Three days later I felt like absolute Hell. I had thought my morning sickness had subsided but it was back with vicious vengeance. My whole apartment was a mess and I was thrown on my sofa; sweating, shaking and miserable. I hadn't kept anything but water and a half slice of bread down in two days. I had phoned the doctor and he had said to ring an ambulance if it went to four days. I felt weak and extremely vulnerable as I lay there, stomach still heaving.
"Please give it a rest, kiddo. There's nothing left in there to come out." I begged quietly, feeling the familiar sensation in my throat; the hot saliva and bile building up, the horrible wrenching feeling in my stomach. I pulled myself up and shakily walked toward the bathroom – I had developed a fear of the toilet since this had all started a month previous. It felt like I had spent more time with my head in it than I had with my ass on it. My stomach convulsed painfully as I crouched over it and the choking noise reverberated off the ceramic walls, my throat burning with the effort of it all. It was at that precise moment there was a knock at the door.
"Be right there." I croaked, knowing full well my voice wouldn't carry. I gave myself a second to compose myself before standing up, splashing water in my face and walking to the door. Upon opening it I groaned.
"What do you want?" I asked. There could not be a worse time for Billy Darley to be at my door.
"You look a bit worse for wear, what's wrong?" he asked, scanning my face and body.
"It's called being pregnant Billy. What is it you want?" I asked again.
"I wanted to talk to you." He said and I didn't have the energy to argue so I walked away leaving the door open for him to follow and crawled back onto my sofa, lying down.
"So talk." I said when he sat down on the chair.
"So you're really pregnant then?" he asked and I just looked at him as if to say 'are you fucking kidding me?', and he moved on to his next question. "How sure are you that it's mine?"
"I, unlike you don't sleep around Billy. I was with another guy about a month ago, but they told me in my scan I'm almost three months gone. So you're the only one it can be." I answered quietly, putting my hand on my forehead to try cool down.
"Can we get a test?", I looked at him.
"Not when I'm pregnant, it's dangerous to the baby and invasive. But when it's born, sure - whatever." I said and rose shakily again to go to the bathroom.
"Where are you going?" he asked but I didn't answer, I just let the retching noises speak for themselves. Upon my return he was studying me.
"You don't look so good at all. Have you been to the doctor?" he asked.
"I rang him, he doesn't do house calls but if I'm like this tomorrow I've to ring an ambulance because it will have been four days." I answered. My head was throbbing.
"Why didn't you go to his office to show him how bad you really are? I think you should already be in hospital."
"I can barely walk, how do you suppose I get the whole way to his office? I'll ring an ambulance tomorrow." I replied, this interrogation was taking it out of me. He was silent for a minute until,
"Okay, come on. I'll take you now." He said standing up.
"No." I said but he kept nagging so I pulled myself up and got dressed, taking one more trip to the bathroom before leaving with him.
