Then the SUV hit a pothole, and it felt like something exploded inside me. I folded forward with a strangled sound and felt hot bile rise in my throat. Rick cursed under his breath and shoved an empty grocery bag toward the back seat without looking.
He told me that if I was going to be sick, I had better not do it on his leather seats. I vomited into the bag while Chloe made a disgusted noise and pressed herself against the car door. Meredith simply sighed as if my illness were a personal insult to her afternoon.
Rick rolled his window down a few inches and complained that the car was going to smell terrible. I wanted to disappear into the floorboards because that was the reflexive shame I had been taught. Even when my body was failing, I felt embarrassed for being an inconvenience to them.
We drove right past a local urgent care clinic. I watched the sign disappear behind us and whispered to my mother to please stop. She asked what I wanted, and I pointed toward the clinic we had just passed.