Page 123 of Bewitched By the Sea Monster
“Everything okay?” Kian pushed away from where he’d been pressed to the rail next to Elisabeth.
No.I wanted to scream.
“Fine, fine.” Jackson smooched the top of my head.
“Pippi?” Alistair’s voice grew thin. Worried. “Who was that? The man who d-d-dragged you away?”
“Does she need to lie down?” Elisabeth walked toward us, her worry fermenting in the sour emotion soup.
“We do have some seasick patches onboard if she needs them,” the attendant added.
“Pippi, I can’t see you,” Alistair called. “Are you alright? Please…if you can give me a sign…something.”
There was justtoo much.
Too many voices.
Too much movement, with some people rushing toward me, legitimately worried I was about to have a medical emergency, and some people rushingaway, afraid I’d get puke on their shoes.
And I did feel a little (lot) sick now.
I was either going to vomit or explode.
My free hand joggled, a futile attempt to soothe myself.
Jackson seethed and tucked that hand against his side, stilling it.
Alistair’s concerned voice kept pinging off my brain.
And Onyx…
At some point she joined the flurry of movement as she stood on top of her bench and stared at me, her head cocked to the side. A strange, knitted emotion gripped her face.
And I…
I couldn’tbreathe.
Couldn’tthink.
“Pippi?” Alistair called again.
Jackson hustled me across the boat and down the rickety little steps that led to the bathrooms below deck. All while flatly muttering, “It’s okay” and “I gotcha.”
But once we were below deck—in a dark, musty area that smelled like brine, and piss, and damp—I snapped. And shoved at Jackson.Hard.“What iswrongwith you?”
“ME?”he spat. “Fuck, Pippi, you were about to fall over the railing.”
“I wasnot.”
“And, c’mon, babe.” “Babe,”in this case, being a word he lashed at me. “Have some fucking decency. People don’t want some random chick hurling her guts all over their tour.”
“I wasn’t going to be sick. I—” Well, this was a pickle, eh? Couldn’t well say that I was fighting a laugh because my sea monster friend had shaken his tail feathers at me. “I had to burp.”
“Burp?”
“Yeah. I mean…I only had one seltzer, but they’re fizzy and it was…you know…fizzing back up.”
“Pippi? Please,pleaselet me know if you’re alright.” The distress in Alistair’s voice hurt me.
