I was on the floor, in the aisle actually, trembling violently. Unfortunately, I knew that this wasn't anywhere near the worse of the seizures. It was only the untimely beginning.
I could think, so that wasn't the problem I was facing. The problem at hand was how to get my body under control so that I wouldn't hurt anybody. My strength was so powerful that last time I went into a seizure, I kicked my mom so hard that she sprained her wrist. And, as you may know, my mom is not a pain wuss. But, that time she had to bite her lip just to cry and had to keep on holding me so that I didn't hurt myself.
James jumped out of the booth and crouched down beside me despite his bloody nose. I had clenched all of my muscles as hard as I possibly could to avoid hurting anyone and things were starting to look black from the sheer amount of energy it took to control myself.
"Alanza?" he whispered to me as if no one had noticed even though I knew the entire restaurant was looking at us. "I'm going to call an ambulance."
"No…" I managed to hiss out between shakes. James paused as he rose to his feet, then sank back down. "Call…call m-my pa-pa-pa…rents," I stuttered.
James pulled out of his breast pocket a cell phone and dialed my number. He had only called my house a million times so we could talk on the phone, which led him to memorize my number. Good boy.
"Yes?" I heard him say into the phone although his voice was far, far away. It was like a football announcer; their voice may have been loud, but yet you knew that they weren't directly talking to you. "This is James…Alanza's boyfriend…well, um, she appears to be going into a seizure…yes, I said seizure…no, I don't think she'll be able to be move…she said for me to call you…you know where the restaurant is?…give her what?…milk?…okay, I'll try that…thank you, Mrs. Guevara."
I could barely see, even though I knew that my eyes were opened. I wanted to tell James how sorry I was for ruining our date and that I never meant for this to happen. But, my tongue was thick inside my mouth and refused to cooperate with my still sane brain.
I saw James' fuzzy shape in the background, reaching for the glass of milk he had ordered for dinner. He held it to my lips and said, "Alanza, it's milk. Your mom said that it should help."
Despite the fact I kept on reaching for the glass, I couldn't wrap my hands around it. Tenderly, James tipped it up so the milk sloshed into my mouth. Some of it spilled onto the floor underneath me, wetting my dress, but I could've cared less for my sight was returning.
Our waiter was standing over us, wondering what to do.
Seeing that the milk had eased my seizures, James snapped to the waiter, "Get some more milk!" Immediately, the man scurried off to go and get another pitcher full.
James leaned over me and brushed my hair out of my eyes, not understanding. His face was so sad that I almost burst into tears myself. "It'll be okay, Alanza, it'll be ok," he said to me, but it sounded like he was reassuring himself more than me.
I reached for his hand, missed, and tried again. This time, I was able to clasp his hand in mine. Still unable to talk, I just stared at him, my body still trembling, and prayed he would understand how much he truly meant to me.
At that moment, just as the waiter came back with more milk, the doors to the restaurant flew open. I followed James' eyes to the door where Mom and Dad both came bursting in.
Mom's hair was windblown and her eyes wild and panicked. She wasn't even wearing her jacket. Dad, on the other hand, was better at concealing his fear, but wasn't that good, for I could still see it in his eyes and in his tousled hair. He too, wasn't wearing his leather jacket. They must've really booked to get to the restaurant in the time that they had.
Although my parents and James had never met, I'm pretty sure they figured out who was who when they me shaking on the floor with James right beside me.
James sat frozen, seemingly unable to move in either shock or amazement at the appearance of my parents as they ran towards me. I guess if I hadn't known who they were, I'd be a little bit freaked too. Just because you couldn't see the barcodes, you could sense that these people were powerful. And damn powerful at that.
"Mom…" I managed to creak out. I could feel the tears forming in my eyes as the onset of hysterics drew closer.
James, hearing me, finally got his head on right, and rose to his feet to meet my parents.
"You must be James," my mom said.
"Yes," he acknowledged.
I saw that Dad said nothing, but that wasn't extremely surprising. Mom crouched down beside me and gently cradled my shaking face in her smooth hands. "Alanza? Alanza? Can you hear me?" she asked.
"Yea…"
"We're going to take you home now, honey. Everything will be all right, everything will be all right. Don't you worry."
Dad crouched down and put one arm underneath my neck and the other under my knees. In one fluid move, he lifted me and carried me in his arms, despite the fact I was still shaking. Sometimes it pays to have a super strong dad. "Dad…" I whispered to him.
"'Lanzie," he began, but didn't finish as James came running up to me.
"Alanza," James said to me and rested his hand on my shoulder. "You take care of yourself, ok?"
"She'll be fine," Dad reassured my boyfriend. I really felt sorry for James. His first meeting of the girlfriend's parents had to be in a restaurant when she goes into a seizure. Ouch.
"Let's go, Zack," Mom said to Dad. Then turning to James, "I'll have Alanza give you a call when she's feeling better." Dad began to walk out of the restaurant, with me clutched protectively in his strong arms. My dad hadn't carried me since I was a little girl and needed to be put to bed. Even then, that was so long ago, the memory was nearly lost to me. "Do you need a ride home?" I heard Mom asking James.
"No, I'll be fine."
"Thank you very much for calling us, James."
I didn't hear James' reply as Dad and I stepped out into the night. There were two motorcycles outside-Mom's and mine. Dad got onto mine, and I knew that I was going to have to talk to him about that later. "I know, 'Lanzie, it's your bike, but hey, this isn't exactly a stroll in the park, either." He was just talking to me as if nothing was wrong, as if it really was just a stroll in the park.
Mom came out the restaurant building, not even bothering to apologize to the waiter because James was doing that and got onto her own bike. "You sure you can handle her, Zack?" she asked.
"I got 'er."
"You drop my daughter, I don't think I could forgive you."
"Max, she's mine too." I only wished I could've seen Mom's face as I lay in Dad's lap, his right arm crookedly hanging onto me. For the first time since I could remember, he had admitted that I was part of his doing. I wanted to burst out into tears right then and there, while laughing my full head off.
