Consequences

I wake up; I'm feeling like shit
My head feels like a plastic bag is wrapped around it.
I try to breathe, but I'm suffocated by this invisible force.
Ten aspirin, six pain relievers, and two offbrand effervescent tablets later:
I'm feeling fine.
I'm giggling, I'm drumming my fingers on the breakfast table at school,
I'm flirting with all the guys around me; all of a sudden they are all Brad Pitts:
A good fuck.

Thirty minutes into Biology:
I feel drained.
Did we say the Pledge of Allegiance? Yes, I did. But I don't remember.
We have a test today.
Aspirin is a blood thinner. I can't keep my legs crossed for very long,
the circulation in my leg cuts off, my foot tingles painfully.
My brain feels like alien goo sloshing around in my skull.

I ask to go to the bathroom. I take my shirt off,
hang it on the door to the stall.
Lay my glasses beside the ceramic bowl as I kneel in prayer.
Sticking my finger down my throat, I gag.
Breakfast pizza plops into the toilet.
I scan it to see if any medication came up.
God, I have to get it out of my system. I try again.
Saliva oozes down my hand, but nothing comes this time.

Shit, I think as I get up and wipe my mouth with the back of my hand.
I have to ride this thing out.
Briefly, my vision blurs as I stand. I smack myself.
"Consequences," I murmur. I smack myself again.
Grow up you fat bitch. Get ahold of yourself: My father.
I walk back to class, dazed.