The Rumour Mill - Completed

11. Nausea

Libby's POV

Oh shit I'm dying, was my waking thought. My head felt like I was undergoing major brain surgery without any anaesthetic. As well as the horrible pain in my head my stomach churned nauseously. It was only a matter of time before I'd be facing down the toilet bowl and regurgitating the remaining contents of my belly.

Which lunatic had made alcohol legal?? I mused trying to distract myself from the cacophony in my head.

I glanced at the illuminated red digits on my alarm clock 04.37 the effort to avert my eyes less than 45 degrees had caused a searing pain to shoot right from my cerebellum straight to my gag reflex. With a sprint start Usain Bolt would be proud of I dived for the bathroom, I knew I only had a matter of seconds, with my saliva glands already cranked up to full speed my body was desperately trying to expel the turgid poison I had recklessly binged on a few hours earlier.

And there she blows. Like a homage to the puking scene in The Exorcist a gush of water, and God only knows what else, erupted like a hose suddenly from my mouth, luckily I was in the vicinity of the toilet and a pretty good aim, there had been a couple of stray splashes but I could cope with that. As my body continued its purging the ache in my head intensified with each second.

Never again I whinged pathetically to myself as the vomiting finally stopped. Exuding grace and class I wiped my mouth on the back of my hand before I began the arduous task of crawling back to bed. As my hangover peaked I held onto the floor praying I wouldn't fall off the spinning top my room had transformed into, if I'd had anything left to throw up the motion sickness I'd imagined would have surely done the trick. As I finally made it into bed I grabbed a couple of pain killers and took a swig from the bottle of water I'd left on my night stand. Please let me sleep, please! I begged.

'Naaargh, naaargh, naaargh' the loud, metallic, nasal drawl of my alarm clock echoed around my room. As I slowly began to comprehend it was an actual sound and not the expected screaming in my head I reached over and after a short struggle to get my fine motor skills up and running I finally managed to switch it off.

I held my breath and waited for 'Nausea the Sequel' to kick in, but much to my relief I felt...okay. So I had a bit of a headache and some sort of fungus growing on my tongue but I was alright. Downing the rest of my water with a couple more pain killers I decided I probably needed breakfast.

By half seven I was knocking on Melissa's door after just waking Sam up. Like me Sam didn't have lectures today and she had no intention of seeing any part of the morning. When she finally managed to inch open the door she eyed me suspiciously.

"How can you be so...awake?" She grunted. "How is that even possible?" She continued to complain mystified. "You were proper wasted, and I do mean shit-faced to the max." She stressed to make sure I fully understood just how drunk I had been. I smiled back at her thankful I no longer felt as bad as she looked.

After telling me to fuck off I decided to give up on her and see if Melissa fancied breakfast this morning.

"Morning Lib." Melissa answered cheerily, closing her door and taking my arm in one swift, fluent movement she led me on to breakfast.

"Well I have to say I'm impressed, after the state you were in last night I didn't expect to see you this morning." She nodded her approval at my unexpected appearance. I grinned back starting to feel quite proud of myself.

"Throw up?" She asked confident, I got the feeling she already my answer, but I nodded anyway and grimaced sheepishly, all swagger disappeared.

"I drink a couple of pints of water before I go to bed; to rehydrate - works every time." I made a mental note, the thought of re-enacting this morning's debasement ever again had me almost considering becoming teetotal.

.............................................................................

With my stomach empty and growling loudly I tucked in. After demolishing a full English I grabbed an apple to eat on the way to the library. My plan was to spend a couple of hours working on Friday's assignment before heading back to my room for some lunch and yet more study. I had already checked out the suggested books but as the essay was based on Aristotle I wanted to do some background reading on him; make some notes before actually putting pen to paper, well finger to keyboard would be a more accurate description.

By eleven o'clock I'd read enough about my subject to know Business Ethics in today's society was a far cry from the virtues advocated by Aristotle in his world. I had a 1500 word-count to make Aristotle's utopian ideals current. With my head buzzing with inspiration I quickly began packing away, I needed to crack on, read the books I'd borrowed and start getting my thoughts down.

Tom's POV

I scanned the array of desks scattered around the main room of the library until I spied my prey. Oh fuck, why does she always have to look so good? I groaned as I caught a glimpse of her perfect ass sitting snugly in her jeans.

"Hiya Lib" my friendly tone I hoped hiding the nervous excitement I felt being so close to her.

"Good morning and goodbye Tom." she replied not bothering to look up at me as she continued to hurriedly stuff her belongings into her bag.

"You're going?" The disappointment evident in both my voice and expression.

"Yes I'm going, I've been here all morning" She sniped abruptly, "And I've still got a couple of hours of reading to do in my room." She went on to clarify a little defensively.

"Okay okay" I offered, holding up my hands showing my surrender. "If you've been here all morning you could probably do with a break. Erm I was wondering...do you fancy grabbing a coffee?" I beamed my trademark lopsided smile at her waiting for it to work its magic.

"With me, I mean obviously with me." I added nervously as her silent, unblinking stare quickly eroded any confidence I had built since our encounter yesterday.

"No" her answer came out sharp and not at all as I had anticipated. The scowl filling her face had me wondering if I'd imagined our conversation in the SU.

Which in all fairness this was not as stupid a statement as it sounded, I had after all spent the last two years imagining a scenario very similar to our brief chat last night. However in my dreams firstly Jack hadn't practically drooled on the table when he looked at her and secondly Libby realised she was way too good for a loser like Elliot and threw herself into my waiting arms.

"But I thought after last night, well I thought we were friends now, I thought you wanted to be friends?" My words trailed off, as did my hope that I didn't sound as desperate as I felt.

"I'm sorry if you've misinterpreted my civility, but I never said I wanted us to be friends." She clarified.

I felt heat colour my face as the rush of humiliation burned, what an idiot I'd been. Last night I had hardly been able to sleep, my pulse had raced as the glimmer of hope had manifested itself into the thought of a fresh start. The chance I'd been waiting for to finally put things right; to finally be able to call her mine. My deluded elation shattered as I realised just how badly her rebuttal hurt.

"If that's the way you want it." I answered with icy nonchalance.

"I'll see you in class?" She replied subdued, I watched as she scanned my face for any flicker of emotion. Her grey eyes intensely dark as they peered into mine, I wonder what she was expecting to find?

"These are what I've read this morning" she added pointing to a small pile of books on the desk in front of her. "I have found them very useful, would you like me to leave them for you or should I put them back?"

"Leave them, I might take a look" My reply was acidly curt but I didn't care, she opened her mouth to answer.

"See you round Libby." I interrupted, cutting off her words. Instead she nodded, picked up her bag and left.