Bittersweet

Keep the Peace

I was leaning over the toilet the next morning. I felt nauseous from all the junk we ate last night. There was bile rising up my throat when my sister came into the bathroom.

"How are you feeling?" I gagged and finally vomited into the toilet. My sister hurries to pull my hair back behind my head. I shake my head and try to speak. But then another wave of vomit hits. "Not great. Anthony too, he is in the downstairs bedroom. I think you guys went too hard with the fruit roll ups." I nod along, she was probably right. She was almost always right.

Like mom.

After a minute I stood and shut the seat. Flushing to toilet and walking to the sink. I needed to stay away for there or else I would start vomiting my stomach acid. I turned on the sink and stuck my head under the faucet. I rinsed out my mouth until I tasted no bile. I didn't dare brush my teeth right away.

"Should I get you the melatin?" She hovers behind me.

"No. I feel a lot better." I lean against the counter. "How is Anthony fairing?"

She smiles wickedly, a smile only an older sister could show in the light of her younger brother's misery. "Not great. He is a moaning mess. He has flushed the toilet down there three times. Anymore and dad is going to charge him his share of the water bill." She takes in her own words and I see the smile in her eyes flicker. Her own smile on her face crack.

Deflection mode activated.

"We better go do damage control on that bathroom and get him some medicine." I sling my arm around her shoulders and drag her to the stairs. She goes first and I continue. "I am swearing off fruit roll ups for good. No more for me. No siree." I get a giggle.

My sister greets the family dogs who are hovering outside of the bathroom. I hear the toilet flush. "Four." My sister pipes up.

"Fuck off." My brother shouts from inside.

"Watch it, Mercy is down here." He shouts back. The door opens and my brother pops his head out.

"Sorry." He stutters out groggily. His face was pale and his eyes were slightly sunken in, matching my sister's and I's. It was almost noon. We didn't fall asleep until close to five in the morning.

"Sit down. Both of you." I give a pointed look to my sister.

My brother takes a seat at the bar and my sister snickers at the way he almost misses the stool. I roll my eyes while opening the fridge. I knew mom kept it in here. I had stomach flu pretty recently. I finally find and grab the blue bottle and take it out.

"No." My brother objects. "I hate that stuff."

"It will make you feel better. Its only a little, suck it up." Izzy smiles sweetly at his screwed up face.

"Right, that's why you won't have a problem doing a dose too. Just in case the nausea hits you later on like at the hospital." I uncap the bottle and start to pour the first dose. I see my sister whip her head in my direction through my peripheral.

"Why do I have to drink it?" She asks an octave higher than her usual tone.

"What's the problem, its only a little. Suck it up." Anthony annunciates every word a couple inches from Izzy's face. She shoves him back and walks to the fridge.

"I am not drinking that." I chuckle. "I was only joking Izzy, sorta." I smirk at Anthony. I walk over and hand him the serving cup. "Drink up, you can have cookies with milk after." He grabs the cup and eyes the white liquid.

He swallows it quick. Slamming the small cup down and making a sour face.

My sister was taking out the milk when Anthony stopped her. "No, no milk. I think I will eat a sandwich instead." He stands and goes into the pantry.