Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 14:39:17 -0500
From: music teacher <musicteacher2002@hotmail.com>
Subject: "This is the Night" chapter 18

Disclaimer:  I have an overactive imagination, the result of which is this
story.  I do not know Clay Aiken or any other celebrities mentioned in this
story, and I do not intend to imply anything about their true sexualities.
Simply file this in the "Wouldn't it be nice...?" portion of your mind.  Also,
if you are under legal age to be reading this sort of stuff (18 in most
areas), then leave now.  All the rest of you who ARE of age, please enjoy my
little mind trip away from the land of reality.

***

CHAPTER 18

***

I woke up the next morning with a slight headache.  Well, that's no
surprise, I thought to myself.  After all, Clay and I had had quite a bit to
drink the night before.  I smiled as I remembered the events of the night
before.  It had been amazing.  Our previous lovemaking was phenomenal, don't
get me wrong, but last night was so...so....animalistic!  I definitely preferred
the slow-and-gentle method with Clay, but it was nice to know that he was
open to variety.

I figured I had been lying there long enough, so I rolled over to give Clay
a good morning kiss.  When I did, however, I discovered his side of the bed
empty.  There was a divot where his body had been, but there was no sign of
Clay.  Until, of course, I heard the pathetic moan from the bathroom.  I got
up and went to check on my lover.

"Clay?" I asked, gently.  "Are you OK?"  I turned on the light.  Clay, whose
head was hanging over the toilet, immediately winced in pain.

"Turn it off!  Turn it off!" he begged.  I immediately did as I was told.  I
walked over to him and put my arms across his shoulders.

"You OK, baby?"  I asked him again.

"Just dandy," he replied with a sarcastic chuckle.  "I think I realize now
why I don't drink."

"Baby, I'm so sorry you're hurting," I told him.  "You'll be just fine in a
few hours."

"Will you take care of me?" he asked, looking at me with wide, puppy-dog
eyes.

"You know I can't say no to those eyes," I said, melting.  "Unfortunately,
it's a school day, and I need to get to work."  The puppy-dog eyes somehow
got wider.  "But you are more than welcome to stay here until you feel
better."

"Thanks," he said pathetically.

I rubbed his back a little while longer, then kissed the top of his head and
said goodbye.

When I got to school, I immediately wished I was back at home with Clay.
There must have been something in the water, because every single one of my
morning classes were riled up and ornery.  At lunch, I commiserated with
Meg.

"What IS it with these kids?" I asked, plopping down into my chair in the
faculty lounge.

"Oh, thank God!" said Meg.

"Excuse me?" I asked her.  "Are you taking pleasure in my day of hell?"

"No, no, not at all!" she said.  "I'm just glad that it's not just me!"

"Oh, trust me, it's NOT just you," I said.  Raising my voice, I said to the
entire lounge, "Hey teachers!  Raise your hands if your kids are out of
control today!"  Out of the sixteen teachers in the lounge, sixteen hands
went up.  "See?"  I asked Meg.

"OK, OK, I get it!" she said, laughing.  "So what did you do last night?
Anything exciting?"

"I had dinner with my boyfriend," I told her.

"Oh, yeah!  How's it going with him?" she asked.

I sighed loudly and immediately got what I'm pretty sure was a
stupid-looking grin on my face.  "He's wonderful!  Our official three month
anniversary is tomorrow, but he took me out last night for a surprise
celebration of the anniversary of when we met."

"Wow, he sounds like a keeper!" said Meg.  "I doubt Chuck even knows what
MONTH we met, much less the date!"  I laughed along with her.  I couldn't
reassure her, however.  I had spent a lot of time with Chuck and Meg, and as
much as I loved the guy, remembering details was not Chuck's strong suit.

"He really is," I sighed.  "I've never felt this way about anyone."

"That's really great.  I hope it works out for you.  It's about time you
found someone who deserves a great guy like yourself," she said, squeezing
my shoulder a bit.

"Thanks."  We spent the rest of lunch talking about various things, from
upcoming field trips to the general awfulness of the school lunch that day.
After lunch, I was refreshed and ready to face an afternoon of wild and
ornery kids.  As a result, the afternoon wasn't so bad.

After school, I gathered my things and left school.  When I got home, I
found a note on my bed.

Randy,

It is about 1:30, and I am finally feeling better.  Thank you so much for
being there for me this morning.  It made me realize once again how lucky I
am to have you in my life.  I will call you tonight.

I love you,
Clay

I smiled as I read the note, and then realized I needed to get a lot done
tonight so that Clay and I could have our anniversary celebration the next
night.  I quickly checked through my email and sat down to do my lesson
plans for the next week.  Surprisingly enough, I actually managed to finish
the lesson plans fairly quickly.  At that point, I looked at the clock and
saw that it was about dinnertime.  I wasn't hungry, however.  My stomach
hadn't quite been feeling right since lunch.  That's a fairly normal thing
when I eat the school lunch, though.  There's a reason I usually either
bring my lunch to school or go grab some fast food.

