Page 106 of Lyric Squared

“Shit, Lyric,”I chastised as I tossed my legs over the bed and stood to my feet.

It felt as if my world had been flipped upside down once I was upright. My plan to speed walk to the bathroom was quickly put to rest the minute I began seeing small, invisible capsules of space floating in the air. Lowering myself back onto the bed and closing my eyes to stop my world from spinning was my only option.

Wait. Wait. Wait, I thought, trying to make sense of the fuzziness of my head.

Once the aching subsided and I felt as if I’d gotten my bearings together somewhat, I reopened my eyes and stood tall. This time, there weren't any little speckles of nothingnessfluttering through the air. I made it to the bathroom connected to my bedroom unharmed.

When I arrived, my desire to feel the coolness of the floor against my skin overruled any other thoughts circling around my head. Slowly, I lowered my body an inch at a time until I made contact with the floor. The cold tiles against the skin of my arm was nearly painful at first, but the pain quickly transformed into relief as I continued to descend.

“Ahhhhhh,” sighing, I wrapped my arms around my body.

Oh, Em. For two days straight, I’d nursed my niece back to perfect health after she’d caught a virus from one of her friends at school. To avoid spreading it throughout the household, I agreed to keep an eye on her. Our biggest concern was Ever’s health. No one wanted to chance her stressing the baby if Emorey happened to share her virus with the rest of them. I sacrificed myself for my little human, and I was about to pay for it.

For the last hour, I’d laid awake in bed feeling as if a truck had been dumped onto my body. The achiness was agonizing coupled with nauseousness, and I was pretty darn close to making an emergency call to one of my family members.

Oh God. It felt as if my insides were attempting to escape through my nose and mouth. Quickly, I sat up on the floor and leaned my head over the toilet, clinging to the seat with my hands. Everything I’d consumed for the last twenty-four hours tried to evacuate my body at once.

My stomach caved and my throat burned while I continued heaving, each time filling the toilet bowl with more contents of my stomach. I wasn’t sure how Emorey had managed to stay up in spirits while going through the same, but baby girl was a rider. As for me, I wanted to call crying to my mother.

“Shit!” I yelled, spitting out what I expected to be the last of my session.

My nose watered, running down my lips and slightly into my mouth. I wiped it all with the end of my shirt. The taste of puke in my mouth was repulsive enough to have me leaning over the toilet again. This time, the gagging produced nothing. My stomach was completely empty.

I flushed the toilet to get rid of the smell as much as possible. That alone was making me feel as if I needed to puke again. When I was finally able to stand to my feet, I realized just how much better I felt. I wasn’t one hundred percent, but I was so much better than I was when I walked into the bathroom.

I turned the handle for cold water, then proceeded to rinse my hands and then my mouth. Once I’d spit out a few handfuls of water, I grabbed my toothbrush and squeezed toothpaste onto it. The second it touched my tongue, my doorbell sounded.

There was only one person who hadn’t been scanned into my system yet. Assuming it was him that had shown up to my house unannounced and uninvited, I took my precious time finishing up in the bathroom. Then, I took the stairs that led to the first level in order to reach my front door. When I heard little voices on the other side, my heart danced in my chest.

“Why didn’t you just come in?” I asked Luca when I opened the door.

“Trying to respect your space. You’re in a relationship and shit. I don’t want to walk in on some shit I’ll regret seeing the rest of my life. Especially not with the girls.”

My family, most of them, was still convinced that Collin was in my life. Though it had been Keanu that was occupying my time, I allowed them to think whatever it was they wanted to.

“I’m alone, Luca.”

“Ever’s in labor,” he rushed out. Though calm, I could tell that he was excited to meet his new addition.

“Ever’s in labor?” I asked the rhetorical question. “Oh my God. For how long?”

“For like the last four hours. Her water broke about forty-five minutes ago. We’re not sure when this nigga coming. I need you to handle the girls for me this morning.”

They all stood next to him with smiling faces, even Elle. She was usually in Luca’s arms, but his hands were full.

“Of course! Did you bring baby girl some boobie milk from breakfast?”

Elle only consumed her mother’s breast milk as her beverage of choice if it wasn’t water she was drinking. In the last few weeks, Ever had been training her to drink out of a cup so that she could give her boobs a bit of a break before the baby came. I assumed she had a feeling he was on the way although he wasn’t due for another week or so.

“Yeah. I put it on ice. She just let her nurse right before her water broke. Elle should be good. You can give her some water and send the milk to school with her.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“You good? You look like shit,” Luca stated the obvious.

“I am now.”

Nodding, I took the girls’ bags from his hand and ushered them all into the house. “Come on, gang.”