Of course not

It doesn't take you very long to conclude that telling Erica about the Ruby was a very bad idea. Not only because you wanted to use it some more, but because you don't yet have enough confidence that you were not ready to deal with an angry Erica quite yet. To be honest, you aren't entirely sure you ever will be: Erica may be cool most of the time, but she can get scary when she's mad. So you simply wait patiently for her to finish showering, occupying yourself with trying to figure out what you want to do next.

A little over ten minutes pass before you hear the shower turn off and the blow-dryer start up. A few minutes after that, Erica comes back out, dressed in jeans and a red t-shirt. Other than her hair looking kind of damp, she's dry for the most part, but you know that isn't going to last very long.

"Sorry about that," she says, sitting back down on the couch next to you.

"No problem, I get it," you tell her. Holding up the other controller, you ask her, "Up for another game?"

Erica shakes her head, "Sorry, but I really need to call my doctor. Whatever is going on with my body right now, I need to figure it out ASAP."

She grabs her cell phone and begins dialing. Not wanting to get locked out of the loop just when the fun is getting started, you quickly think of a way to delay the inevitable. Ruby still in your hand, you focus and say, Your voice is inaudible over the phone.

Erica coughs softly while she waits. A few seconds later, she says, "Hello, this is Erica Friedman. I need to make an- What? Yes, I'm here. ...Can you hear me? Hello? This isn't a prank, I need-"

She sighs in frustration and puts the phone down, "They hung up on me. I think my phone might be broken. Can I borrow yours for a second?"

Not really able to come up with an excuse why she couldn't use it, you hand your cell phone to her. She calls the doctor's office again, and is just as successful with your phone as her own. That is to say, not at all.

"Dammit!" she says as she is hung up on for the second time, "It must be something on their end. I'm going to try a different place."

She goes back to her phone and looks up the number for another clinic, then calls them. By the time she is hung up on for the third time, she's clearly frustrated and starting to sweat more visibly.

"Are you kidding me?" she exclaims, "I can't believe this! I don't know what's going on!"

"Maybe the signal's bad," you suggest, noticing the damp spots appearing on her shirt's armpits and chest.

"But I can hear them just fine," Erica retorts, "They just can't hear me. It's really weird."

She wipes her brow, and notices the beads of sweat starting to form on her arm, "And now I'm sweating again, great."

"Are you feeling anything else?" you ask her, "Sick, dizzy, disoriented?"

"No, I feel fine," Erica replies, "Sweaty, but fine. And a bit thirsty."

She goes over to the sink and fills a glass with water, then chugs it down almost immediately. You realize that all of the sweating is probably causing her to dehydrate quickly, so you take the chance to add, The sweating caused from your allergy will not dehydrate you to a dangerous level. While you liked the idea of Erica drinking more water as a logical side effect, you didn't want to cause her any serious harm.

She lets out a satisfied sigh, then looks down and notice that her shirt is starting to soak through to the point where the outline of her bra is visible. She readjusts her jeans and says, "Damn, I really am sweating up a storm."

She looks over to you and says, "Hey Dylan, can you drive me to the clinic? I really don't want to get on a bus looking like this."

And now you have an interesting dilemma on your hands. Judging by how sweaty Erica's getting, it won't be long now until her clothes start falling apart. Hell, the seams of her jeans are already looking a little looser than they should. If the two of you go out now, she's bound to have a wardrobe malfunction in a place where people can see, either on the road or in the waiting room of the clinic. The more you think about it, the more entertaining that sounds. And from a more practical standpoint, it might look suspicious if you try to convince her she shouldn't go see a doctor given everything that's happened so far.

On the other hand though, Erica is your friend. Do you really want to make her already embarrassing situation worse by going out in public? Not to mention that you aren't exactly sure you want a doctor looking too closely into what's going on with her. For all you know, there might be something that upon closer examination gives you away, or worse, causes people to panic. There's probably something you could say, or even something the Ruby can do, that would make Erica more willing to stay put for a while, or take the choice out of her hands.

Looking at your wet friend and her pleading blue eyes, your mind races through a myriad of possible ways you can handle this. Thankfully, it isn't too long before you come to a decision.