Oh, Dakota

28- Not Like the Movies

“You can get through the day,” Nikki assured me on Monday.

I shook my head gloomily with a loud sniffle. “No, I really don't think I can. I feel awful.”

“Well, if you're sick then why didn't you just have your dad call you in sick?” She asked me as I fished through my locker for some type of pain reliever. I could have sworn that I had Advil in there at one point, but it disappeared, I guess, because I couldn't find it.

“Because my dad and I aren't really talking right now,” I murmur, giving up on my search and accepting the fact that my headache wasn't going to go away anytime soon and the churning in my stomach was probably going to nag me all day as well, which I obviously wasn't happy about.

“Oh right,” She sighed, remembering the story that I had told her yesterday about what happened on Saturday night. “Well, I'm sure practice will take your mind off of things.”

“Right,” I mumbled, just cringing at the thought of having to move around and exercise with the growing pain in my midsection. I mean, nationals were in less than a week, so I really had no choice, but it was just going to suck big time. I closed my locker and then we started walking down the hallway to our first period classes after saying our goodbyes until we saw each other again at lunch.

“You look kind of disgusting,” Braeden teased me in study hall right after lunch. I had lunch with Nikki and Levi outside on the courtyard because it was a nice day and I didn't feel like talking to people. I mean, Nikki doesn't count because she's my best friend, and Levi is okay too, but just people in general, I just didn't want to talk to them.

“Thanks,” I muttered, curled over my desk with my forehead resting on my notebook which was laying flat on the desk.

“Seriously, what's wrong?” He wondered curiously, sitting in his seat next to me. “Are you going to throw up?”

I shrugged. “Probably not. At least, not until after practice.”

He raised his eyebrows at me. “You can control when you throw up? That's like, some kind of super power, don't you think?”

I laughed a little bit, but it just made my stomach hurt even more than it did before. “No, but it's really not an option to throw up before practice because then Coach probably wouldn't let me go to nationals.”

“But if your sick, maybe you shouldn't go,” He offered slowly.

I looked up at Braeden's soft features with a shocked look. “Not go to nationals? I can't just not go to nationals.”

“But...” He started slowly. “Aren't you grounded?”

With a sour look on my face, I nodded and then put my head back down on the desk. “Yes, but if he wants to ground me for something so incredibly stupid, then I'm just going to sneak out.”

“Have you ever done that before?” He chuckled.

I shook my head. “Honestly, no. But really, my dad is never even home on Saturdays, so it won't be that hard. I don't feel bad about it at all either, because Owen is allowed to go to states, so it's only fair that I'm allowed to go to nationals. Especially when I was the innocent one and Owen was the one who actually did something wrong.”

“I can see your frustration,” Braeden nodded. “Just don't get caught.”

I scoffed lightly as to not cause myself any pain. “I won't get caught.”

“Okay,” He grinned at me. “Oh, and what are you doing tomorrow?”

“I'm going to the game, why?” I wondered.