Take It Slow, 'Cause I Can't Be on My Own

"Alex? Why is he doing that?" My eyes shifted towards Jack, hinting at the
back and forth,
back and forth,
back and forth.

"He's uh.. he's pacing," he didn't look me in the eye when he said this, and he focused on his hands. I saw him mouth a few words to himself, and a few seconds later he looked up, but not at me, not at anything, and then he looked back down. Alex was trying to write a song without a pen or a piece of paper, in this room-temperature hospital, with the white floors and the white walls, and with the thick baby blue lines that ran across the white paint. Blue was calming, apparently.

"Alex? Why are you doing that?" This time, he looked at me. He looked.. annoyed, and worried, and scared. I already knew that he was writing a song, and he was writing a song because he was nervous, but I was just trying to help. No one was talking. I didn't know where mom and dad were, I just wanted Jack to stop pacing and Alex to stop mouthing words to himself.

"I'm thinking, now stop asking questions." It was quick and sharp.
"What are you thinking about?"
"Stop asking questions, Emily." He didn't look up.
"Where are mom and dad?"
"EMILY, stop."

He was getting angry, that was my cue to shut up.

So I got up, and I walked away. I was just looking to find anything that would occupy me until anyone noticed that I was gone, or felt like telling me why we were here. One minute Alex was showing me the cords on a guitar, and the next minute Alex was picking me up we were running to the car. I'd seen Jack drive before, and he was really not that good, so I put my seatbelt on, and I just closed my eyes. The next minute I was here.

The next minute, from only ten feet away I heard Jack and Alex running. I didn't move. It was only three more minutes until I heard my dad talking to Jack, and I heard him say my name.

"Emily.. Emily, you need to come here," Jack says to me, and I've never heard him so quiet.
"What's the matter, Jack-Jack? Why are you crying?"

And my eyes burned so badly, and my throat felt like it was closing up, and I finally realized why we were here, and where mom and dad were, and why Jack was driving when he was only thirteen and why Alex was writing that song. I knew, and my eyes bubbled up with salty tears as Jack hugged me at the waist, picking up my light body. When he picked me up, I was suddenly three feet taller, and I could see above the top of the metal chairs and I saw through the glass window.

"WAKE. UP. IT'S 7:30, EMILY. WAKE UP RIGHT THE FUCK NOW."
"Where's dad?"
"He left for a business trip at like five this morning."
"What? Well, how long will he be gone?"
"I don't fucking know, just get up Emily, damn."

I crawled out of bed and crept over to the window. I pulled up my mini-blinds, letting in the hot morning sun of Spring. I heard my door creak open and Alex walked in holding a steaming mug of coffee. "Thought you might need this," he smirked at me playfully, but warmly before he shut my door. I heard Jack rampaging about the house, and stomping up the stairs. "I'm serious Emily, I've got shit to do, so if you don't want to walk to school together, hurry the fuck up." I rolled my eyes and slid a pair of ripped skinny jeans on. I threw on a fitted hoodie over my bare stomach and called it good. Today was not a day I felt like impressing anyone.