Falling Falling Stars

52 - Tummy

The cramps started rolling in around nine in the evening, as Efnisien lay curled up on his side next to Arden, watching Bake Off and feeling heavy and tired. They'd had Thai for dinner, and Arden had picked all of the dishes. Efnisien had eaten more than usual, but he hadn't thought anything of it at the time because it had been so tasty. After all, his stomach generally behaved while he was around Arden.

Except that a cramp rumbled through him, the kind that presaged spending too much time on the toilet. It was like an alarm jangling, adrenaline dumping into his system, and he stared blankly at the television.

Not now, he thought.

Maybe it would pass. Maybe he could wait it out. There was no way he wanted Arden to see this side of him. If he was lucky he'd be gone for fifteen minutes, if he was unlucky, it could be closer to an hour.

An hour of Arden knowing he was on the toilet, shitting his guts out. An hour of Arden probably getting impatient with him, and thinking that actually, it was too revolting to put up with someone who dealt with things like that on a regular basis.

He tried to ignore the cramp.

It eased off after a couple of minutes and Efnisien shuddered, but he stayed tense, because he knew how his body worked after all this time. And like clockwork, a few minutes later, another cramp rolled in. This one was worse, a griping and urgent clench from his pelvis up to his chest. His breathing grew shallow, and he realised he didn't even know where the toilet was in Arden's place.

God fucking almighty.

He waited out the next cramp, but it was getting harder to breathe, and his hands were clammy from the pain. He was mad at himself for eating so much, mad at himself for relaxing his guard and forgetting how bad his stomach could get. He'd done this, he'd caused this, and whatever the consequences, he'd caused them too.

The cramp barely eased before the next one smashed in, and he strangled out a gasp and sat up abruptly.

'Efnisien?' Arden said, looking concerned.

Efnisien looked at him, even as his mind raced ahead and reminded him that Arden was tired, not in the mood, and dealing with the upcoming anniversary of being raped by his older brother, and he didn't need this. He didn't fucking need this too.

'Um,' Efnisien gulped, feeling like he was going to throw up and shit himself at the same time. 'Where's your bathroom?'

'Oh,' Arden said, eyes widening. 'Right, I forget you haven't seen the rest of the house. Come on.'

Efnisien wanted to warn him. He wanted to say he might be a while. But he felt small and vulnerable and the pain was radiating out up his arms and down his legs and shooting into his chest and every one of his scars on his abdomen where the knife had cut him felt like they were glowing neon. If he didn't get to a toilet in the next two minutes, things were going to be fucking bad.

Arden opened the door to the corridor that led through the rest of the house. And as Arden walked ahead, Efnisien saw that the house was way bigger than he'd realised. It was deceiving, because the front of the house was so open plan, but he counted more doorways than he expected in a place like this, and there was another corridor that swung right, and Arden didn't even go down it.

'Here,' Arden said, opening a door into what was clearly a guest bathroom. It had a large shower, a separate bath, it was decorated nicely, and clean, and it didn't smell like Arden's cologne. The toothbrushes in the cup were still wrapped in plastic.

'Thanks,' Efnisien said.

'No problem,' Arden said, smiling and closing the door.

Efnisien shivered as he listened to the sound of Arden walking back towards the lounge. And then, out of paranoia borne from his time in Hillview, he locked the bathroom door anyway and managed to make it to the toilet before the cramps escalated.