When I'm With You

Long, agonizing minutes later, I finally feel like I can move my head from the toilet. I drop to my butt and lean against the wall as I test my ability to move without getting sick again.

Slowly, I crawl on my hands and knees until I reach the bed. Bam gives me a sniff before ignoring me to go back to sleep. Lifting my arm, I glance at the clock next to my bed and see that it’s just past four in the morning. With a groan, I reach up and pull my comforter down from the bed before curling up next to Bam’s furry body as the world continues to spin.

I fall back to sleep just as I hear Nikki stumble back to the bed. She mumbles about having no covers, but then her snores fill the air, and I join her a beat later.

I hear my phone vibrating against my nightstand. Peeling open my eyes, I see that the sunlight is now shining through the slats in my blinds. Feeling marginally better, I reach up and grab my phone without moving much of my body.

“’Lo?” I utter into the phone.

“Be quiet,” Nikki grumbles.

“Well, don’t you two sound pleasant this morning,” my sister practically sings in my ear.

“Do you have to be so loud?” I question.

She laughs and I pull the phone from my ear. “Get up and drink tons of water, brat. Take some Advil and trust me when I tell you that you’ll feel better with something bland in your stomach.”

“There is no way in hell I’m putting anything in my stomach,” I force out when just the thought makes my stomach revolt.

“I’m on the way.” She sighs and hangs up.

I drop the phone and curl back up with Bam.

This time, instead of getting a little peaceful sleep, my visions are full of Nate. That kiss. That dance. And his words.

By the time my sister is poking me with her foot, I was so worked up I was seconds away from shoving my hand down my sleep shorts and taking care of my arousal.

He’s put some voodoo curse on me.

My body seems to be stuck in some sort of Nate-induced provocation of lust and need.

“Time to get up, Em!”

I jump at Maddi’s outburst and glare up at her.

“Here,” she says and thrusts a huge bottle of water in my face.

I take it with greed-fueled need, as the dryness in my mouth seems to intensify at the sight of water.

“Slow down,” she says when I take huge pulls and gulps of water, the excess running from the sides of my mouth and onto the top of my shirt. “You’re going to get sick if you drink that fast. Slow down and take these,” she stresses, pulling the bottle away from me and pushing two pills into my mouth before pressing the water back to my lips.

She continues to stand over me until I’ve drunk almost half of the bottle before giving me a piece of toast. I give her a look of disbelief—doubting I’ll be able to actually keep that down—but I take it and slowly nibble. By the time I had finished the second piece, I was feeling less zombie-like and closer to a lukewarm human.

“Better?” she asks knowingly.

“Don’t be a bragger.”

She just laughs at me and helps pull me up from the floor. I look over at Nikki with a smile when I see her finishing some toast of her own.

“Don’t worry, she got to me too. She’s like the hangover Nazi.”

“Go clean yourself up, then meet me in the living room so we can chat,” Maddi says before leaving the room.

“Well,” Nikki says with a mouth full of toast. “You heard the tyrant. Get your ass in gear before she comes back in here with more demands.”

“I heard that,” my sister calls from further in the house.

“I meant for you to!” Nikki yells back.