justin's neck to continue crying.

"Baby girl, you need to take the medicine." Justin says.

She just cries harder and he looks at me.

"Aviella, please take the medicine." I sigh, rubbing my eyes.

Justin lifts her up and we both look at her tear stained face.

"We promise your stomach will feel better if you take the medicine. Then you can go back to sleep." Justin tells her.

She doesn't say a word, so I take that as an okay and hold the spoon up to her mouth. She opens her mouth a little bit and I give her the medicine. It takes her a minute to swallow, but when she does, she lays her head across Justin's chest, still crying. He rubs her back until she falls asleep and I yawn, wiping the remaining tears from her face.

"You can go to sleep now, Ari." Justin says.

I nod and lay back down. The 30 minutes of sleep I had gotten before did not last the hour and a half Aviella has been crying, and trying to go back to sleep.

It takes me all of 2 minutes to fall asleep.

Thursday, 7:58 am

"Oh God." I cover my mouth, gagging.

Some random picture of a disease that causes holes in your skin had come up on my Instagram feed.

"Baby girl, what's wrong?" Justin asks as I stand up.

I shake my head and run to the guest bathroom to throw up.

When I lean back against the wall, Justin walks in. He looks half asleep, and I understand why. He probably hasn't gotten a lot of sleep, since Aviella woke up.

"God, are you okay?"

"Sure." I stand up and Justin moves hair from my sweaty forehead.

I splash my face with cold water then walk into the master bathroom to brush my teeth, which I do twice.

"You want me to make you breakfast?" Justin asks, slipping his hands into my shorts.

A small smile forms on my lips as he massages my waist. I lay my head on his shoulder, wrapping my arms around his waist.

"If you want to. I'll help."

"You don't have to help. I'm making you breakfast."

"I want to. Even though I can't cook."

"Okay. Come on. Before Aviella wakes up."

"Are we gonna starve her?"

"No. She gets some too."

"Oh." We walk into the kitchen and he gets out a bunch of stuff.

"I can trust you with a knife, right?" He says.

"I'm not 3 years old." I say, taking the knife from him.

"What do I do with this?" I ask.

"Cut this onion." He places an onion on the cutting board in front of me.

"Okay." I start cutting the onion, causing tears to form in my eyes.

"This is not easy. I can't see." I tell Justin.

"I know." He says.

Before I know it, the knife cuts across my skin.

"Shit! I'm done." I drop it and put my finger in my mouth.

"What did you do?" Justin walks over to me and I pull my finger out of my mouth.

He holds it up and looks at me with an amused grin on his face.

"This is why I don't trust you with knifes." He says.

I roll my eyes and rinse the cut in the sink. It's a small cut, for the knife I was using, but it still stings. I put Neosporin on it with a bandaid then sit at the island, watching Justin cook.