Don't Drink The Water! It's Got Anti-Freeze In It!

Chapter 2

It was pitch black outside and most likely somewhere between three and five in the morning when Daniel woke up. At first, he doesn't realize he's awake the only thing he notices is the dull, achy, sick feeling in his stomach.

It takes him a few minutes, but Daniel pries his eyes open. He wants to go back to sleep, honestly, but once he's fully conscious the nausea hits him like wave hits a boat, roughly and increasingly worse by the minute. He rolled over to his side, thinking that somehow it would diminish how crappy he feels. To his dismay, it doesn't. At all. In fact, it just makes it worse. He completely out of Erin's grip now back turned to him and arms wrapped around his middle.

Daniel squeezed his eyes shut, making an attempt to go back to sleep. He breaks out in a cold, clammy sweat and his mouth is watering.

The stomach acid is beginning to make its ascent up the boy's throat and he's snapped up in an instant, jogging to the toilet, hand clamped over his mouth, but his abrupt precaution helps nothing as he ends up losing it as he crossed the threshold of the bathroom, bile and stomach splashing on the tile. Retching noises resonate through the hall first, and then a sickly sounding splutter followed. He walked the last twelve inches of the seemingly impossible journey and manages to finish his bout of vomiting into the bowl.

 He's now covered in sweat and his own puke, feeling absolutely horrible. With every fiber of his being, Daniel really hoped that at this moment Erin didn't wake up and walk in on the situation he's in. He really hates it when people see him at his worst. He hated that he threw up in front of the crew this afternoon and now everyone knew he was sick.

He's so lost in his thoughts of insecurity when another wave of nausea courses through him. He leans back over the toilet and vomits again, the stomach acid stronger. He's basically dry heaving now, at this point.

He didn't realize Erin had entered the bathroom.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Erin doesn't hear Daniel at first. Actually, she noticed when the warmth that was once pressed up against her leaves, but in her half sleepy half awake, she figures that her boyfriend's gotten up to get himself a drink of water or to use the bathroom. She hopes when he wakes up in the morning that he's feeling better. She listened closely for a moment to see if she could hear him vomiting, but she didn't hear anything.

She was still feeling slightly jet-lagged from her flight four hours before and falls back to sleep.

 She's woken up once again after particularly loud coughing and retches fill the room. She's awake in an instant, reaching over to turn on the lamp. Daniel wasn't in the bed beside her and then she heard another retch from the bathroom. She gets out of bed and pads across the room to the bathroom door.

She turned on the small foyer light and pushed open the door to find a puddle of puke on the floor. The light from the hallway shines though, but she turns the main light on anyway to find a sweaty and flushed Daniel with his head resting on the lid of the toilet. The brown-haired boy closes his eyes and groans at the sudden brightness.

"Oh my God, Dan! Why didn't you call for me?" Erin softly exclaims, her protective instincts kicking in. Dan shrugs, unable to speak past the fire in his throat and he was afraid he was going to start gagging again.

Erin sinks down to the ground behind her boyfriend, rubbing reassuring circles on his back. Daniel is still trying to catch his breath, but the nausea is starting to come back up, causing him to tighten up his grip on the toilet.

Taking a deep breath, Daniel tries to throw up again, but unfortunately, it doesn't work. He ends up dry-heaving again instead. It doesn't help his now raw throat. He really wants Erin to leave, but his girlfriend remains as his side through the disgusting retching.