Clay called around 9:00 that evening, and I was already getting ready for
bed.  I suddenly had become very tired around 7:00.  I still hadn't eaten
anything.

"Going to bed already?" asked Clay, somewhat concerned.

"Yeah, I'm just very tired," I told him.  "It was kind of a long day, wild
kids, you know..."

"Well, then I won't keep you long," he said.  "I want you fully rested for
tomorrow night."

"Don't worry about me," I said.  "I'm glad you're feeling better after last
night."

"Yeah, me too!" said Clay.  "If it's all the same to you, I think we'll skip
the wine tomorrow."

"No problem," I told him.  "Wow, I can't believe it's been three months!"

"I know," Clay concurred.  "In some ways it feels like I've known you
forever, but it seems like we just met yesterday."

"Well, I tell ya," I said, yawning, "I could go to bed right now and sleep
until our six-month anniversary."

"OK, I can take a hint," said Clay.  "Get some rest, and I'll see you
tomorrow night."

"Six o'clock, right?" I said.

"You got it."

"Goodnight, baby. I love you," I told him.

"I love you too.  Goodnight."

I wearily climbed into bed, but could not fall asleep.  My stomach would not
calm down.  I tried lying in every different position I could think of, but
nothing helped.  Sleep came in short bursts through most of the night, but
it seemed that every time I woke up, my stomach felt worse.  Finally, around
three in the morning, it happened.  I ran to the bathroom, crouched over the
toilet, and threw up about four times.  After this, I was sufficiently worn
out.  I literally crawled my way back into my bed and fell asleep.

My alarm went off as usual around six.  I knew there was no way I was going
to make it into work, so I reached for the phone to call in for a
substitute.  When I did this, however, my stomach decided that it would
verify my decision.  I threw the phone down and ran to the bathroom to once
again throw up.  After I had gathered my strength again, I got back in bed
and called for a substitute.

"Are you kidding me?" Peggy, the secretary, said.

"Uh...no...why would I be kidding?"

"You're the eighth teacher to call in this morning!" she said, sounding
incredibly flustered.  I knew it took a lot for Peggy to get flustered, so I
knew this was serious.

"Wow..." I said.  "What's going on?"

"I don't know!" she said.  "They all have some sort of stomach bug, just
like you!  Said they hadn't felt well since yesterday afternoon."

"Peggy," I said, figuring it out, "if I were you, I'd have someone check
which teachers ate hot lunch yesterday, and then look at what ingredients
were used."

"You think it was bad food?" she asked.

"That's the only explanation I can think of for why *I'm* sick," I told her.

"Thanks, Randy.  And feel better!" she told me.

After I hung up, I rolled over and went to sleep again.  I woke up a couple
of hours later feeling a bit better, but not much.  I wish Clay was here to
take care of me, I thought to myself.

Clay.  Anniversary.  Shit.

Of all the days to be sick, I thought.  I hadn't been sick in over two
years.  "Why today?" I groaned as I grabbed my phone and dialed Clay's
number.  I got his voicemail, which wasn't surprising since Clay had told me
he had an especially busy day today.

"Hey, baby," I began, dreading what was coming next.  "You're not going to
believe this, but I'm sick today.  I've been throwing up all night, and I
just generally feel lousy.  I *really* hate to say this, but I don't think
I'm going to feel up for dinner tonight.  Anyway, call me when you get this
message.  I'm sorry, baby.  I love you."

Once again, after hanging up the phone, I rolled over and went to sleep.
When I woke up an hour later, I again felt a bit better.  My stomach had
pretty much calmed down, but I was still extremely tired and had no
appetite.  I was able to drag myself out to the living room, where I wrapped
myself in a blanket and turned on the television, and tried to decide what
to watch.

Man, daytime TV sucks.  In between all my naps that day, I caught several
trashy talk shows, and the basic idea of them were identical.  Something to
the extent of, "You're my child's father, but I'm also a transvestite
hooker."  I don't know, I wasn't paying that much attention.

Around 4:30, there was a knock at the door.  Not feeling very strong, I
called out, "It's open!"  The door opened, and Clay walked in.  "Where's my
favorite patient?"

"Hey..." I said weakly.  "Sorry for ruining tonight."

"Don't worry about it," said Clay.  "Let's just focus on getting you
better."

"I'm glad you're here," I told him.  I then noticed the brown paper sack he
was carrying.  "What's in the bag?" I asked him.

"Well, since you couldn't go out to dinner, I thought I'd bring dinner
here!" he said brightly.

