Morning Shift

Pepto-Bismol

        Nicky woke up at 6:00 in the morning to the sound of little fists pounding at his door.

        He rolled himself out of bed, the cold hitting his bare chest, causing a shiver to run down his spine and freeze his entire body up for a few seconds. He wrapped a blanket around his shoulders and opened the door to find one of his siblings staring up at him with bright green eyes and an even brighter red nose.

        "I threw up," Naya told him.

        Nicky groaned, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes before kneeling down to his baby sister's level. "Do you still feel sick?"

        "Yes."

        "Did you ask anyone if they have medicine?"

        "Nasir, Noah, and Nahla didn't have any and Naveen and Nadyah wouldn't wake up."

        He found it hard to believe out of his five other siblings, not one of them had a single pill to help a four year old with her stomach ache. Being the oldest, he tried his best to keep track of them and support them like their parents would if they had the time to, but holy shit was it difficult. Juggling the lives of six kids all under fourteen with disgustingly similar names (he liked to think of his family as the middle class, Lebanese Kardashians) was hard enough, but it was even worse on Christmas break when none of them had school.

        He groaned and bounded down the stairs before his dad could step out the door. "Baba!" He called out, stopping his father in his tracks right before he could close the door. "Did you pick up the car from the shop yet?"

        His dad pinched the bridge of his with his long fingers. "I had no time yesterday, Nicolas. Everyday I'm away from my family for-"

        "-Twelve whole hours. I know, Baba," he mumbled, stopping himself before his dad gave him a lecture on respect. "Can you go get some Pepto or something before work, then? Naya doesn't feel well and I nearly got frostbite when I went to go pick up everyones meds yesterday."

        Baba shook his head. "This snowstorm is already making me late. If I have time on the way home I will get something for her, but no promises," he told Nicky.

        "Whatever," Nicky called out as his father walked out the door, "I'll just do it myself."

        That's how he found himself walking to Happy's pharmacy in the (too) early morning for the fourth time in a winter break that had barely begun. He was shivering beneath the two jackets he had layered on and his snow boots didn't seem to be doing their job too well because he could feel slush sloshing under his toes. He grumbled a few choice words about his family ever so often, but mostly it was a dead silent walk.

        He was bored. Yesterday he'd had a fine time walking by himself, but today was painful. That's when he remembered why he wasn't bored the day before: halfway to the pharmacy, he found someone to walk with; someone who wouldn't let him stop talking.

        Nicky thought Jonah was annoying. Who asks that many questions? He kept digging deep— almost too deep— into Nicky's personal life to the point where he was trying to walk faster to cut the conversation short. Now, he felt like his playlist— consisting mostly of Bob Dylan— wasn't interesting enough to keep him awake so early, and he sorta missed the other boy's talking.

        The more he thought about it, the more he realized Jonah wasn't talking his ear off like he'd remembered it being. Jonah would ask tons of questions, yes, but then he'd listen intently on whatever Nicky had to say. Come to think of it, he didn't once mention himself.