Page 148 of Sweet Strings

What could go wrong?

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“What the hell do we do!?” Rad hisses, panicking as Lyric throws up every fucking thing we’ve given her tonight.

Cotton candy. Cake. Cookies. Pizza. Shit. We broke our child with junk food.

“Jesus,” Callum grunts, pushing a fist to his lips. “Hold her hair or something.”

“She’s going to need a bath,” Asher remarks, standing at the edge of the bathroom with a sickly green tint taking over his complexion, staying as far away from the spewing child as possible.

“My belly hurts,” Ly says, sitting near the toilet with her bottom lip puffed out. “Hurts so bad, Daddies.”

I turn away, taking a deep breath when she yacks where she sits, spewing chunks of candy, cake, and whatever the hell else Rad engorged her with all down her shirt and onto the floor.

“Oh God, I think I’m going to be sick,” Rad groans, clutching his stomach next. “Yeah, I’m going to—” Rad doesn’t say another word when he leans over the toilet and empties his stomach into the water.

“Daddy,” Ly whines, puking again.

“Jesus Christ, we need an exorcist,” Rad moans into the toilet. “Be gone, devils!” he hisses, spitting into the toilet and finally flushing it.

“Fuck,” Asher hisses, pressing his hand to his mouth again. “This is like a goddamn puke fest.”

“Should we call River?” Callum whispers in hysterics. “We need to call her. She can fix this. Fix this, Kieran!” His wide, gray eyes scan the room frantically, searching for God knows what.

“No!” Rad hisses. “Then she’ll never let us have Ly alone again. You won’t tell Mommy we fed you too many sweets, will you?” he asks, batting his eyelashes just like she does.

Lyric pouts, rubbing at her stomach. “Nope, Daddy. I won’t, I promise—” her little voice trails off when she looks down at her puke-soaked shirt. “Is dirty,” she whines, tears coming to her eyes.

First, she has a tummy ache and pukes, and now, she’s about to cry about the stains lining her shirt. Not to mention the stomach acid stench wafting from her body.

“Bath time,” I say, kneeling in front of Lyric. “Is it okay if Daddy gives you a bath? We can go to the bathroom in my room. I might have some bubbles.”

“I uh, have a bath bomb she could use. It’s green, though,” Asher chimes in, rubbing the back of his neck.

Her entire face lights up, and she nods. “Bath bomb!!” she squeals like she didn’t just projectile vomit all over the room.

Little devil.

“Let’s take this shirt off first,” Asher says, holding his breath as he pulls it over her little head, muttering unintelligible words resembling fuck and shit. “I’ll throw this into the wash and grab the green bath bomb. Little One, you have a fun bath, okay? I’ll be up there in a sec.”

“I guess I’ll clean up the mess.” Rad’s lips turn down as he surveys the vomit chunks on the floor. “I’ll just puke my way through it,” he whines, covering his mouth.

Lyric nods with excitement, taking my hand in hers. I hold back the hot acid sitting in the back of my throat when she pulls me out of the bathroom, and we make our way upstairs.

“All right, Little Blue. Let’s get you into the bath,” I grin, starting to fill up the bath with warm water.

“Here,” Asher says, peeking into the bathroom and handing me a green-looking ball.

“You use these?” I ask, holding it up in the air to examine it.

“They smell nice,” he mumbles, turning beet red, and walks away before I can say anything else.

Within a few minutes, tiny green bubbles appear in the water, getting bigger as the tub fills. After getting Ly undressed and ensuring she’s comfortable, I set her in the water and begin washing her face and shoulders with a washcloth.

“Lean your head back,” I murmur, finding a large cup.

“Okay,” she says, squeezing her eyes shut.

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