New Story - With new ideas and directions to hand. I'm writing this and posting it straight onto Steemit - You can not get more exclusive than that! 21

She didn’t wake up for school the next morning and that meant she was late for Justin’s too.

It wasn’t until past noon that her mother realised what had happened in the night and went up to check on Ash.

Ash was groggy and took a few shakes to stir her from her sleep.

“Who gave you these tablets?” her mum asked in a panicked tone.

“I went to get some paracetamol… couldn’t sleep… hurting…”

“These aren’t paracetamol! You could have died!”

“I jus’ wanna sleep,” Ash slurred.

“No! You can’t! Get up! Wake up, Ash!” She pulled Ash from the bed and dragged the protesting and injured child to the bathroom.

She filled a glass with water and helped Ash as she drank it. She re-filled the glass and handed it to Ash, who shook her head gently to say she didn’t want any more.

“Drink it!” she said, thrusting the glass into Ash’s hand.

Ash drank maybe half the water.

‘All of it!”

“Mum, I don’t want…”

Ash was then forced to drink the rest of the water, her mum held the glass to her swollen lips and Ash knew if she didn’t drink it, she’d be wearing it.

“Mum, what’s wrong?”

“You silly cow! You took my sleeping tablets, not paracetamol. I’m only supposed to take one and you took two! You’ve gone and overdosed, you’re lucky you woke up at all!”

“Will I have to go to the hospital?”

“Not if I can help it! Looking like that? I don’t think so!”

“Can I go back to bed? I’m still tired…”

“No. You need to puke those tablets up.” She pulled Ash up off the toilet seat and turned her around.

Ash didn’t want to but figured she’d better do as her mum said.

“I can’t puke…” she said.

“Put your fingers in your mouth and reach back towards your throat,” she said.

“Mum…”

“Just bloody do it!”

Ash turned her head to look at her mum. Her voice didn’t sound angry for once, it sounded scared.

Ash took a moment to decide and then leaned over the toilet bowl and put her fingers into her mouth.

She gagged but didn’t vomit and she tried again… and again.

The vomit she finally expelled from her mouth was more liquid than anything of any substance, all the water she’d been forced to drink and bits of other stuff. The vomit was a greenish-yellow, mostly bile.

Ash put both hands on either side of the toilet bowl and hung her head. She felt exhausted. Then her legs gave way and her mum caught her around her middle as she fell.

Ash woke up back in her bed. A cold flannel had been placed over her eyes and though the cloth had warmed up, it still felt quite nice and blocked out the light.

Ash moved the flannel and looked around the room.

A glass of water stood at the side of her mattress and she sat up a little and drank it all down.

Ash leaned back onto her pillow and dozed back off to sleep.

When she woke again, bursting for a pee, the glass was full again and she giggled at the thought of a never-ending glass of water.

Then she went to pee.

Ash went downstairs, when she had dressed and found her mother in the living room.

“I think I’m going for a walk,” Ash said.

Her mother, sitting in the armchair facing the television looked up at Ash. She studied her for a moment. “Don’t go far and come right back home if you feel unwell.”

“I will.”

Ash strolled around to Justin’s house. She unlocked the door and walked in. She heard voices talking but the voices stopped before she opened the door from the kitchen to the living room.

Robin turned to look at her and his face told the story of how bad she looked.

“What the fuck..?” he said.

“Fucking hell, kid. Did anyone get the number of the truck?” Justin asked.

“What truck?” Ash said, then realised what he meant.

“No truck, but I think I know who did it,” she said and sat down next to Robin.

“Go and make him a cuppa,” Justin said. “And bring me a beer!”

Robin got up and went to the kitchen. “Speak up, I can’t hear you over the kettle,” he said.

“He’s not bloody said anything yet,” Justin called back.

Robin brought the drinks in and handed Ash a cuppa. He gave Justin his can already opened for him.

As Justin poured his beer into his glass, Ash started her story.

“Some fucker was waiting for me when I went home last night,” she said.

“well you’ll not be going home on your own any more. Rob will go with you and come back here after if he needs to,” Justin said.

Ash shook her head. “No, the bastard that did this will be able to cope with us two without any problem. He only stopped when someone shouted. Otherwise, I don’t think he’d have left me to get away.”

Justin’s paled face went a shade paler as he realised that the kid knew what the score was and understood what almost happened.

“But that’s not the biggest laugh of last night,” Ash said.

“Biggest laugh? What is there to laugh about?” Robin said.

Ash looked at him and he had to lower his eyes because he couldn’t bear looking at her injuries. “Well, that guy didn’t kill me, but I almost did. I took my mum’s sedatives instead of paracetamol and she had to make me puke them up because I was OD-ing. She wouldn’t take me to hospital though… cos of how bad I look.” Ash gave a sardonic little laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation.

“But you know who did this?” Justin asked, waving his hand to indicate her injuries.

“I think so.”

“But you’re not going to do anything about it.” A statement from Robin, not a question.

Ash looked at her friend. She looked him square in the eye and held his gaze. “No, I’m not going to do anything about him,” she said.

Images from google