“You’re being ridiculous,” Rebecca said, doing her best to resist the urge to yank one of the dozen or so pillows shoved under Melanie’s head free and smother her with it.
“Shut up. I’m dying,” Melanie muttered, sounding miserable as she curled up into a ball on the couch and pulled the comforter up to her chin.
“You’re not dying,” she said with a sigh as she stood there, wondering how she was going to talk sense into her best friend when she was so damn determined to go through with this asinine plan of hers.
She didn’t need to do this, but no matter how many times Rebecca tried to explain that to her, Melanie refused to budge. She’d made a promise and she was determined to keep it even if it killed her and judging by the last thirty-six hours, it just might do that.
“Just let me die in peace,” Melanie demanded as she squeezed her eyes shut and placed a hand over her stomach even though her salvation was less than a foot away.
Rebecca looked down at the pile of Hostess products that Melanie had declared upon reluctantly accepting the Celiac’s diagnosis that she would never touch again. She’d assured Melanie that wasn’t necessary, but Melanie was determined to support her. Granted, she probably wouldn’t have offered to do it in the first place if she’d known that she’d have to give up her precious baked goods or that she’d end up feeling like she was going to die.
It was kind of funny, well, not for Melanie, but for the first time in her life, she didn’t feel like she was going to be sick. She actually felt a lot better than she had in years. She was still exhausted, but it wasn’t so bad that she thought that she was going to be sick if she didn’t lie down and close her eyes soon. She actually felt like she could function without getting bitchy and wanting to kill everyone and everything for existing.
God, she was starving.
For the past day and a half she’d only been eating Hershey milk chocolate candy bars and drinking Coke, because those were the only things in the apartment that she was one hundred percent certain were gluten free. After she’d woken up to discover that Lucifer had disappeared at some point during the night, she’d jumped on the computer and did a little research to figure out what she could eat and what she couldn’t, but after six hours, she’d felt like pulling her hair out and kicking something.
There were so many things that she couldn’t have because they had some form of gluten in them and so many more things that she should have been able to have, but couldn’t because they were made in the same factory with gluten and now they were off limits. That was the part that sucked the most. According to the hundred or so websites that she’d scoured over, cross-contamination was a huge problem for Celiacs.
It was the other reason that Melanie was determined to give up gluten for her. She didn’t want to be responsible for making her sick. Rebecca didn’t think it was going to be a problem as long as they were careful, but Melanie being Melanie was determined to make their apartment one hundred percent gluten free.
“This is stupid,” Rebecca said with a shake of her head, because she was running out of things to say to convince Melanie that this decision of hers to give up gluten was a mistake.
“Shut up. I’m being supportive,” Melanie grumbled as she curled more tightly into herself.
“No, you’re being an idiot,” she pointed out, loving the fact that she had someone in her life that was willing to go through this with her even though she wanted to smother the life out of her if she didn’t eat a Hostess pie or a freaking Pop Tart soon.
“Ungrateful brat,” Melanie bit out as she cracked open an eye simply to glare at her.
“I’m not ungrateful,” she said, biting back a sigh, because as irritating as Melanie was being right now, and God, was she fucking irritating, she was also the only one that was there for her.
She wasn’t counting Lucifer, because he’d abandoned her the other night, which she could have overlooked if he wasn’t acting like nothing had changed between them in the last month. When she tried to say hello to him, he ground his jaw and ignored her like he used to. When she tried to talk to him, he glared at her. She didn’t know what his problem was, but honestly, she wasn’t sure how much of it she was going to be able to take before she told him to go to hell and quit. So, as far as she was concerned, he was a prick and no longer worthy of her time.
At least Melanie had stuck by her. Once she’d accepted the news with the help of a late night drive and a bottle of tequila, she’d been there for her, accepting the fact that she couldn’t eat gluten again unless she wanted to spend the rest of her life being miserable and chance an excruciating death from cancer. Even her parents, who she’d thought would be happy that they’d finally had some answers hadn’t given a damn. To them this diagnosis had just been the final proof that she was a hypochondriac.
The second that she’d explained what Celiac’s disease was, they’d shut down, believing that she was grasping for straws. According to them there was no such thing as a gluten allergy. Gluten-free diets were just the latest diet trend and the fact that she was going around claiming that she was allergic to it only proved that there was something seriously wrong with her.
They hadn’t been willing to let her explain, so she hadn’t tried. She’d simply cut her mother off when she’d started pushing for her to see a therapist and said goodbye. She didn’t know what she’d expected, maybe an apology, hearing them admit that they were wrong and that they’d regretted giving up so easily. She really should have known better.
She’d told them and they hadn’t believed her. It wasn’t her problem and she wasn’t going to lose any sleep over it. They lived their lives and she lived hers. Other than the occasional phone call, a birthday card and her parents randomly showing up with the name of the latest psychiatrist that they truly believed could help her, they barely saw each other.
That probably wouldn’t change, she realized, forcing her mind away from that depressing thought as she grabbed a Hostess pie and tore it open. Melanie wasn’t going to listen to reason, so she wasn’t going to waste her breath. They both knew that she wasn’t allergic to gluten thanks to the fact that she actually felt sick from giving it up. Aidan had explained that anyone that gave up gluten unnecessarily usually ended up feeling sick. In turn, she’d explained that to the stubborn pain in the ass, but Melanie refused to listen.
So, now Rebecca was done talking.
“What the-” Melanie started to scream, but the Hostess pie that Rebecca shoved in her mouth muffled out the rest of her bitching.
Melanie was going to eat every damn crumb or Rebecca was going to beat her to death. With a glare, and a hungry little whimper, Melanie took over and devoured the rest of the pie all while glaring accusingly at her.
“Eat the damn pie and shut the hell up!” she snapped just in case Melanie decided to argue with her.
Judging by the way that Melanie angrily tore into her pie as she glared at her, it was probably for the best if she stopped putting this off and moved her ass. Grabbing another pie off the pile, she tossed it at Melanie, uncaring that it hit her in the face before she grabbed the shopping list that she’d made with the help of Google and headed for the door.
“Mojo!” she groaned pathetically a few seconds later when her little baby plopped down in front of her and inadvertently tripped her, but thankfully she managed to catch herself at the last second and didn’t end up smashing her face into the wall and needing to make a quick trip to the emergency room for stitches, again.
They were really going to have to work on that whole dropping thing at some point, she decided as excitement coursed through her.
She was going food shopping!
Okay, so it probably didn’t sound exciting to anyone else but her, but she’d been looking forward to doing this since last night when she’d devoured her last chocolate bar. She was going to finally have food that didn’t make her want to beg for death.
At first she’d been a little depressed that she had to give up a
lot of her favorite foods, but after spending some time reading posts on several Celiac forums, she wasn’t too worried anymore. Gluten free foods had apparently come a long way in the last decade and they now had everything from gluten-free bread to cookies and everything in between. She just needed to know what to look for and now that she did, she was going shopping!
*-*-*-*
Two Depressing Hours Later…