Overcome

Chapter Thirty-One

I shut my mouth when I realize that I'm not actually on fire.

Justin rushes into the room, takes one quick look at me then runs into my mothers room. They both come running back. She feels my head and quickly gets the thermometer out of the bathroom. It takes only a second for it to beep, moms eyes pop out of her head as she reads it. Justin gets a glimpse and does the same.

"Keep her calm! I'm calling the doctor." she tells Justin. I didn't even notice how panicked I'm acting. My own eyes are wide, my breathing's heavy, and I feel like I'm about to physically and mentally explode.

"Shh, shh. It's okay." Justin tries to coax but the panic in his voice makes me even more scared. "It's okay, it's okay"

I sit up thinking that that would make a difference for some reason. Of course, now I'm just about to explode sitting up straight.

"Calm down. you're going to be okay." he try's to comfort me by sitting next to me and rubbing my arm. At first his hand felt frigid and almost relieving. But suddenly feels like dry ice grinding up against my flesh.

I can't cry! I can not cry! But I want to go into hysterics right now.

"What do you mean you can't get here!?" Moms voice alarms me. "No, you have to come! I can't drive in this!" The doctor answers, but the words are to muffled to make out. "I know the roads are flooded but there has to be some way for you to get here!" The doctor speaks again and moms silhouette becomes less tense. "Okay, just tell me what to do until you get here" She nods her head as the doctor instructs her. "Justin, go get blankets!" He nods and rushes to the closet where we keep all the sheets and blankets for our beds. He comes back with two tan down comforters and three blankets. Mom and Justin quickly starts layering them on me, blankets first, then the comforters.

I know that they're doing this to help me but the heat is unbearable! I try to take them off every time they put on on my but another one goes on each time. "Gina, please! I promise it will help you!" mom begs. I listen to her and try to stop moving around but its nearly impossible. My body keeps trying to move away from the heat without my consent. "Did she take anything?" She asks Justin.

Without any hesitation he answers "NyQuil around 1:30 in the morning." She repeats what Justin said into the phone and looks at Justin weird. He adds "Because we were up late watching movies when she started to feel sick."

The way he said it was so believable. He didn't hesitate, he just spoke like it was the truth. Even I believed it.

"Okay, she can't take anything right now."

I realized that I didn't even say one thing this whole time. I open my mouth to talk but no words are able to come out. Justin notices "What is it?" he asks softly. I try again but now realize that I don't have anything to say. My throat is dry and hard for me to swallow. Not only that, but I'm starting to get light headed and feel like I could faint. But I focus on not doing that. There is no need to scare Mom and Justin even more then they already are. I try swallowing again but find it very difficult. "Water" Justin whispers "She needs water" he says louder and get up to get some.

He comes back with a glass of water and he helps me drink it. I take baby sips then finally look away because I don't want anymore. I still haven't broken a sweat, yet I really should be swimming in a pool of it right now. Mom sticks the thermometer in my mouth again but has the same reaction when it beeps a minute later.

It was a long, dreadful night that none of us even dozed off for a second. I kept moving around trying to find some way to get comfortable. Mom was on and off the phone with the doctor multiple times but I didn't care to listen anymore. Justin never took his eyes off of me, he would try to joke around and make faces to cheer me up and I would force a smile but nothing was really working. My body still felt like it was thrown in a furnace and despite his funny faces, I can see in his eyes there's nothing funny to do about this.