Dysphoria

Chapter Thirty Seven

When I opened my eyes I was lying across the back seat of Maddy's car. Kat was holding onto my head on her lap, with Ash sitting in the front seat giving Maddy directions to the nearest hospitable. It felt like we were speeding.

"Whats happening?" I ask feeling like I was about to throw up.

"Were taking you to the emergency room, you just passed the fuck out." Kat said looking down at me. Her nostrils flared, she was worried.
"Your face is green right now, so if you're going to puke please don't do it on me Nia. I love you, but I just bought these shoes."

I closed my eyes and tried to focus on not puking as we drove over every bump in the road. One thing I always enjoyed about Maddy's car was it always smelled like some kind of fruity body spray or perfume because she would douse herself before getting in or out of the car but tonight that was not in my favor. I tried to breath through my mouth so the strong fragrance wouldn't make me hurl.

When we got to the emergency room, the triage nurse handed me a sheet on a clipboard to fill out with my information while she took my temperature.

I held the pen in my hand and tried to shakily write as much information as I could remember. What the fuck is my social security number again? The nurse held a thermometer up to my forehead.

"Okay you do have a fever. Have you been vomiting at all?" The nurse asked typing things quickly into the computer.

"No, but I feel like I could. And I've had a bad headache all day." I tell her.

"Okay. Take a seat and we'll call you as fast as possible. Fill this out while you're seated." She pointed me to the waiting area.

The blue plastic chairs were uncomfortable, the muscles in my body were aching and I felt incredibly weak. Maddy and kat sat to my right and Ash was on my left, he observed everyone in the waiting room analyzing each one. He really hated strangers.

"You want me to call him?" He said looking at me. He didn't need to mention Fez by name.

"No. No please don't." I gasped, the pain in my head was like someone put needles in my eyeballs. This was not how I wanted Fez to see me after we just broke up.

Thankfully the E.R. didn't seem that busy. There was a kid around Ash's age with his mom, cradling his arm in his lap while she angrily explained to someone on the phone about an accident at football practice. An elderly couple were closer to us, the husband was snoring in a wheelchair, the wife looked pissed to be there, her purse was held tightly in her hands as she looked around her nervously.

To the left there was a guy on his own eating a bag of bbq chips explaining to the triage nurse how a cockroach had crawled into his ear and it was stuck. He could feel it moving apparently, and the description he was giving the nurse paired with the wafting smell of bbq chips literally made me want to die on the spot.

Maddy gawked in disgust and gave me a reassuring rub on the back.

"Oh Jesus fucking Christ." I groaned leaning forward in the seat putting my head down into my hands.

The elderly woman two seats down shot me an angry look. "Language! Don't take the Lord's name in vain."

Ash, who had just come back from the vending machine with a packet of skittles turned to her and frowned lethally, "Why don't you mind your own business old bitch."

The woman clutched on to her walking cane and looked like she wanted to swing it at Ash in disgust. Maddy gave him a high five.

"Gordon?" The triage nurse called out to the waiting room.