“Just a stomachache,” I said.

“Holy shit,” she said. “Are you drunk?”

I just stared at her, my eyes all red and bloodshot. I must have looked like I was about to puke again, because Murphy slumped back on her bunk.

“Sleep it off,” she said. “But tomorrow you’ve got some explaining to do.”

I climbed up into my bunk, and soon I was asleep.

Chapter 30

Morning came, and I felt like absolute shit. My head was a screaming throbbing nightmare, my guts ached, and my throat was ripped raw from all the puking. Light hurt, sound hurt, the bird chirps outside my window were like jackhammers.

Murphy peeked over the edge of my bunk.

“Aww, Lee’s first hangover,” she said. “Horrible, isn’t it?”

“Miserable.”

“I wish I had a camera. Wish I could document this moment forever.” She grinned a little bit. “This wouldn’t have anything to do with a certain girl in the tenant house, would it?”

“Leave me alone,” I said and stuffed my pillow over my head.

“Serves you right, all the shit you used to give me on hangover mornings.”

“I didn’t know it was this bad.”

“Well, you do now,” she said. “Need a glass of water or anything?”

I pulled the pillow off my head and looked into Murphy’s eyes. They were sad a little, concerned for me. She wasn’t just fucking with me.

“Yeah,” I said. “That would be great.”

Murphy left for the bathroom. I tried to raise my head, and my stomach got all swirly, and I thought I might puke again. There was no way I could do any chores, not today. I didn’t even dare go outside. I hoped Grandma wouldn’t be pissed at me. I hoped I hadn’t just wrecked everything forever.

Murphy came back with my water. “Here you go,” she said. “I looked everywhere for some Advil or something, but it doesn’t look like Grandma keeps pills around. Big surprise there.”

“Man, she’s going to be so mad,” I said.

“Oh, come on,” said Murphy. “I’ll tell her you have a stomachache, that you caught a bug or something. It’ll be no big deal.”

“Thanks, Murphy,” I said.

“No problem. But later, when you’re feeling better, we got some talking to do, okay?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Okay.”

Great. How the hell was I supposed to explain everything to Murphy? My head hurt too bad to think about it. I rolled myself over, scooting as far away from the daylight streaming through the window as I could, and I fell asleep.

Grandma woke me up around noon with a plate of crackers and a bowl of soup and a weird beige-colored smoothie-looking drink.

“Here,” she said. “This will make you feel better.”

“I don’t think I can stomach anything right now,” I said, “but thanks, Grandma.”

“Come now and drink,” she said. “It’ll do you good.”