Rocks (Louis Tomlinson)

Nine.

Nine.

The next morning I wake up around three AM and rush to the bathroom. I lean over the toilet and throw up yesterday’s lunch and dinner. The burning in the back of my throat and the smell of uprooted food make me throw up again, and I continue doing so for another hour. What makes matters worse is I can barely keep my eyes open as I empty the contents of my stomach. I eventually fall asleep on a towel on the bathroom floor.

A couple of hours later, I feel someone shaking me awake. I open my eyes and look up to find my dad looking down at me with a frown on his face. I sit up against the wall, resting my head against it.

“Are you sick?” My dad asks.

“Obviously not” I sat sarcastically.

“Don’t get smart with me” Dad says. “Stay home with your mother. I’m going to work.”

“Okay” I say weakly. I am relieved he is not making me go to school, but I am curious as to what got me sick. I was fine yesterday.

I think for a moment as my dad leaves my bathroom that I might be pregnant, and I almost go in to a panic mode before I realize that I haven’t had any sexual intercourse in a long time. I start to laugh at myself, but that turns in to coughing, and that turns in to another puking session.

After I clean myself up in the bathroom, I walk downstairs and get an empty ice cream bucket in case I need to throw up again. I get a jacket form the coat closet to warm my cold body, then grab ten dollars from the kitchen counter and announce to my mom that I am going to the store to get sickness necessities. She sips her coffee and tells me to be safe, but doesn’t care that a puking machine is leaving the house and going out in to public areas. Without another word, I leave the house to go to Muriel’s.

***

When I return home, I walk to my bedroom and climb on to my made bed and lift a small blanket over me. My mom must have made my bed when I was gone, and she put a glass of water and some crackers on my night table. I take my remote and click on my TV situated in the corner of my room, and watch re-runs of American Horror Story while munching on crackers and sipping my water. I wonder how Louis is doing at school with all those assholes. I hope he didn’t meet Morgan. For some reason, I feel possessive over Louis and want him all to myself, even though we aren’t dating. I don’t know if I want to date Louis or not, I feel like it would just be awkward now that our friendship has increased.

When the commercials come on, I walk to my balcony doors and open them, hoping a little fresh air will make me feel better. When I open them, I notice Louis’s are open too, and I hear a TV on in his room. I try to yell over to see if its him in his room or not, but my voice isn’t coming out very strong, so instead I grab the bunny rabbit stuffed animal and launch it in to his room. Luckily, I had just enough strength to get it over there, but not enough strength to keep standing. I sit down on the balcony and rest against the railing as I wait for a response. I am about to fall back asleep outside when I feel something land on my lap. I open my tired eyes and see the bunny has returned.

I grab on to the railing and hoist myself off of the ground and look over to see Louis standing on his balcony. Louis’s face is ghostly white, and he has large bags under his eyes. He gives me a weak smile. He waves is hand to me, signaling for me to come over. I lazily walk back in to my room and scribble my phone number on a piece of paper, then tape it to bunny and throw it back to Louis. He walks inside and enters my number in to his cell phone, and soon enough I hear my whistling ringtone come from inside my room. I take my phone off of my vanity and answer it.

“Come over” Louis says. I can faintly hear his real voice coming from across the yard.

“I am sick” I say.

“I am too, so we don’t have to worry about getting sick because we are both already sick” Louis says.

His words momentarily confuse my ill mind before I finally get what he’s saying.

“My mom is home” I try to object. I really want to go over to Louis’s, but my mind is giving me all the reasons not to.

“No one is home at mine; they all went to the carnival just outside of town for the day. I’m lonely. Come over” Louis persuades me.

“I will have to get past my mom” My mouth says before my mom processes it. What if I accidentally throw up on Louis? He would probably move back to England.

“That’s an easy task. Bring your food too. I see it sitting on your bed” Louis says. I lean out to see him through the balcony and he winks at me. I roll my eyes.

“Okay, I’ll be over in a few” I say.

I hang up my phone and leave it on my vanity and grab all the food off of my bed. Just so my mom doesn’t come up here, I put a pillow under my covers so it looks like I am under the blankets sleeping. This trick is the oldest one in the book, but knowing my mom she will surly fall for it.

I sneak downstairs and listen against a wall for any talking. I hear some coming from the kitchen, so I figure my mom is on the phone. I walk in the opposite direction of the kitchen and quietly unlock the back door. I open the glass door, and tip toe in to my backyard, then run as fast as I can to Louis’s front door without puking. Without knocking, I open the door and walk upstairs to his room. His house is basically the same layout as mine, so I have no trouble finding the room. I enter it with my two liters of sprite and box of saltine crackers. Louis is sitting on his white bed, flipping through the channels on his TV.

For a moment I think his room is surprisingly clean for a teenage boy, but then I notice he pushed all the junk off his floor in to the corner and covered it with a blanket. At least he did something. He pats the spot next to him on his bed and I quickly go join him, handing him a liter of sprite. He nods a ‘thank you’ and I take a bite of a cracker.

“Do you want to watch a movie?” He asks.

“Sure” I reply.

“What movie?”

“The Proposal” I grin.

Louis rolls his eyes, but goes to internet on his TV and uses some website to pull up the movie. We watch it mostly in silence besides the chewing of saltines, the sip of Sprite, and the occasional coughing. I look over and see Louis staring intently at the TV, totally absorbed in the movie. I smile at him and eat another cracker then lay back on to the pillows. I almost fall asleep, but my eyes shoot open when I hear the doorbell ring.

Louis gets up and walks downstairs, and I lean out his doorway and follow him to the top of the stairs. He looks through the peephole, and then turns around to me with wide eyes.

“It’s your mom” He whispers. “She looks mad”

I quickly jog down the stairs and look back for a backdoor. When I realize Louis doesn’t have one, I look to him with a panicked expression. He points to the window towards the back of the house in the dining room, and I nod at him. Before I leave, Louis grabs me by the wrist and lightly pecks my cheek. I feel color return to my paled face and smile at him before running to the window and opening it with all my strength. Right when I close the window behind me, I hear Louis answer the door and tell my mom that he hasn’t seen me since yesterday.