Chp.24- Bitter

Fayth Martins.

"I told you to stay at home, but you didn't want to listen to me. Now look at this." My mother sat next to me on the hospital bed, her eyes red and puffy--a clear Indication she had been crying, and a deep frown on her face as she held onto my hands tightly.

"I didn't think it'd be this bad." I barely whispered. I was exhausted. Drained. Tired and too weak to even speak properly. There were drips connected to my arms and an abandoned plate of beans and yam on the bedside table. That thing was basically tasteless, how exactly did they expect me to eat that shit? I basically had to force myself to eat a few spoons because mom commanded I ate. I also had to take my evening drugs.

I'd been stuck in this place for two days now. Mom was absolutely terrified when she and Dad rushed into the clinic to find me in a hospital bed, my classroom teacher and vice principal standing next to my bed like bodyguards. Mom had not stopped reminding me about how she insisted I stayed home that day.

Mom didn't leave my side throughout the day, and the next. Dad, Uncle David and Lase would come during the day, but go back home at night. It'd been three days since I'd been stuck here now, all I wanted was for everything to go back to normal and for me to go back home. Unfortunately, the doctors insisted I stayed until my period was over, which normally took 6 days.

"Mooom..." I drawled, wincing as another sharp pang shot through my abdomen. "It's not my fault my body doesn't work properly. It's not like I enjoy the uncomfortable pain, and I just wanted to pretend everything was fine. I couldn't let a little, or not so little, flow of blood stop my studying."

Mom pursed her lips, wiping a hand across her cheek, and sighed. "It's not your fault, Fayth. We're not blaming you."

"We? There's no we. It's just you," I huffed.

"And Dad," she retorted, causing me to frown. "Dad's not blaming you, either."

I opened my mouth to reply but a wave of dizziness hit me, making me clutch my head. A low moan escaped my lips as the dull throbbing intensified into a pulsing hammer in my temples.

"Take these." My mother extended two white pills and a cup of water. Painfully, I accepted it. Swallowing it wasn't easy. Nothing was these days. They said it'd reduce my pain. Honestly, all I wanted was to go home and rest in my own bed.

She simply stroked my hair and replied in a whisper, "I just want you to be okay, Fayth. I love you, and it hurts me to see you in so much pain."

A soft sigh came out of my mom's lips as she squeezed my hands lightly, comforting me in her own quiet way. The maternal worry in her eyes was almost too much to bear. I knew how much my health pained her.

"Let's try to sleep, my love." She suggested quietly, standing up from her chair to lay on the small bed with me. Gently she cradled me in her arms and slowly, to the rhythm of her heartbeat, I didn't reply, tears prickling at the corners of my eyes as I fell into a fitful sleep, filled with dreams of a world where my period didn't feel like a death sentence every month. Where I could just be a normal girl.

~•~

"Don't forget to do the assignment I gave you. Have a good day, class." The man nodded at them as the murmured a series of 'you too, sir'.

Dazzline quickly packed up her textbooks and put them in her bag before turning to her best friend, Aaliyah.

"You're ready?" She asked her friend who nodded her head in response.

"Hold on, let me drop my notebook at Mr Harrison's office first, then we can both go." She stood up, an higher education notebook tucked under her arm. Alyshia, who was sitting behind them today, poked her head in between the two.

"Are you guys going to visit Fayth at the hospital?" She asked the two.

"Yeah. You wanna come with?"

"Umm, is that even a question? Ofcourse I want to come!"

"Where are we going?" Ayden, her twin asked as he was passing by to toss a biscuit wrapper in the class bin.

"We're going to visit Fayth in the hospital. She's been there for three days now." Alyshia stated.

"Didn't think menstrual pain could be so bad that it'd land one to a hospital." Kinfesioluwa Makinde joined the conversation as she sat on Dazzline's desk.

"She lost a lot of blood apparently.Anaemia. So they have to keep a close eye on her and restore all the blood she lost."

"Damn," Kinfe winced, feeling bad for Fayth. "I'll come too. How far is the hospital?"

"Not too far. 20 minutes walk, 10 minutes drive. Maybe less." Dazzline shrugged.

"Who else wants to follow us to visit Fayth in the hospital?" Alyshia suddenly announced, facing the rest of her classmates. They all paused.

"Sure"

"I'm not sure I can..."

"Ofcourse! When are we going?"

Denise scoffed, mumbling bitter words under her breath. "-acting as if she's some celebrity. Is she the first girl to see her period?"

"You bitter bit*ch-" Kinfe narrowed her eyes at her as Dazzline and Alyshia both hissed at her.

"We don't want you coming with us in the first place. You and your negative vibes and friends can shove your bratty attitude up your black as*s." Dazzline stood up to face her as she spat the words. Denise gasped, then she glared at her. She couldn't come up with a come back so she stormed off, intentionally shoving Dazzline by the shoulder as she did.

"Idiot." Dazzline hissed again.

"Hey Dazz!" Dazzline turned to look at who called her. "Izaak, Naya and I will come too." She flashed a grin at Zephan and nodded.

Immediately Aaliyah had returned from the IT room, Dazzline and the rest left school to go visit their friend, Fayth. Trekking was new to some of them, and the scorching sun felt like punishment on them, so they bought themselves cold as ice bottle waters and resumed their journey to Sparkview Medical center.