I'll Be Holding on to You

flying solo

That Saturday we were going to meet Gage and Mara after Mara got done at the Children's Museum, but Erika threw a wrench in our plans by waking up with a migraine. She took over my room, blackened it but for the nightlights, took every medication she had at her disposal, and tried to sleep as she endured. She used to get them at least once a week, incapacitating her for days sometimes. Lately they were infrequent but still debilitating.

"Go anyway," she told me later in the day. We were sitting in the almost dark as I massaged her shoulders and neck, which helped a little. "Gage said he'll take you to surprise her at work, score some brownie points."

"We'll just do it another day." I was making some progress finally on the tension in her muscles.

"I'm going back to sleep. So go," she insisted.

"Nah."

She made a frustrated sound. "Drive me nuts."

"What, Wrangler butts?"

She gave me a scathing look. "No. And you're pissing me off."

"Oh, well, God forbid," I said mildly. "Fine, tell him fine."

She readjusted the ice pack on her forehead and pushed her phone at me. "You tell him."

I went into her messages as a new one from him came through. What's the verdict, sexy?

My eyes went wide and some feelings crashed into me. I shoved them back down. Flattering, but this is Dory now, I wrote.

Mr. Cotton's Parrot, same question, verbatim.

I ducked my head to hide a smile even though it was too dark to see and she had her eyes closed. He was the sexy one. I'm down. I can meet you there.

Okay, is four good? We can harass Mar for an hour before it closes. There are some fun things to check out too.

Sure, I answered, and tried not to get too excited because it was totally inappropriate.

"Really?" she asked, and I realized I was humming Migraine.

"Sorry. But I'm sure your pain ranges from up down to sideways." I quoted.

"You're dumb. And try to keep your lips off my griller," she murmured as I put the phone back down.

"Shut up, not even." I wished she was coming. "Need anything else?"

"Sleep. Quiet," she said pointedly.

"Bye, then, Felicia." I fixed the blanket a little and went to get ready.

My friends were downstairs and happy to give me a hard time. "Fuckin' Dory," Cam said from where he sat on the floor, his ubiquitous notepad open. "Poisons poor Freak so she can go out with Gage." He shook his head.

"Quiet, Bud," I told him, putting on mascara.

"At least it's something on her level," Mo said of it being a children's museum.

I threw an apple at him, which he caught. "Jealous? You can come play too, Moey."

"I kind of want to. I heard they have an imbarimba there," Cam said, as if we had any idea what he was talking about. He sighed at our looks. "Evie," he said.

"It's like a double scaled xylophone on pipes," she said, still reading her book. "There's a more regular version called a barimba. But the imbarimbas are rare; there are only a few made."