I clutched my stomach.  "Ugh, I don't think I can keep anything down quite
yet," I told him.

"Well, you need to eat something, so I went out and bought the fanciest
two-course dinner you can buy!"  He pulled out the contents of the bag and I
laughed.

"Saltines and 7-Up?" I said.  "That's fancy?"

"Hey," he said, laughing.  "Compared to what you've been eating so far
today, this is downright gourmet!"

"True," I said. "Thanks."

"No problem."  He settled on the couch with me, and I forced down a few
saltines.  Clay and I watched TV together, with my head on his shoulder and
his arm around me.  I dozed off a few times, and eventually lay down on my
stomach with my head in Clay's lap. Clay ran his fingers through my hair
with one hand and rubbed my back with the other.  Eventually, even Clay
began to fall asleep.

"I should go," he said.  "I'm getting sleepy."

"OK," I said.  "I'm sorry again for being sick on our anniversary."

"I told you not to worry about it," he said.  "We still got to be together,
and that's what counts."

"Thank you for taking such good care of me.  Are you sure you don't want to
stay?"

Clay thought it over carefully, and then said, "Well, I guess you're not
contagious, so what can it hurt?"

"Good," I said, and we went into my bedroom.  Clay kissed me goodnight, and
wrapped his arms around me.  Sleep came pretty easily that night, as I was
still exhausted from the throwing up and lack of sleep the previous night.

The next morning, I awoke to again find the other side of the bed empty.
Again, the divot was there where Clay should have been, but was not.

"Clay?" I called out as I sat up.

The door opened and Clay walked in with a tray.  "Good morning, sweetie," he
said, setting the tray down on my lap.

"What's all this?" I asked.  I looked at the tray and saw a bowl of
applesauce, a couple of slices of bread, a banana, and a glass of water.  In
between the plates, Clay had placed a single rose.  "You're so sweet!" I
exclaimed.

"Well, I knew you'd probably be hungry, but I also knew you should take it
easy on your stomach, so I did a little grocery shopping this morning," he
told me.

"Already?"  I asked.  "It's only six in the morning!"

"I woke up early and couldn't get back to sleep," he explained.

"You're too good for me," I said.  I ate a bit, and then remembered that I
should probably call in for a sub again today.  I was feeling better, but
needed one more day of rest.  After I did that, Clay and I finished eating
and Clay took the dishes into the kitchen.  I followed behind and couldn't
resist making a snide remark.

"You know, you're gonna make someone a good wife someday."  I was rewarded
with a banana peel thrown at my face.

"Yeah, yeah," he said, laughing.  "Just don't expect this every morning...and
I DON'T vacuum in pearls and a house dress!"

"Aww, but you have such nice legs!" I said.

"Darn right I do!" he said.  "Alright, I need to go."

"OK," I said, recovering from my giggling fit, which had sufficiently worn
me out once more.  "Thanks for taking such good care of me."

"Anytime," he said, kissing me.  "You did the same for me when I twisted my
ankle.  I was just repaying the favor."

He left, and I spent another day watching bored housewives being made over
on talk shows, and amnesia patients recovering their memories on soap
operas.  Sometime that afternoon, I got a phone call from Clay.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Still tired, but better," I told him.

"Well, I hate to tell you this, but you're going to have to take another
Friday off of work," he told me.

"What?  Why?"  I asked.  That meant getting yet another substitute, which I
hated doing.  No matter how good the substitute is, any day when I can't be
there, I feel like it's a wasted day.

"We're going on a little trip in a couple of weeks," he said.

"Clay, I have a job, you know," I told him.  "I can't just up and leave all
the time because you want to go out of town."

"Well, that's fine," he said, very calmly.  "If you don't want to go to the
Miss America pageant with me, I understand..." I could hear the smile in his
voice.

"Are you serious?!" I asked him.

"Very!" he told me.  "Apparently, as a performer, I get to bring a guest."

"Well, I'm going to have to see if I can actually get the day off, but I
would LOVE to go with you!"  I told him, excitedly.

"Great!  I'll get all the details and call you later!" he told me excitedly.

After we hung up, I immediately began to feel better.  After all, I was
going to spend a weekend in Atlantic City at the most glamorous beauty
pageant in the country with the man I love.  What more could I hope for?

***

Hey guys...sorry again for the delay.  I'm wondering, though -- is ANYONE still
reading this?  If you are, please email me at musicteacher2002@hotmail.com
and let me know.  It's been a couple of chapters since I've gotten
responses.  Hope you're all still out there!

As always, thank you to Lee for being my editor and friend.  The next
chapter should be out soon, barring any unforeseen circumstances.  Once
again, please email musicteacher2002@hotmail.com with any comments or
suggestions.