-1"Mom, please just drink it." I begged, holding a glass of water up to her lips. She shook her head and pushed it away, groaning. "You're going to get dehydrated." I said, making a useless last attempt before she leaned over the toilet again. I held her hair back out of her face and waited for her to come back up. "Are you sure your going to be okay?" I asked gently, not wanting to make her headache any worse.
"I'll be fine once I get a drink, Eleanor." She snapped, trying to stand. I steadied her and helped her back to the couch the best I could. She sat down, almost missing the couch completely and started to pour herself another drink. My stomach sank, she'd been throwing up for a half-hour straight and she still wouldn't take a break from her vodka.
"Sean should be here soon, we're going to work on our assignment in my room so we don't bother you." I said as she downed her drink and began pouring another. She nodded, probably not even hearing what I had said. If it had been up to me, we would have gone to Sean's but Tracker had another date and wanted the house to himself. As if on cue, the doorbell rang. "Hey," I said, inviting him inside. He smiled but looked a bit uneasy at the fact that my mother was in the room with us, but I couldn't blame him after the showdown we had a few days earlier. "it's fine, we're just going to work in my room on that assignment." I said, hinting for him to go along with it.
"Oh, yeah that's fine, whatever." He said a little too quickly. I rolled my eyes, he definitely wasn't an actor. We hurried to my room and shut the door behind us for extra privacy. "So, she's so drunk she can't remember what happened the other day?" He asked, referring to her catching us in bed together a few days earlier.
"Sean, she can't even remember her name let alone what happened a few days ago." I said bitterly but dropped it. "So, we should start that assignment we were assigned together for." I laughed, sitting on the edge of my bed.
"Where do you come up with these kind of lies? I'm not dating a pathological liar or something am I?" He teased, leaning in for a kiss. "On second thought, I don't care what kind of liar I'm dating." He mumbled, gently pushing me back on the bed. I felt my body tense up but then relax as his hands met my bare stomach as we began to make out. His hands wandered for awhile on my stomach but eventually they met my pants and I pulled away, pushing on his chest to get him off. "Ellie, I'm sorry." He started, but I put a hand up to stop him.
"No, it's okay. It's not that I don't like it but it's just not the time. I mean, my mom is in the other room and-" I said, stumbling for the right words. It wasn't that I didn't like him but I knew that it wasn't the right time or place for it to go any further.
"It's fine, I just got a little carried away." He said, smoothing my hair. "So, you want to play cards or something? Jay's taught me a thing or two about playing poker, I could teach you. Once we played strip poker and…" He stopped, shaking his head. "Never mind, you don't want to know."
I opened my mouth to disagree but was interrupted by my mother from across the hall. "Sean, I'm sorry. I've got to check on her." I said, hurrying to the bathroom. She'd never thrown up this much after drinking, but I figured it was her drinking combined with the flu or something. "Mom, can I get you something?" I asked, wetting a washcloth and wiping the sweat off of her face with it.
"I'm so tired, Eleanor." She slurred, laying her head against the bathroom cabinet. I frowned and grabbed the glass of water from the counter from earlier and decided to try again but as usual, she refused. "Just let me sleep here." She whined, laying down on the bathroom floor. I nodded and stood, beginning to walk out but stopped when I heard her crying.
"Mom?" I asked softly, turning around to face her. I sat back down on the floor next to her and rubbed her back gently, as if that would make everything better. After a few minutes Sean walked in, checking on me. I shook me head sadly and shrugged, unsure of what to do for her. He gave me a sympathetic look before motioning towards the door.
"I'm going to go, she needs you more than I do right now. I'll talk to you tomorrow though, okay?" He asked softly. I nodded and waved a little goodbye as he left. I knew that he wished I didn't care so much when this happened, but I couldn't stop myself.
"I'm going to go and get you some pillows and a blanket, okay?" I said, deciding to let her sleep in the bathroom. When I returned, she had already fallen asleep. I sighed and covered her up, being sure not to wake her. Turning off the light, I headed back to the living room to clean up the mess of empty bottles and cigarettes. As much as I wanted to be mad at my mother, I couldn't be. Hearing her cry always made me feel guilty for getting upset with her.
I awoke to a crash in the middle of the night and groaned, knowing it was my mother probably searching for another bottle of alcohol. Hadn't she learned anything after a night of throwing up? I forced myself up and walked towards the noise in the kitchen. I tripped over the chair trying to find the light switch in the dark.
"Mom, come on. Do you have any idea what time it is?" I asked, flipping on the light. My heart sped up when I saw her laying on the floor not moving. "Mom, come on." I said again, kneeling down to shake her arm. "Mom?" I asked again, shaking her a little harder. Still no answer. I jumped back as she began having a seizure. I stood frozen for a few seconds, unsure of what to do. I grabbed the phone and quickly dialed 911, not knowing what else to do. As quickly as I could I rambled off my address and begged for them to hurry between cries. Waiting for the ambulance, I pulled out my cell phone and hit speed dial.
"Ugh, hello?" I heard him say, his voice barely audible. "What?" He asked, clearing his throat.
"Sean, it's me. Can you meet me at the hospital?" I cried, unable to keep my composure.
"What? Ellie are you okay? What's going on?" He asked, sounding fully awake now.
"Just meet me there, okay?" I begged, hanging up the phone.