Half and half with a pinch of worry

Skyler let out a heavy breath. However, his eyes remained closed for an unknown amount of time. His body's response to overheating kicked in, covering his body in a light amount of sweat. His senses heightened as his mind tried to relax and focus on other things. He listened to his surroundings while his brain sent messages to his muscles in an attempt to move. Of course, this wasn't effective. All he received in response was what he had normally come to expect in such situations, a phantom limb effect. This projected the feeling of lifting a heavy weight in the areas he was trying to move, only to be **** back into position as soon as he stopped concentrating on it.

As time went on, Skyler's breathing became slightly erratic, his head fell limply to his left shoulder, and the cramping within his rib cage began to burn. He began to think. 'Well, at least I know my neck will be sore in about fifteen minutes.. Yay!" If nothing else, his own sarcasm gave him a little something to be cheerful about. However, at that moment, he felt something cool, soft, and fuzzy brush against his toes. His mind focused on that, curious about what that was. Granted, it was likely to be Cleo, but alas with his muscles still not responding, there was no way to be certain.

Silence filled the air for what felt like several minutes, only to be broken by the sound of sliding paper, and at least, one box falling onto the floor. Shortly after, the sound of little paws and claws scurrying across the table filled Skyler's ears, lasting for at least a second, followed by something small zooming past Skyler's face. A waft of air soon hit his nostrils, followed by the aroma of Cleo's fur. This caused his mind to relax slightly with one puzzle out of the way. The familiar scent of Cleo, helped calm his nerves ever so slightly, but his erratic breathing continued unabated.

Skyler's breathing slowed as it became more difficult to breathe as yet more sweat pooled upon his body. Sadly, the air within the house was no where near cool enough to cool him down. He felt his heart rate speed up for a couple of seconds before returning to normal. This was not a good sign, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. Within the darkness behind his eyelids, he thought more about what this could entail. 'Just a little more and I won't be around anymore. I won't be suffering any longer.'

As these thoughts filled Skyler's mind, yet another train of thought ran through. 'Ah yes, but what about your mom and brother Koby? Sure, your father and other siblings won't likely miss you, but what about them?' While this was going on, he continued to try to get any of his body to move, his eyelids, lips, tongue, arms, legs, hands, feet, fingers, and toes. After what felt like several minutes of trying, still nothing. He began to think about the few friends he had in his childhood, but they were long gone.

Skyler's mind turned to a much darker place, his first and only in person girlfriend, Fidella. A woman who was four years older than him, had a restraining order on her husband, several boyfriends, and a child at the time. Mind you, when Skyler went into this relationship he had no idea about any of this. She wasn't even attractive, smart, or charming. She was even quite obese. However, as someone with major self esteem issues and depression. Well, it made him an easy target for her. Now how would he even end up on her radar? Someone who was obviously quite busy playing around with others?

The answer was fairly simple, it wasn't by Skyler's own will or design, no. He was introduced to this woman by one of his childhood friends, Kendrick. He wanted Skyler to get Fidella off of his back for a day or two. Thinking back on it, Skyler knew he was a fool for letting things go as far as they did with her, but hey. If nothing else it taught him the truth about reality and life. People were not to be trusted at first glance and that many were cruel. The other side of this truth was that he was unworthy of love and other good things in life. Sure, he tried to have relationships online, but none of those fared much better.

As Skyler's thoughts sank deeper, Verona's voice called out. "Skyler? Skyler, are you okay?" He felt a hand touch his shoulder gently, it was cold against his skin, but she continued to speak. "Should I get some orange juice?" He tried to groan, but couldn't even manage that at the moment. He felt her hand leave his arm, touching his forehead as she said. "Can't even speak, huh? You feel hot. Hmm, where's your embr wave?" Shortly after, he heard her footsteps heading away from him. He was pretty sure that she was headed in the direction of his bedroom, but it wasn't until a couple of minutes later that she returned.

Skyler could hear Verona fumbling with his embr wave. Once the clasp on its band was open, she turned his arm slightly while slipping it around his wrist, securing it in place before turning it on cold. Over the next hour, he was slowly released from the hold of his paralysis. However, he was not out of the woods yet. He was finally able to groan after that hour, barely able to move his tongue when she asked. "Can you drink now?" His eyes were barely able to open, the first thing he saw was a large blue glass of orange juice with a bendy straw in it being pushed against his lips. He couldn't open his lips by himself yet, but managed to groan out a weak and barely discernible. "Mhm."

Verona sighed and reached down to the straw, prying Skyler's lips open, allowing it through. He began to slowly drink through that straw. After much effort and five minutes later, he managed to drink the whole glass down, roughly 24 ounces of orange juice. For those who wish to know, this is about 1,350 mg of potassium, a little less than one third of the maximum daily value of 4,700 mg. By this time, she asked. "Do you want more? Or do you think that is enough?"

Skyler spent the next few seconds thinking about that, but finally let out a sigh before groaning out. "Nnnh." Verona asked. "Is that a no?" He grunted. "Mhm." She said, "Okay." before sitting down nearby, watching him with a worried expression upon her face. Over the next half an hour, he started to regain the ability to move his toes, fingers, feet, and hands. When he was finally able to straighten out his neck, he let out a groan of relief and said. "Ugh, that hurt." At this moment, he turned his embr wave back on since it had timed out after being on for half an hour. It wasn't until an hour after that, that he was finally able to stand. Although his movements were slow, it was better than being immobilized.

Verona was still watching Skyler as she said. "You should go to your room and rest. You'll at least be comfortable in there if you have another attack. Just let me know if you need more orange juice." He sighed and nodded. "I just need to relax for a bit." She nodded and said. "I know I wouldn't be much help, but would you like a hand to your bedroom?" He shook his head while turning toward his bedroom and said. "No, I'll be fine." She simply replied. "Okay, please don't stress." He nodded while shambling slowly to his room. After a few minutes, he managed to make it to his recliner, sitting down on it carefully and stared at the ceiling for a while.

Several minutes later, Skyler let out another sigh before getting up, heading back into the kitchen to retrieve his phone from the stove top. Once he returned to his bedroom, he sat down to watch a Youtube video on his phone while thinking about what to make for breakfast. Hmm, he could easily make eggs, bacon, and toast or he could try for an omelet.