1
not my best chapter, but I guess I'll deal with it.
Please do NOT hesitate to correct me
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I wake up startled, straight out of a nightmarish night. Several strands of hair fall on my face. I have breathless breath, heart pounding. The light filters through my shutters. My temples are banging hard against my skull. I shouldn't have drank that much last night.
I lie down and stare at the ceiling by putting my hand on my forehead. I have a fever. My t-shirt is crooked and wet. I sigh and rise reluctantly, despite my unwellness. Once on my two feet, the awful feeling that my veins are having fun playing the drum destabilizes me.
I wobble and catch up with my bed. I quickly get out of my room to go to the kitchen, where my mother prepares her breakfast. The pan gives off an infectious smell of burnt eggs.
She turns her head towards me and jumps when she sees my face whiter than white. I must look like a ghost in blatant need of sleep, but I don't care.
"Did you get a good night's sleep, kitten? You know, I finished my Internship yesterday, I can work full time now." she says cheerfully.
"Don't overesome yourself." I say, agreeing.
"No, kitten, I'm off duty tomorrow."
Her soft voice fills the room and gives me a feeling of well-being, much to my chagrin, short-lived. And as I expected, my migraine takes its place at the race pace.
"Can I have a glass of water ?"
"I'll give you this right now!" she replies with a smile.
I stick a fresh hand on my forehead praying inwardly for my fever to go down, which is, let it be say, of course impossible. I make my way to one of the chairs in the kitchen where the scent of burnt requires more and more my attention.
She hands me my glass of water with tenderness. I empty it of a milking while she is talking to me "You came home late last night, were you working ?"
"Yes, sorry."
"Don't worry, that's nothing. You should take a shower, don't you think?"
I nod slowly. The smell of burning embalms my nose and stings my eyes.
"Oh I was going to forget! When I came out of my class, I ran into Carla, remember Carla? She works at the bakery with me! Well, she has a son your age! And then I invited her to dinner tonight at home, she was so nice to me when I was looking for work." she says in a fluent voice.
She starts to rid her plate in the sink, not noticing that she has not eaten at all. She is so distracted.
"Don't you think there's a burning smell?" she suddenly asks.
I nod and point the gas from the chin.
"Oh thin I forgot to remove the pan from the fire!"
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"Kitten... Are you done? Do you want me to help you get into bed?"
I nod, spitting in the toilet bowl, adding my saliva to what I had just come to unhinge.
She hands me toilet paper with which I wipe my mouth, and leans on her shoulder to straighten me. I must say that I am particularly softened and tired. She flushes the toilet and takes me back to my bed.
I hate being sick. When that happens, I can't do anything. I'm like an octopus stranded on the sand, ugly and useless.
She comes back with a bucket and a thermometer. She places the latter in my mouth and the seal near my head.
"Do you want me to put my day down or are you going to be okay?"
"Don't worry…" I answer with a semblance of a smile.
"Rest, kitten."
The thermometer starts ringing. She takes it and turns it off by putting a hand in my hair.
"My bad you're so hot. I give you a Tylenol, and you sleep, okay?"
I'm powerless. As I put the duvet on top of me, my mother leaves my room and heads into the opposite room, the bathroom.
I hear the familiar 'clap' of the medicine cabinet behind the mirror and the regular noise of the heeled boots my mother wears when she goes to work.
She finally reappears in front of the door brandishes the medicine, as well as a small bottle of water.
"Send me a message if Sasha's back. I'm going to work! I love you kitten." she says by placing the medicine and the bottle on my nightstand.
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I wake up with the sound of voices that are familiar to me. I get up in bed and see my sister who is playing, as usual, online games on my laptop.
I reach out on the floor and pick up a used handkerchief. I think I blew my nose in it yesterday. I throw it at that ungrateful with a sigh. Let her go to purgatory, with my computer if the heart tells her. The paper ball remains clinging to her hair, offering an even more pitiful image of her.
"Hey you, get out of my room I'm sick.
"I'm better at yours." she justifies, removing her helmet from which no sound comes out.
"I don't care, crazy witch, with your two big eyes weren't you able to see that I was sleeping?"
"I'm blind."
"Yes, and I'm straight." I retort ironically.
"Mum sent me a message telling me that you had to fix your macabé face before her colleague comes to eat."
"I wasn't going to get out of bed, problem solved."
"You have to say hello and eat with us. Otherwise Mom will look like a bad mother, while it's her son who is just stupid." she says, removing my handkerchief from her messy ponytail.
" I'm sorry, I thought you'd be a good example."
"You look pretty fine for a sick guy." she changes the subject, running out of spades to throw me back.
" Shut up. That's because I'm small, the drugs work faster. "
She laughs hard. I join her, passing a hand on my face and in my hair, whose brown hue no longer deceives anyone because of my roots.
" You should stop, you know, she takes on a more serious air, it's a hair-loss. "
She sweeps my room with her eyes as I send a message to our mother. "I feel better, I'm going to work."
To which she replied —at a prodigious speed for that matter— I quote : "Great, stay tonight, please, Carla is coming with her son, it would be a shame if he was alone.",
She rarely asks me to take time off, knowing full well that I can't always afford it, but also because she feels it's up to me to know when to rest outside my usual hours. I guess I can't say no.
"Alright, I stay." I type before locking my phone down.
" Do you work tonight ? " Asks Sacha stodgy as he stares at my clothes hanging from a hanger.
" No, not tonight. " I answer, getting out of bed.
" That's it, that's it. That's what you always say, but then you go away anyway. If it was Mom who asked you to take time off, I forbid you to walk away. " she says in a harsh tone.
I throw my pillow at her head and get out of my room with my towel in hand.
" I won't help you to escape, Levi "
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Okay I'm not a machine so I won't publish at a regular rythm. It takes time to translate all my chapters and making the layout :')
