When She Cries

Everything was a bit hazy as I started to open my eyes. I could hear talking around me, but I couldn't pick out the voices.

When I was finally able to focus my eyes, I started to look around. Everyone was in random chairs all around the room, but Dad was the closest to me.

"Dad," I said softly, trying to get his attention.

His head snapped in my direction as he moved closer. "Hey, Baby," he said, stroking my hair. "How're you feeling?"

I shrugged. "What happened?"

"Elle, were you having any pains earlier?" He asked, ignoring my question.

"Yeah, I didn't think anything of it though, why?" What could have possibly happened?

"Well, is was your appendix, it burst. Usually you would be fine in a few days. But, now it's going to take a couple of weeks."

I groaned. "That's lovely."

"Why didn't you tell one of us?"

"Because I didn't think anything of it." I really just thought it was just a side cramp. Guess not.

"I'm just glad you're okay," he said, kissing my forehead.

"Yeah, don't scare me like that again, Missy," Lacey said, glaring at me playfully.

I just rolled my eyes. "So, how much did you bribe them to let you all be in here at once?" I asked, knowing that usually this wasn't allowed.

"Let's just say that a few of the nurses are a Syn Gates fan," Brian said, smirking.

I shook my head. "You dork."

"Hey! It got us in here, didn't it?"

I looked around the room again, but saw that one was missing. "He's in the waiting room," Val said, knowing who I was looking for. I just nodded.

"He really wants to talk to you," Johnny said.

"Well I don't want to talk to him," I mumbled, looking down at the sheets.

"Elle-"

"When can I go home?" I asked Dad, cutting him off.

He sighed, before standing up. "Let me go ask."

"So I assume I won't be able to dance either?" I asked Val who took Dad's spot next to the bed.

She smiled sympathetically. "No, sorry, Sweetie."

"Awesome," I mumbled, laying back and closing my eyes.

Well this just kept getting more perfect. First the whole thing with Mike, then Zacky and his skank, now this.

"Elle." Dad snapped me out of my thoughts. "They said you can go home now if you felt up to it. But you're going to be on bed rest for the next week." I nodded, not really caring anymore. There wasn't anything that I could do about it. So why bother?

"Here's some clothes to change into," Uncle Jimmy said, placing a bag on the bed. I opened it and gave him a questioning look. "What?" He asked.

"You picked this out yourself, didn't you?"

"What? I wanted you to comfortable!" He said, shrugging.

"Who's sweatshirt is this?" I asked, because it seemed familiar.

"I don't know, it was in your closet."

I pushed the thought away as the nurse came in to take out the IV and Val helped me get dressed. She had already seen the scars, so I didn't care if she saw them.

"Ready?" Dad asked as I sat on the bed. I nodded and he brought the nurse in with the wheel chair. I scrunched up my nose and Dad laughed. "Hospital rules," he said, helping me into the damn thing.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I swear you're just doing this on purpose."

He smirked down at me. "Not a chance." I shook my head as we made our way down to the car.

When we got home, Dad carried me inside and sat me on the couch, then wrapped me in blankets and pillows.

"Elle, the girls and I are going to go to the store to fill your prescription and get something for dinner. The guys are down the hall in the studio if you need them," Val told me as they were leaving.

I flipped through the channels a little bit until I just settled on Sandlot; I loved this movie. After a little while, I heard foot steps coming down the hall and looked up to see who it was.

"Hey," Zacky said slightly awkwardly.

I wanted to glare at him, but I decided to just ignore him. When that failed, he sat down next to me on the couch.

Well this isn't weird.

"I see you still have my sweatshirt," he said, smiling softly. That's right! Now I remember stealing his sweatshirt a few weeks ago. I started to un-zip it, but he stopped me. "No, keep it, it's okay." I shook my head and continued to pull it off. It was a bit of a painful process, but I still did it. He sighed, looking down at it after I had thrown it at him. "Elle, I'm sorry," he said softly. "I don't know what came over me. I'm so, so sorry."

I felt my eyes starting to sting. "Yeah, well sorry isn't enough sometimes, Zack," I hissed. "Now thanks to you, everyone probably knows... I seriously thought I could trust you. And now I see how far that got me." I got up and started walking down the hall to the garage where Dad had his studio set up.

"Baby, what're you doing up?" Brian asked, being the first to see me. He saw the tears in my eyes and just brought me into his arms. "Let's go sit down," he said, walking over to the couch.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Jimmy asked after a few minutes. I simply shook my head and snuggled into Brian. "Alright," he said, dropping the subject.

They went back to talking about one of the songs for the new album as I lay against Brian. He was really comfy and warm... My own personal pillow, for the time being.

Zacky had come back in a little bit later and wouldn't even look at me. That's right, punk.

I felt myself starting to doze off as I continued to listen to them talk about the album. Not that it wasn't interesting, I was just tired.

So much has been going on lately, and I felt like I just couldn't keep up. Hopefully it would all be over soon enough...