Fire & Brimstone (Neighbor from Hell #8) - R.L. Mathewson Page 0,28

a promise and she was determined to keep it even if it killed her and judging by the last thirty-six hours, it just might do that.

“Just let me die in peace,” Melanie demanded as she squeezed her eyes shut and placed a hand over her stomach even though her salvation was less than a foot away.

Rebecca looked down at the pile of Hostess products that Melanie had declared upon reluctantly accepting the Celiac’s diagnosis that she would never touch again. She’d assured Melanie that wasn’t necessary, but Melanie was determined to support her. Granted, she probably wouldn’t have offered to do it in the first place if she’d known that she’d have to give up her precious baked goods or that she’d end up feeling like she was going to die.

It was kind of funny, well, not for Melanie, but for the first time in her life, she didn’t feel like she was going to be sick. She actually felt a lot better than she had in years. She was still exhausted, but it wasn’t so bad that she thought that she was going to be sick if she didn’t lie down and close her eyes soon. She actually felt like she could function without getting bitchy and wanting to kill everyone and everything for existing.

God, she was starving.

For the past day and a half she’d only been eating Hershey milk chocolate candy bars and drinking Coke, because those were the only things in the apartment that she was one hundred percent certain were gluten free. After she’d woken up to discover that Lucifer had disappeared at some point during the night, she’d jumped on the computer and did a little research to figure out what she could eat and what she couldn’t, but after six hours, she’d felt like pulling her hair out and kicking something.

There were so many things that she couldn’t have because they had some form of gluten in them and so many more things that she should have been able to have, but couldn’t because they were made in the same factory with gluten and now they were off limits. That was the part that sucked the most. According to the hundred or so websites that she’d scoured over, cross-contamination was a huge problem for Celiacs.

It was the other reason that Melanie was determined to give up gluten for her. She didn’t want to be responsible for making her sick. Rebecca didn’t think it was going to be a problem as long as they were careful, but Melanie being Melanie was determined to make their apartment one hundred percent gluten free.

“This is stupid,” Rebecca said with a shake of her head, because she was running out of things to say to convince Melanie that this decision of hers to give up gluten was a mistake.

“Shut up. I’m being supportive,” Melanie grumbled as she curled more tightly into herself.

“No, you’re being an idiot,” she pointed out, loving the fact that she had someone in her life that was willing to go through this with her even though she wanted to smother the life out of her if she didn’t eat a Hostess pie or a freaking Pop Tart soon.

“Ungrateful brat,” Melanie bit out as she cracked open an eye simply to glare at her.

“I’m not ungrateful,” she said, biting back a sigh, because as irritating as Melanie was being right now, and God, was she fucking irritating, she was also the only one that was there for her.

She wasn’t counting Lucifer, because he’d abandoned her the other night, which she could have overlooked if he wasn’t acting like nothing had changed between them in the last month. When she tried to say hello to him, he ground his jaw and ignored her like he used to. When she tried to talk to him, he glared at her. She didn’t know what his problem was, but honestly, she wasn’t sure how much of it she was going to be able to take before she told him to go to hell and quit. So, as far as she was concerned, he was a prick and no longer worthy of her time.

At least Melanie had stuck by her. Once she’d accepted the news with the help of a late night drive and a bottle of tequila, she’d been there for her, accepting the fact that she couldn’t eat gluten again unless she wanted to spend the rest of her life being miserable and chance an excruciating death from cancer.