Project: Socialize (Chapters 1-197)

142. Pain

"You alright?" I asked .With my hands in the pockets of my sweatpants, I looked over at her in a fatigued manner, sighing a sigh of relief after the group finally left my house leaving behind Luna who claimed she needed some time to rest.

"Just somewhat tired," she weakly nodded and smiled. "Can you help me over to the couch?"

I looked over at her face, taking in the forced smile of calmness. I noticed that her knees were trembling somewhat and her color was whiter than usual. With a sigh, I walked over to her, bring my hands out of my pockets in order to help support her body. Then, I slowly escorted her over to the couch where I gently sat her down on it.

Her countenance seemed to relax somewhat as her body need not to extend further energy to support itself up. Because of this, that look of concealed pain seemed to have dispersed somewhat.

"Your hands are pretty warm," she smiled and commented. Then, she pointed over at her school bag that was still on the dining table. "Can you get that for me?" she said in a weak voice that trembled like how her arm trembled.

Without saying anything, I walked over to the dining table and focus my gaze on her school bag that was laid on its surface. Within it were probably her many medications that she needed to take in order to maintain regular bodily functions. Come to think of it, she must not have the opportunity to take any during the time she was here...

"Thank you," she weakly smiled as I handed the bag to her. Then, she tried to unzip the zipper. She tried to bring her right hand up to the zipper, but sadly, that arm trembled as it refused to comply with her wish. "That's weird," she muttered and then chuckled in a somewhat trembling voice as she attempted the same motion once again. Again, her right arm was unable to be elevated to the top of her school bag. "What's wrong?"

Unable to see her struggle like this for any bit longer, I sat down next to her and grabbed her school bag and placed it on my lap. Then, I unzipped it for her before tilting the opening in her direction.

"Which one?" I asked her with a forced countenance of dispassion.

"T-take them all out," she whispered in a weak voice.

I followed her orders and took out the medications to lay them all out on the tiny space on the couch that separated us. Then, I held up each prescription bottle and showed her the label for each one so that she can confirm which ones she needed to consume. After the rigorous process of going through the many bottles with labels that had names that I've never heard of before, she chose out five prescription bottles and had me replace the rest back into her bag. I uncapped the five bottles, placing the specified amount of pills of each medication on their caps for her. Then, I got up to pour her a glass of water.

"Is there a particular order?" I asked her.

"No," she said, shaking her head.

Then, one by one, I helped her consume the five different types of pills, feeding her the pills and bringing the glass of water to her lips in order for her to help her swallow them. I remained silent as I watched her hold each pill in her mouth and patiently waiting for me to bring the water glass to her lips. She seemed to have given up trying herself and allowed me to help her without any more complaints.

"How long were you holding it for?" I asked after feeding her all the medication needed at the time and was capping the prescription bottles to return them into her school bag.

"It's not that long," she chuckled. "Maybe twenty minutes?"

"You could've just called me," I sighed. "We could've come up with some kind of excuse."