Trusting You

seven.

☻ Oaklee ☻

It's hard to think that some years ago I didn't look upon this boy with such hatred; in fact, he used to make me happy. The way his face would light up when he talked about doing what he loved, or how he would look at me like I was crazy when I wanted to stay in. I used to be completely and utterly in love with him. Now I can't look at him with anything but contempt.

Watching him stand in front of me looking bored out of his mind makes me want to slap the shit out of him. God, I hate that asshole.

When I came in for my shift at the library this morning, I was already in a shitty mood. My head was pounding from a migraine, and all I wanted to do was crawl in bed, but couldn't get that. The next best thing would be a peaceful day at the library that would pay me $13 an hour to just watch people come in and have limited social interaction. Of course, I didn't get that either.

Instead, I had to deal with this dumbass in front of me.

I had already snapped at him because he was complaining about having to walk around while I got to sit. Well asshole, I feel like shit and I'm in charge, so fuck off. I snapped my fingers in his face and made a shooing motion so that he would finally leave and go put away the books like I had told him to. I had just settled back into the semi-comfortable chair behind the counter when someone walked up to me.

I slowly looked up, making note of the ugly flannel that was covering a white t-shirt. Were flannels still a thing? I didn't think so. After he didn't speak, I forced a smile on my face, one that should have won me an Oscar because I was convincing enough for him to smile back even though I was picturing stabbing him in the eye for ruining my peace.

"Hi, how can I help you?" I greet him in my most welcoming voice I can muster up. "Well, that depends. Can you help me find a book for my chemistry class? I have a paper coming up on the atom and who discovered all that junk and I have no idea where to start."

"Uh yeah, I should be able to help with that." I turned towards the computer that just happened to be right next to where I was sitting and clicked on the running list we had of every book in the library and its most recent check-in and check-out dates. I moved the cursor to the search bar and typed in atoms, then grabbed a sticky note and a pen. "I'm going to write down the titles of all the books we have relating to atoms along with their authors. That should help get you started. The chemistry section is the farthest 3 bookshelves in that direction," I pointed in the direction I was referring to, continuing to hold a smile, "if you can't find it, there should be a boy walking around here. Dark hair, brooding look on his face, carrying a stack of books- shouldnt be easy to miss. Ask him and he'll take you to it. " I ended my long ass speech and handed over the sticky note.

The poor boy looked lost and stressed, and usually I would just drag myself out of the chair and take him where he needed to go, but there was no way I could get up without making the pounding in my head worse, so that wasn't going to happen. "Uh, not to be a pain, but can you just show me where it is?"

I heaved the longest sigh I had all day and debated just laying my head on the counter and ignoring him. However, instead of taking the easy route, I explained myself in the nicest, most respectful way possible. "Look dude, I'm tired as hell and my head feels like it's about to explode right here and now and if I get up, I know for a fact that it will and I don't particularly feel like cleaning up that mess, do you? So please, please don't make me get up and take you 25 steps that way just to have to walk back and start again. I will die."

Yes, I did just beg this poor guy to leave me alone, and I will do it again. I was not playing when I said my head was going to explode. The poor guy looked like he didn't know whether to run or apologize, so I just sent him one last pleading face and finally he nodded.

"Okay, uh, well thank you for your help anyway. I hope you feel better soon, or at least can leave soon." I threw my thumb up in the air to signal I heard him and appreciated him not making me get up before I slowly put my head back onto the cold counter.

I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew I was being shaken. I quickly lifted my head from the counter and immediately felt nauseous. God, I just wanna go home. Please let me go home. When I finally saw who had been shaking me, I groaned.

"What's your problem?" Reece asked me, looking disgusted that he was even speaking to me. "My head is killing me." I groan out like a toddler who has a fever. "Migraine?" That might seem obvious, but most people would just write it off as a simple headache. Since I was little, I struggled with migraines. They got so bad that sometimes I would have to stay in bed all day with a bucket glued to my side for when I threw up.

That symptom wasn't as common; mine was just really bad. There had been plenty of times that I had had to cancel a date with Reece in favor of sleeping in a pitch-black room. Early on, he would just come over and take care of me until I could finally sleep, but closer to the end, he would just leave me be. This one wasn't as bad or debilitating as those had been, but it was close. It honestly surprised me that he would even think of that.

"Uh ya, migraine." I tell him. "Do you need me to get a trash can for you or something? You can head home if you want. It's almost closing anyway." He reasons.  The first thing that came to my head was, How in the hell did he remember that I would feel nauseous?"The next thing that ran through my head was, it was almost closing time?

What the fuck?

I looked around quickly and noticed we had significantly fewer people than we had before and that the sun was down.  "Uh, no. No, I'll stay. You don't have a key. " I had barely turned to look at him when he started digging into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys.

"The boss gave them to me yesterday. She was planning to have me close up this weekend, so it's fine, just go." He tells me like he just wants me to leave already.

I had opened my mouth to argue and say I would close when he shook his head as if telling me to not even try and reason with him. "Ugh, fine." With those as my parting words, I grabbed all of my stuff and headed towards the door, finally on my way to paradise-my bed.

When I finally reached my house, my head was pounding like those asshole upstairs neighbors that love to run around and move furniture in the middle of the night. I ran into my kitchen to see if I could find my old migraine medication. I searched through almost every drawer until I finally stumbled upon the medicine bottle. I shook it and I swear I almost cried when I heard a little rattle from the last pill in the container. I had never refilled it because I didn't think I would need to. I hadn't had a migraine like this in a while, so I kept forgetting. I grabbed water from my fridge and swallowed the pill before washing it down with the aforementioned beverage.

After setting the empty container on the counter and making a mental note to call and get it filled in the morning, I ran upstairs. Nia was waiting for me on my bed and as much as I wanted to just throw myself onto it and sink into the ultra warm covers, I knew she hadn't been out in hours, so I sucked it up and took her outside.

Thank God I have the best dog because instead of sniffing around the front yard for years, she just sniffed a bit, did her business, and trotted up the steps back to me. I gave her a little head rub and finally locked my door for the night. We raced upstairs and both jumped right into the covers That hadn't left my mind all day.

I got comfortable, not worrying about setting an alarm because I knew I would likely still be battling the same headache in the morning and all I would want would be to sleep, plus I didn't have to work tomorrow nor did I have any classes.
Right before I drifted off into a blissful, painless slumber, my phone chimed, but I ignored it as I gave into sleep.

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