Chapter 8

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My head was throbbing. That's the only thing I could think about when I woke up. It just hurt so badly I would do anything to get rid of it. I rolled over in my bed and groaned, as if that would take the pain away. I felt my sheets under me and the scratchiness of my day time clothes. I must have just laid down and fell asleep last night. What happened last night? I couldn't remember. There was an awful smell that filled my nostrils and I groaned again. I tried to open my eyes, but was only met with a blinding light. I put my hand up to shield my eyes, but it did little good as the near white walls and floor reflected the light, making it that much worse.

"Venus." My father's voice boomed and banged around my head. If I thought my headache was bad before, it was much worse now. And on top of it all, I was sure he was talking louder than he normally would. "Get up." I tried opening my eyes again, and it went a little better this time. The light still burned and aggravated my headache, but I could at least see. Below me on the floor was a puddle of vomit. Had I gotten sick last night?

"I don't feel so good...my head..." My voice sounded more whiny than usual, even to me. I just wanted to stay in bed all day, my head hurt and I felt that getting up certainly wouldn't help it.

"After how much you drank last night I hope your head hurts. Now get up." His voice was stern, but that fake kind of stern he used when I was a little girl and he knew he had to be stern with me, even if he didn't agree with why. I pushed myself to sitting and slowly shifted my weight to my feet.

"Drank?" I wondered out loud as I sleepily wandered over to the table where he sat. I noticed the scotch bottle, now filled with a clear liquid, and the memories of last night all came rushing back like a heavy boulder. I finished my father's scotch. Surely he wasn't too happy about that seeing as how scotch was so hard to come by on the Ark. And on top of that, I was only 16, almost 17, and he had made it very clear that he didn't want me drinking before I was old enough. He made it very clear that even 17 wasn't old enough.

"I want you to finish this." He picked up and held the bottle out to me. I hesitated, not wanting to drink anything else from that vile bottle. "It's water, it'll help. Now drink." I took the bottle from him and took a hesitant sip from it. It was subtle, but I could still taste the scotch and quickly went to put the bottle back down. "I said drink!" His anger scared me, so much so I quickly finished the bottle before sitting down. I glanced back to where my bed was, truly not remembering throwing up last night. "You threw up in the middle of the night. I was surprised you didn't wake up. I am very dis-"

"Dad." I cut him off. The last thing I wanted after last night was a lecture. And I was sure after the night he had the last thing he wanted to do was give me one. I watched him sigh and put the once again empty bottle into the trash.

"We'll make last night an exception, how's that?" He smiled slightly as he sat back down. It had been years since I saw him smile. The smile itself was so warm, and reminded me of the simpler days before John. I nodded and returned to him my own small smile.

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The water did little to help my headache, but my father still forced me to go in and work my shift with Abby in the medical station. Luckily I was only put on paperwork for today, I don't think I could have handled this massive headache and cutting up a person at the same time. Still, I constantly had to take a few minutes to take my eyes away from the pages in front of me to give them a break. My headache only got worse as the day went on. More than once I was tempted to ask Abby for the rest of the day off, but then I'd look at the clock and see I only had a few more hours left and figured I could get through it.

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