February finally rounded itself around the corner, and the production for our play had just been completely finished. All the costumes had been ordered and made, and the cast had their lines and blocking down cold, which pleased Ms. Lutter very much. As the days went by, I got more and more nervous. Now it was the night before opening night, and my stomach had driven its course over to the medicine cabinet on the eve of the first show.
"My Juliet." Taylor whispered into my ear.
"My Romeo." I whispered back.
We were doing our homework, but after some distractions, I found myself sitting on the edge of my bed and Taylor sitting behind me on his knees with his arms wrapped around my waist. He was whispering sweet talk into my ears, and I was repeating his words.
I felt his lips go down to my neck, and he started rocking us back and forth.
"I love you." I heard him muffle out from my neck.
"I love you too, baby." I replied, and closed my eyes, smiling.
There was a knock at my bedroom door. Immediately, Taylor let go of me and went back to his math book. I put my reading glasses back on and grabbed my English notebook and re-located to my previous position on the floor next to my bed. Then my dad walked in.
"Noelle, Taylor, dinner's on the table. Diana cooked spaghetti for us." he said, and started to walk out.
"My mom's here?" Brian asked, looking up from his book.
"Yeah, she came over about an hour ago." my Dad replied.
"Oh." he said.
"Daddy?" I piped up.
"Yeah?" he replied.
"Can Taylor and I eat up in here, please?" I asked.
"Noelle-" he started to say.
"Daddy, I won't spill anything, but if I do, I'll clean it immediately. Please?" I interrupted softly with pleading eyes and a toothy grin.
"Okay." he gave in.
"Thanks, daddy." I said softly, and got up to kiss his cheek.
Taylor and I filled up our plates with spaghetti and garlic bread and brought them upstairs. Instead of eating from seperate plates, we shared each others. A few times we'd swirl a forkful of pasta on our own utensils, and a noodle would be caught in both forks, so we would eat and have the same noodle, and then our lips would meet in the middle for a kiss.
After dinner, we finished our homework, and Taylor and Diana went home.
Sometime after three o'clock in the morning, I woke up in a bed of my sweat. Tiredly, I got up and went to go turn the furnace off. I went back into my room and kicked the covers of my bed and turned my ceiling fan on. Then I fell asleep later after laying for awhile, tossing and turning.
"Ohhh..." I moaned, waking up to an immense amount of pain in my head and my stomach. I laid in my bed for awhile, moaning for the pain to go away.
Later my dad came in to wake me up. "Noelle, are you okay?" he asked, feeling my forehead.
"No." I groaned.
"You don't have a fever. What hurts?" he questioned.
"My head, but my stomach hurts more." I replied, clutching it for effect.
"You feel like you might throw up?" he asked.
My eyes got big. "Excuse me." I muttered, and shot out of my bed and into the bathroom.
My dad came into the bathroom to see if I was okay. He found me retching into the toilet.
"You're staying home." he stated.
"I can't." I argued, coughing. "The show is tonight."
"I know, but you can't perform in this condition. Here, take these pills while I go call the school to confirm your absence." he said, handing me four pink tablets.
"Daddy? Will you-" Whoops, wait, he can't know about me and Taylor. "Um, nevermind." I changed my mind.
"What?" he asked.
"Nothing, I forgot." I lied.
My dad called the school and then left me some medicine and said he'd call periodically. I went back to bed with an empty stomach, sore body, and an aching head.
Rrriinngg!!!! Rrriinngg!!! Rrriinngg!!!
"Hello?" I groggily asked.
"Sweetheart, what's wrong? How come you're not in school? I'm very worried." A worried Taylor asked on the other end.
"Tay, tell Ms. Lutter I can't perform tonight." I said, groaning from the pain and from the disappointment of my not performing that night.
"What's wrong?" he reiterated.
"I'm sick. I've puked, my whole body aches, and my head feels like it's going to explode. Dad won't let me perform tonight." I replied.
"Hell no you're not." he agreed.
"But Taylor, I've worked my ass off for this. At least you're not sick and you can perform tonight." I tried to look on the upside of the downfall.
"I'm not going to because I'm going to take care of you." he stated.
"Oh no, you can't do that because of me, mhmm." The pain started to increase in my stomach.
"Noelle, are you okay?" he asked when he heard me moan.
"Mhmhmm, Taylor, can you...hang on a...sec?" I didn't wait for his answer and I ran into the bathroom to empty myself again.
I crawled back to the phone after a minute or so. "Sweetie?" he asked.
"I just retched. Taylor you're performing tonight whether I'm healthy or I'm dying." I ordered.
"Can I at least come over after school to see how you are?" he asked for permission.
"Only if you perform tonight." I bargained.
"Okay." he agreed.