The Beard

Chapter Twenty-One

Midterms come and go and so does my tolerance level. Sebastian has done well to avoid me for the rest of October, not that I was exactly searching him out. The boat is just about getting ready to sail because I'm getting tired of this constant run around. After his confession, my mind has been filled with loads of questions and thoughts. He's all I can think about and I feel like all the work I had done to distance myself, has inevitably come tumbling down.

October was really just a bust. Halloween passed with m doing nothing but handing out candy to the little kitties, orchildren, if you will. This has been the first Halloween that I've felt so lonely. Since elementary school, Jenny and I have been going trick or treating together before Micah joined us in middle school. As we got older, we stopped hunting for candy, instead having movie nights or just hanging out.

Since we are no friends, per se, my Halloween was spent by my lonesome. Even my parents had plans, some costume party they had been invited to. It made me wonder what Jenny and Micah had done that night too.

The shift into November was a lot more smooth, to say the least. I can't say the same for the weather. Though October had been pretty chilly, November was a whole new cold. While I was able to get away with wearing sweaters for warmth a week ago, now I'm bound by a thick jacket to keep the cold at bay. It doesn't help that it's also been raining frequently which isn't extraordinary for Elderwood.

But with rain and wind comes sickness. It's finally hit me as I lay on my bed sniffling and coughing. This could also be an extremely late reaction to helping Sebastian a couple weeks ago. But my house seems to be a thousand degrees and below freezing at the same time. Amy right leg is sitting outside of the covers while the left is nestling safely in the warmth. It only works to have half of my body out so I can be cool and warm at the same time. Flu season is really the worst season.

"Emie, baby, I know this cold is leaving you without an appetite, but you need to eat something." My mom comes into my room, a bowl held in her hands. She has a long dish rag wrapped around the curve of the bowl so her hands don't burn.

"My stomach is in shambles, mom," I say, shaking my head as she holds the bowl out to me. She gives me a small look before setting the bowl on my nightstand.

"Okay, let's see." She bends slightly and places her hand on my forehead, quickly moving to my cheeks and down my neck. "Well, you definitely have a fever. Do you feel nauseous?"

I nod my head because it's the truth. I haven't felt this terrible in a while, save for the common cold, but can I really count that?

"Stomach virus?" I question because that's what I'm thinking it is.

"Maybe, I'd have to take you to the doctor to really see," she gives me an apologetic look, knowing how much I hat the doctors. "Do you want to go or do you want to wait this out? I highly suggest we go, Em."

With my mom working at the local doctors office, she's a bit on the safer side. That's understandable seeing as she is a nurse and she knows how not washing your hands could cause a fatal disease to ravage your body. She's never want that to happen to her child so she naturally would suggest I get a checkup for even a simple cough.

"Yeah," I sigh, resigned because now I'll inevitably have to pee in a cup them get one of those butterfly shots. "I'll go. We can just go for a sick visit, right?"

"Of course, baby." My mom nods.

I'm happy to say that I'm still part of my parents insurance. This is why I still go to a pediatrician though I'm coming up on eighteen years old. As part of her insurance, I'll be covered even when I reach adulthood, but it does stop once I turn twenty-one.