Tale!

..."Speak for yourself!"

They got the ice cream they needed and walked to where they could get food stuff.

"You pay for the items while I go get a bottle of wine just for when you drive me crazy."

"I do it for free," Tale replied. "Don't be long though."

It was almost her turn to the cashier when the pain came in slightly, she pressed a hand to her chest trying to soothe the pain but the burning started spreading like wildfire and fear bust through with it.

All of her fears flashed before her eyes as she dropped to the cold tiled floor, leaving her groceries to roll where they please as people surrounded her.

"Tale!" The voice sounded distant but she knew it was Precious. She saw the worry on the face of her best friend as she hoped her eyes conveyed the message she was trying to say through her lips. The pain held her down and showed no mercy but she knew she was to blame. She treated her ulcer as casual as possible. A staff helped carry her up into a small corner room as people made a fuss.

Her visions were not clear but she didn't need to see right to know how worried precious was.

The pain decided to let her be for a minute and she spoke.

"I'm fine, Precious."

There was no answer. Precious was on the phone now, talking, completely worried.

She was going to reach out to touch her friends hand when the second stab came.

She slipped into unconsciousness and wasn't sure for how long, for when she woke up she was in car.

A familiar car.

...

"You called him?"

"Yes I called him!"

"I'm perfectly fine, why did you have to.." The pain hit her worse than before taking the words right out of her mouth.

Su Yan was on the phone now, he spoke Chinese.

He looked at her, both anger and worry played around the beautiful planes of his face.

"When did this start?"

"Leave me alone!"

"You don't want to get me upset right now Tale you really don't!" he said with controlled anger.

"It's been happening for a long time now."

He spoke into the phone again.

Su Yan got off the phone. "Congratulations chicken, you have yourself a good ulcer." he said throwing her a glance.

"Shut up" her eyes were beginning to spin again.

"Stop the car!" Precious yelled

"Tale!" She jumped down to the back seat as she opened the door.

"Jesus Christ you idiot, stay with us we are close to the hospital."

"I'm fine" she said "and stop yelling at me!" she managed on the breath she was forcing out.

Her lungs felt like they were being tied up even worse, and she was feeling light headed.

"Su Yan step on it now."

"Where are we going? Just take me home, my pills are there."

"We are here!"

Su Yan carried her into the hospital and straight to the ER with Precious running along to keep up with his pace.

"I'm fine."

"Just shut up!"

She was getting weaker by the minute and the burning kept spreading, they pulled her into an examining area, and only then did she close her eyes. She didn't want to keep seeing either of their faces, she was going to explain to them that she had everything under control, that there was no need to worry but she decided to not go down that route again.

A doctor came then, said something to Precious and greeted Su Yan before walking to her.

"Hello miss, I am Doctor Thompson."

"I'm Tale, and I am OK."

He smiled at her in a polite way before opening his pad.

"I'm sure you will be soon, I need you to answer a few questions."

She nodded.

Precious and Su Yan walked a bit from them then.

The pain still made its presence known.

But she told herself the faster she cooperate, the sooner all this is over and they would see it wasn't much of a big deal.

She was scared but needed to stay calm for everyone's sake.

"First I am going to check you out, do you understand?"

She nodded again.

She didn't want to say much, she felt her stomach turn again and she felt a bit lightheaded.

Things couldn't get any worse, right? It just couldn't.

She prayed.