Dante: Chapter 25

“Hey, Kat,” a soft voice says, and I figure I’m dreaming because nobody talks to me anymore. Hands are brushing my hair back from my face and there’s a damp cloth wiping over my jaw too. My eyelids flutter open.

“Joey?”

“You were sick,” she says, her face pulled into a frown.

“Yeah,” I say, my head throbbing as I shuffle into a sitting position. I remember now. It came on so suddenly and violently that I couldn’t even make it to the bathroom. And then I think I passed out.

“How long have you been sick like this?”

“A few days.”

“Are you keeping anything down?”

“No,” I say. I don’t even have the energy to shake my head.

“Is this normal in pregnancy?”

“No. I think it might be… I might have hyperemesis gravidarum. My mom had it with me.”

“What the hell is that?”

“A fancy way of saying extreme morning sickness.” I give a feeble laugh.

I’m pretty sure Joey isn’t really here and I’m hallucinating or something. I wonder why it’s her of all people I’m seeing though. I mean, I thought it would be my mom or my grandma.

My eyes fixate on her face as my brain wakes up a little more. Dream Joey has a huge purple bruise on her cheek.

She covers it with her hand when she sees me staring.

“I’m sorry he did that to you because of me,” I whisper, even though she’s not real.

“It wasn’t Dante,” she says as she places her hand on my forehead. “Kat I’m really worried about you.”

“I think I need to go to hospital, Joey,” I croak. My throat is so dry from lack of fluids that it hurts to even talk.

Dream Joey squeezes my hand. She must be a dream. She’s never this nice to me. “I’ll go speak to Dante.”