Turning Tables (Paul LaHote)

Six

When Jazmine woke her teeth were chattering and her nose was stuffy. She'd probably gotten the flu from walking around in the rain yesterday. When she stood from her bed she had to grab her dresser to combat the sudden bout of dizziness she felt. Her vision blurred and she could hear the thrum of her heartbeat in her ears.

"Fuck." She croaked. Her eyes watered and she wrapped her robe around her body before sneezing. She left the room and made her way down into the kitchen. Her father was sitting in the kitchen reading the paper.

"How are you feeling?" Billy asked quietly, well aware that Jazmine was near breaking point.

"I think I'm coming down with something. I'll head up to Sue later and see has she got anything." Jazmine sighed.

"Maybe you should just stay in bed today, Jared brought your stuff back but your phone has been blowing up with texts from Paul," Jacob suggested and Jazmine turned with her jaw clenched.

"Fuck off." She snapped and he rolled his eyes. He was allowing her to be angry at him because he knew she needed to take her anger out on someone. 

Billy stared at his daughter and sighed as he watched her fanning her face gently. She was beginning to heat up and he knew that the pain came next. Every joint in her body would begin to ache due to the accelerated growth.

In the next few days, Jazmine would go through an awful amount of pain and Billy was not looking forward to it. 

She took her phone from where it was lying on the table and looked at the messages before putting it back and making her way into the living room, throwing herself down on the sofa dramatically. It wasn't long at all before she was sleeping again.

/\/\/\/\/\/\

Jazmine had never felt as bad as she did the following Monday, every bone in her body ached and she felt as if she was on fire. Her eyes were sensitive to strong lights and even her ears could only take so much. She was nearly convinced her body was giving up on her and she was slowly but surely going to stop functioning.

"You've been groaning continuously for five minutes straight." Jazmine looked up at her brother who just looked so weary and she wasn't sure what it was about him but she just was so angry at him for existing.

"So?" She questioned and he just rolled his eyes because he knew she was upset over Paul.

"Jacob you should go spend time with Embry, leave Jazmine here to wallow in her misery." Billy was growing tired of the waiting. He stayed awake most nights just to make sure she was okay and his one wish was that the whole process would speed up.

Jazmine was lying on her side sniffling pathetically and shaking. Billy was afraid to ask if she was cold or if she was mad.

"Do you want some soup?" Billy asked and Jazmine shook her head. The phone went off again and Jazmine's shaking increased letting Billy know she was mad.

"Just tell him to stop calling, there's no coming back from this." Jazmine sighed and turned to shove her face into the pillow.

Billy made his way to the phone and took it off the hook.

"She wants you to stop calling." 

"I'm coming over," Paul whispered into the receiver. Billy struggled to hear him and he tried to figure out what he was saying.

"Son, I'm going deaf in my old age-"

"You tell him that if he come's over here he'll make things worse," Jazmine yelled from the living room. Billy rolled his eyes and said goodbye to any privacy he had before this.