If I Didn't Have You

6

Warnings:
-Anaphylaxis shock
-Bullying

Clay's POV

~ The Next Day ~

I was sitting down on a bench in the school, waiting for the bell to start ringing and the class to start. I was a bit too early because I took the bus that arrived half an hour before the class actually started.

I still had a bad stomach ache, but I couldn't keep skipping school for that. I always had stomach aches, I only stayed at home when I threw up or had diarrhea again.

'Hi,' I suddenly heard someone say. I was confused since no one ever talked to me before so I looked up slowly with an anxious look in my eyes.

⚠️ Bullying

'Hi? Who are you?' I mumbled as I saw he was holding cheese in his hands. 'I'm allergic to that, please get that away.'

He chuckled and then suddenly threw the cheese at me. It landed on my hand which caused an immediate allergic reaction. My hand started swelling and my skin got really itchy as I stood up.

'Why? I told you that I'm allergic to that!'

'And I don't care,' he laughed, rolling his bright blue eyes.

'I can literally die if I have too much dairy,' I yelled out. 'I pass out and I need medication. It's so bad that the doctor gave me an epipen for if I don't wake up after passing out.'

He sighed and crossed his arms while I itched my hand furiously.

'You're exaggerating, Clay. I don't like that,' he scoffed. 'It's just an itch.'

'You threw it on my skin and it's already swollen! If I eat it, I throw up multiple times and eventually pass out because my blood pressure drops extremely low!'

'Yeah... sure,' he mocked me. He turned around again and walked off, leaving me in sadness. I knew people didn't like me that much, but this was just rude to me...

⚠️ Over

I kept itching my swollen hand and sat down again. I felt so upset that tears filled my eyes and I stood up slowly to go to the bathroom to hide them.

As soon as I arrived in the bathroom, tears started streaming down my face and I held my hand under the cold water from the tap in the hope the swelling would get less.

With tears rolling down my face, I held my hand under it for minutes. Eventually, I wiped my tears away and left the bathroom again to go to my first class.

With very slow footsteps, I started walking to the first class I had which was maths. I didn't really like maths, but definitely not now I was busier with my swollen hand. It was still itching really badly and I forgot the crème I usually put on it to calm it down.

I let a deep sigh leave my mouth as I stood in front of my classroom, slowly going inside. I sat down on my chair and smiled at the teacher, feeling so upset about what happened. She noticed that I was upset and walked up to me, asking me to go outside.

I stood up and left to the door to stand outside of the classroom and she smiled shortly.

'Are you okay? You haven't been here in a while and you look really sad.'

I shrugged. 'I've had multiple allergic reactions. I passed out, constantly threw up and spent hours in the bathroom. I was finally doing a bit better next to my cramps as this stupid boy threw cheese at me. Now my hand is very swollen and itchy...'

'Oh, dear. Come, we are going to the principal. I'm sure he has something for this and I want you to tell him who did this,' she told me, nodding slowly. 'Okay?'

I sighed. 'He's just going to get mad at me.'

'He can get as mad as he wants to, but this is unacceptable and I think the principal will suspend him for a few days.'

I nodded. 'Fine, but what if he does anything that's even worse? I can just die if he gives me something with a lot of dairy to eat. I passed out after just two bites from oatmeal with the wrong milk.'

'You have an epipen, right? Where is it?'

I pointed to my bag. 'Here.' I opened it and showed her the epipen. 'But an epipen isn't a cure. It gives me longer if I have an extreme reaction. The ambulance needs to be here very fast because otherwise I will still just die.'

'Does any classmate know you have this?'

I shrugged. 'They know I'm allergic and they know I have the epipen, but they don't really care about it because they literally threw cheese on me.'

She nodded slowly while we walked to the office in an uncomfortable silence.

~~~

I got something for my hand which made it swell less badly. I went back to class and sat alone during the break, eating a wrap with some vegetables since that was dairy free. I figured there were gluten in this, but I had no idea what to eat without dairy and without gluten...

I slowly ate the wrap and put my lunchbox away. I was pretty hungry, but I really didn't want to get more stomach aches than I already had.

I sat back on my chair and looked around me at all the happy people, eating whatever they wanted... and then there was me. I got very sad and stared at the floor as I suddenly heard footsteps near me.

I looked up, seeing a shy girl sit down with a wrap in her hands. 'I saw you only had one wrap and I figured you must have been hungry!'

'Is there any dairy in that?' I asked as she laid it down in front of me.

She shook her head slowly and I grabbed it with a soft smile, taking a bite from the wrap. I was very hungry so I immediately took another one as I chew on it and swallowed it.

'Hold on... why do I taste milk?' I yelled with a panicky voice.

She shrugged with panic in her eyes. 'I ordered one for you, I asked if it was dairy free and they said yes,' she answered with a sad face. 'I promise you, I didn't do anything with it, I genuinely wanted to give you another wrap.'

'My throat,' I mumbled. 'Teacher, help.'

She immediately jumped up. 'HELP! HELP!'

Apparently there was so much dairy in this wrap that my throat got so thick and my blood pressure dropped so severely that I passed out only minutes after eating the sandwich...

1113 words