"Ok Jude, you get to pick the movie tonight, and Callie and Jesus go pick out some snacks to eat."
Jude picked Jumanji, while Callie and Jesus rummaged through the kitchen cupboards gathering snakes. They grabbed chips, soda, leftover candy, chocolate chip cookies and put a bag of popcorn in the microwave.
Jesus leaned against the counter opening his favorite snack, vinegar chips. "Callie, have you ever tried these? They are so good!"
"No, I have never had them before."
"Her you should try one."
"No thanks, I would rather not."
"Are you sure? They are delicious." Jesus said walking a little closer to Callie. When he got closer, Callie could smell the strong smell of vinegar, that made her gag a little.
"You ok?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
Callie tried to hold herself back, but the smell was too strong for her to handle. She quickly covered her mouth with her hand, and ran to the bathroom.
Stef and Lena saw Callie running to the bathroom and jumped right into mom mode. Walking into the bathroom they saw Callie kneeling on the floor, puking into the toilet, and crying.
Lena kneeled behind her pulling her hair back, and holding it in place. "Oh sweetheart." Lena started rubbing her back, comforting the sick, crying girl.
"Callie, are you getting sick?" Lena started feeling Callie's forehead, and looking for signs that she could be coming down with something, but she saw nothing.
"No, I'm fine, I'm not sick."
Callie leaned forward again, throwing up once more. "Sweetie are you sure, why are you throwing up?"
"I'm sorry, it won't happen again, I won't get sick."
Stef took a wet washcloth and placed it on Callie's neck, holding it there. "Sweets it's ok if you're sick, you can tell us, we won't get mad."
"I'm not sick, I just smelled something that made me feel nauseous."
"What did you smell?" Lena's was trying to figure out what could she have smelled that made her so sick.
"It was nothing, just Jesus's food."
"Sweets, you threw up because you smelt food, you're probably coming down with something."
"No, it was vinegar."
Stef and Lena looked at each other, they knew whatever Callie was about to tell them wasn't going to be good.
Lena gently rubbed Callie's back. 'Sweetheart, why did the smell of vinegar make you sick?"
"My foster dad would use vinegar as a punishment for "Talking Back" he would make me leave it in my mouth for a really long time, so it would burn. Then he would make me drink the whole bottle of it, if I threw up then I would have to drink more of it. It would always make me so sick, and then he would make me clean up afterword. He did this almost every night that finally I ended up in the hospital, with heart complications from all of the salt I was drinking. I was in the hospital for a week, before getting placed in a different foster home.
Lena and Stef's heart was breaking even more, as they listened to Callie tell her story.
"How long where you in that home?"
"Only 2 months"
"Sweetie, it's ok that you're sick we don't mind when our kids are sick, we are never going to punish you with vinegar, or put anything in your mouth."
"Why not?"
"Because Callie, we love you, we are not going to harm you in anyway."
"But what if I do something bad?"
"Then Lena and I will sit down and talk to you, we are not going to physically punish you."
They watched Callie for a minute, she looks as if she had a war going on inside her head, and a confused look on her face.
"Is there anything else you would like to talk about?"
"No, I want to go watch the movie, if that's ok?"
'Sure thing, here brush your teeth real quick to get that taste out of your mouth, Stef and I will be in the living room, come out when you're done."
Callie brushed her teeth and joined them in the living room. There were two seats that she could sit in. The chair away from everyone, or on the couch in between Stef and Lena. She wanted to sit by them, but she didn't know if they wanted her to.
As if Lena read her mind she said, "You can sit over here if you would like."
Callie sat in between Stef and Lena and snuggled under the blanket. Half way into the movie she fell asleep with her head resting on Stef's shoulder. She didn't know why but the closeness felt so nice.
Let me know if there is anything you would like to see in the story. :)