I’m not gonna beat around the bush. Maybe it’s my fault, but at least it gives me a guess as to what started this all.
My friend Henry had a bad breakup and invited the guys out to go bar hopping. His own liquor therapy, if you will.
Obviously, that’s my buddy, so I went. One of the guys set it up so his girlfriend would pick us up at like 2:30-ish so we were all free to get as fucked up as we wanted.
I’d like to think I’m an average guy. I don’t drink more than a beer a day, if that. Rarely party. Never do drugs unless it’s the occasional smoke sesh.
When I do party, I like to get a little wild. Sue me.
So we getting pretty crazy throughout the night and after the third or fourth(?) bar, that’s when things start to get a little hazy. I really couldn’t tell you how much I drank, but I was definitely drunk.
Again, hazy memory, but it was getting close to 2:30 so I’m pretty sure we started off toward wherever it was Mike’s girlfriend was gonna pick us up. We were stumbling and being rowdy; we fit in with all the other drunks.
I felt something cold on my shoulder and groggily turned around.
The chick in front of me was like everything I’m into checked off. Long red hair, brown eyes, and the body…
“Hey, gorgeous,” I mumbled, and even in my drunken state, I knew I sounded like an idiot.
She only smiled and looked down, and my eyes followed her gaze to my wallet in her hand.
“Is this yours?” She asked. Her voice was hypnotic.
“Dude, yeah. Thanks. You’re a lifesaver,” I said as I pocketed it.
She bit her lip. Coy.
I kept talking.
“We’re all heading to my friend’s house to crash, you wanna come with?”
Something flashed, a glimmer of sharp red in her deep brown eyes.
“I can’t, I have plans, but maybe,” her cool hands touched my forearm, her nails gently pressing against my skin. “Maybe a rain check?”
I nodded quickly.
She leaned in and pressed her lips on my cheek, softly, before her grip on my arm tightened. She dragged me down to pull me into a kiss.
Chaste, but effective. We grinned at each other.
“I’ll see you soon.” She stuffed a dollar in my hand and hurried off.
I glanced at the bill and noticed a phone number in blue ink. Score.
I didn’t call her the next day because I spent every waking moment nursing my own hangover. Like I said, I don’t drink that much too often.
It felt worse than usual, though. My skin started itching horribly, but I figured it was related to the whole Asian glow thing. I’d never had it before, but first time for everything right?
It didn’t get better.
I hadn’t had a hangover in a good 6(?) months, but I knew they didn’t feel this bad. Or weird.
It wasn’t just my usual symptoms, dry mouth, headache, and dizziness.
My stomach was restless with awful noises and an incessant pain. And my skin! My skin felt like I had ants crawling all over me.
The day ended, I went to sleep thinking at least now I’ll be fine.
Yeah, right.
Most symptoms went away, but my stomach was firm. I’m talking like I had a rock sitting in my gut. My skin was pink and uncomfortable. I had scratch marks on my legs, like I had been itching at my ankles the entire night.
I thought maybe that girl gave me like an STD or something, but I’m still not sure. I’m not too up to date with all that kinda stuff, but I figured google would just tell me I have cancer. Or worse.
I took like 5 tums and coated my limbs in calamine lotion. I did my best to ignore it at work, but I was damn near twitching with the effort it took not to curl up in a ball on the floor and scratch my skin raw.
The second I made it to my car, I did my best to focus on driving home as I rubbed my body against the seat, trying to find relief.
It got worse. The stomach pain was something I could get used to, and I kinda did. Just take a stomach pain cocktail every day, I guess! It still ached and felt like I had swallowed a sack of bricks that won’t digest.
It was my skin.
My face was peeling, and not like a little sunburn, but thick layers of skin. Everything itched and I couldn’t find any over the counter solution. My sister said aloe vera would work but it just kept me from feeling like I was melting.
Yesterday, I almost cried. It’s so freaky and I don’t know what to do.
The skin on my face felt so tight and thin. Like it was being stretched over something it clearly didn’t fit around. I could barely move my mouth, everything felt taut.
My arms and legs had bunches of ingrown pimples, I think. So so ugly.
Today, I can’t stop shaking. It’s not even something I can get away from because it’s inside my skin. My fucking skin.
I gagged and clutched at the bubbling mass resting against my stomach. I can’t get away.
When I woke up, I noticed a few of the lumps had sprouted into gaping holes. I put my glasses on and I saw it.
A bug.
A caterpillar type thing. It was so fat, like it was full of something and it moved sloppily. Still, before I could slap it off, it crawled into one of the holes on my forearm and disappeared.
I can feel it. I can feel a bunch of them.
They’re in my skin, or under it, I don’t know. They’re in there and they’re moving fast. I can see their nasty little outlines under my skin but I’m too afraid of their dead bodies being stuck inside me to smash them, so they’re all just… wandering around inside me.
I’ve been looking up bugs to see which ones they look most similar to. I’m almost sure they’re caterpillars, which makes me very nervous. Well, more nervous than I can be about animals inside me.
How long under they start building cocoons?