The urge to heave my lungs out makes me lurch from the bed. I hacked once, twice then thrice but nothing came out. The room is still spinning. I blinked back my blurry eyes but it won’t give me clarity.
Another upsurge forces me to hang my head on the side of the bed. I would have crawled my way to the bathroom but acid quickly expels from my mouth and right onto Austin’s rug. Waking up wasted and nursing a medley of aches and pains will never be my favorite but it seems like it has become my routine.
What’s new is the absence of Charlie from the corner of the bed which makes me wonder where she was. I pushed myself up against my protesting limbs.
I open the bedroom door and catch a rarity. Austin bent over and feeding Charlie in the kitchen makes me want to run right back to the room.
He looks up, scans me, and returns to attending to the dog.