Today's million-dollar question: Does medicine have an expiry date?
* * *
Shallow breathing. Temporary inability - or rather, discomfort - in breathing through the nose. Fingers wrapped around the throat. Sudden and repeated forced exhalations followed by a violent release of air from the lungs.
All the symptoms of an individual suffering from a sore throat.
Frustrated with the unexpected event, the 17-year-old turns over in her bed and resumes her coughing fit. Her head is beginning to hurt now and she contemplates heading over to her parents' room to tell them.
About a coughing fit?? How much more spoilt can you get?
After deciding against it, the girl grabs the 750ml tumbler she had placed by the side of her bed the night before and drinks it in big gulps.
The tingling feeling in her throat continues all the way down her trachea, causing her to wince. Damn this throat, she curses silently.
Realising she had not heard her alarm yet, she reaches for her phone and presses on the volume up button, nearly doubling over when she reads 3:27a.m on the screen.
GODDAMN this throat, she curses some more.
The girl shoves her Sony Ericsson phone under her pillow then shuts her eyes. Might as well try sleeping while it's still early.
And, despite the persistent throat infection, she eventually does.
It is 6:12a.m the next time she checks her phone.
Great, late already.
Kicking herself off her bed, though very reluctantly, she makes her way to her parents' room to wash up. Just as she was about to open the door, it opens on its own, revealing her mother on the opposite side with a serious case of the bedhead.
*There's a lot of unnecessary details here so I'll spare you them*
As her mother parks outside her school, she turns to her daughter and asks, "Are you sure you can go to school?"
"I'm already here, right?"
"Yeah, I know, but I don't want you to go if you can't take it. I can deliver the letter myself."
There's a slight pause.
"So, you really can't go?"
Slowly, the girl shakes her head, which was still heavy from the torturous night before. Nodding one of acknowledgement, the woman takes the letter from her Affin Bank bag and exits the vehicle, instructing her daughter to lock all the doors as she does so.
She does not keep time and takes the opportunity to sleep, so she is not sure how long her mother was in discussion with her teachers, but it's 8:15a.m by the time her mother appears again.
There is a short exchange of sentences between two teachers, the mother and the daughter before they finally leave.
"We need to give them something for Hari Raya," the mother says.
"Some form of bribery?"
"No! It's because they're so understanding towards your condition. This will be a thank you gift."
The girl does not reply, too tired to say anything. Upon reaching their humble abode, the girl makes haste; eating her San Moulin sandwich as fast as she can so she could sleep once more.
Setting her phone to ring at 10a.m, she drifts off to sleep again. Her alarm does little - if not nothing - to help as she goes down to continue sleeping on the couch all the way until noon, when lunch came.
Lunch is decided by her mother that day, to be at the side stall opposite their house. She does not mind; she has an affinity for their marmite chicken. Sadly, though, thanks to her cough problem, she's not allowed to drink her usual iced Milo.
Therefore, under the watchful eyes of her parents, she drinks a cup of lukewarm water. Thankfully, the food makes up for the lack of the iced Milo, as well as her marvelous aunt, whom after lunch, brings her over to a different shop to buy ice cream.
RM19.80 and a bagful of ice cream + chewing gum later, her aunt pays a visit to the 'buy number' shop next door to settle some business before leaving for home.
Not 10 minutes after they return, her parents leave for Perak to attend the funeral of her dad's friend's mother in Kampung Tapah.
Meanwhile, she sits in the music room, a cup of ice cream in hand and a pile of BM tuition homework in front of her.
Time to get to work.
And so, whilst listening to Cody Simpson's 'Wish You Were Here', she buries herself deep into her book.
It's 7:15p.m by the time she realizes she only had about an hour to eat. Hurriedly, she opens the door and stands over her brother, whom was supposed to get her dinner.
"Oi, please buy my food now. I have tuition at 8:15p.m!" her voice resonates in his ears, irritating him. He had been sleeping peacefully until she rudely woke him up.
To her annoyance, he just turns over so that his back faces her and sleeps some more. Pissed, the girl pays him no heed and instead walks back into the music room to finish her work.
She thanks her aunt mentally when, about 15 minutes later, she orders him to buy their dinner. At around 7:50p.m, dinner is served.
However, all is not over for her, for she had BM tuition at 8:45p.m with her teacher. Lesson seems to drag on till forever before they decide to call it a night.
In the confines of her room, she takes out a pen and her NST book, to record as much as she could of that day before her mother comes in to switch the lights off.
* * *
Whoo~ It's not every day I decide to write like this throughout he whole bloody entry. Most likely, this will be the last time. This was actually a trial thing and I'm pretty sure it won't work because I had to cut quite a few things out.
Like, for instance, the fact that I ate another ice cream stick before eating dinner. Oh, and also the incident where I watched the second episode of CSI: New York and caught up to Sword Art Online and Arcana Famiglia.
Haha.
Oh well, at least I tried.
That's about it, then. CIAO!!
P/S: Please click on my Nuffnang ads :) Thanks!!
P/S/S: You don't realize how narcissistic you really are until you write about yourself from the third person's POV :P
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