A Tour with Before You Exit

The next morning I stayed in bed as long as possible not wanting to face my parents after everything that had happened the previous night. When I looked at the clock I groaned seeing it was an hour until the others came to pick us up, so I knew I would have to get up. After I had washed and changed into my skinny jeans, a t-shirt and my vans I walked downstairs. Braiden was nowhere to be seen and my parents were both sitting at the kitchen table drinking their coffee and whispering to each other.
"Good morning Emma," My Dad greeted once he noticed me standing in the doorway. I was shocked at how polite he was being after 'my attitude' last night.
"Morning," I replied before walking over to quickly make myself breakfast.
"Can you sit down with us for a moment please," Mum said, even though she was talking politely, the look on her face showed I was in trouble. Once I sat down they both swapped a look before turning back to me. "Now, your behaviour last night was unacceptable and we will not allow it. So as your punishment you're grounded." I bit my tongue and tried not to show any emotions as I watched them both look at me.
"Today, you are going to finish all your school work and then tidy the house. Understand?" Dad asked raising his eyebrows at me. I nodded slightly before taking my food upstairs with me.
"Oh no. What happened?" Braiden asked as I passed him going to my room.
"Ask our loving parents," I snapped back before closing my door. I threw the bowl of cereal on my desk but then regretted it once it smashed knowing I was going to have to clean it up later. I huffed to myself and walked over to grab my guitar and notebook. I sat down on my window sill and started to write down ideas.
You have a way of coming easily to me, and when you take, you take the very best of me, so I start a fight cause I need to feel something, and you do what you want cause I'm not what you wanted.
Oh what a shame, what a rainy ending given to a perfect day, just walk away, no use defending words that you will never say, and now that I'm sitting here thinking it through, I've never been anywhere as cold as you.
You put up walls and paint them all a shade of gray, and I stood there loving you and wished them all away, and you come away with a great little story, of a mess of a dreamer with the nerve to adore you.
Oh what a shame, what a rainy ending given to a perfect day, just walk away, no use defending words that you will never say, and now that I'm sitting here thinking it through, I've never been anywhere as cold as you.
You never did give a damn thing honey but I cried, cried for you, and I know you wouldn't have told nobody if I died, died for you.
Oh what a shame, what a rainy ending given to a perfect day, just walk away, no use defending words that you will never say, and now that I'm sitting here thinking it through, I've never been anywhere as cold as you.
After five minutes of sitting staring out of my window I saw Thomas' car stop outside our house. Braiden walked out of the door and down the path towards the car. Connor noticed me sitting in my room and waved slightly before open his window to talk to Braiden, they must have been talking about me because Connor suddenly pointed at me, Thomas and Riley moved over to look out of that side of the car while Braiden turned his head to me. I gave them all a wave and smile before reaching over to my desk to grab my laptop.
I watched them all drive away before turning on my laptop to do school work. I laughed slightly when my phone started to go off; I smiled when I saw it was Riley.
"Hello," I answered walking over to my door to make sure my parents weren't near to listen.
"Your parents are twats," Three voices shouted out.
I laughed. "Yes they are."
"Today's not going to be any fun without you Emma-Bear," Thomas moaned.
"Yes it will be. You can have a guy's day out."
"But your one of the guys," Connor augured.
"Emma's not a guy!" Riley shouted, the others laughed in response while I smiled.
"So what's your punishment?" Braiden asked.
"I have to do school work and then clean the house."
"Sucks. But it's worth it, they're faces yesterday," Connor imputed, the others shouted their agreements.
Footsteps coming upstairs made me jump and nearly drop my phone. "I have to go! Either Satan one or two is on their way."
"Bye!"
I quickly chucked my phone across the room and opened my laptop again just as my Mum opened the door without knocking. "Who were you talking to?"
"No one," I replied opening the school website. I looked over and saw my Mum picking up my phone. "What are you doing with my phone?" I groaned when it suddenly beeped and Riley's name came up. I stifled my laugh when I saw he'd sent me a joke to try and cheer me up.
"Well no distractions," She replied taking my phone with her. "We're going out for the day but don't even think about sneaking out I have Mrs. Evans from across the road watching." I nodded slightly for looking back to my laptop.
Once she closed the door I opened twitter ready to warn Riley.
'@BYEriley don't text me! My Mothers got my phone!'
I closed my eyes and hoped he hadn't already sent more. Seen as I had an iphone the texts would automatically show. Luckily she didn't know my password so she couldn't see anything else. A few seconds later a new tweet came up.
'@BYEemma whoops! And I already had another joke in mind, damn'
I rolled my eyes and smiled before going back to my school work.
...
An hour later all my school work was done so I moved onto cleaning the house. I plugged my iPod into my portable speaker and started to clean. When I walked into the kitchen I grabbed the chair to use as a stool to get all the cleaning products from above the cabinets. The chair wobbled and the next thing I knew I was falling towards the floor. I managed to grab the side of the cabinet draws but lost my grip. I hit my head on the handle and fell towards the ground hitting my head again. I looked over towards the phone but before I could attempt to reach for it my vision started to go dark.
...
When I woke up, I wasn't sure how long I had been unconscious. I had to stop myself from gagging when I saw the pool of blood around my head. I grabbed a clean dishcloth out of one of the draws and placed it against my head where the blood was gushing out of.
I looked up at the clock and saw I'd been unconscious for nearly an hour. I went to stand up but fell back down again. I laid my head back on the floor to try and stop the dizziness.
I reached up and pulled the phone down off the chord and sat up slightly. I automatically typed in Braiden's number not knowing what to do. When the call went straight to answer-phone I started to panic, the blood was still coming out of my head and I felt as if I was going to lose consciousness again. I tried calling Riley, Connor and Thomas but none of them were answering their phones either.
I took a deep breath trying to calm myself down, the pain in my head was getting unbearable and I had blood and tears streaming down my face. I called Mrs. McDonough, she was the only other person I could think of calling right now.
"Hello."
"Toby its Emma! Can you get your Mum for me?"
"Sure Emma, Mum! Phone!" I sighed in relief and pushed the cloth harder against my head. "Emma?"
"Mrs. McDonough I need your help."
"Sweetheart, what's wrong?"
"I-I fell and I hit my head a-and..."
"Where are you?"
"In my house."
"I'm on my way over, try not to move a lot and don't fall asleep." She hung up quickly; I laid back on the floor relaxing slightly knowing she was on her way.
About five minutes later I heard the door opening, thank goodness we had given her a spare key. When I looked up I saw both her and Toby rushing towards me. "Emma! Oh God, we have to get you to the hospital," Mrs. M shouted as Toby kneeled next to me in shock. "Toby, help Emma up while I grab something to put against her head."
"Okay... be careful Emma," Toby said as he helped me stand up. As Toby was helping me towards the car I nearly fell over in shock when I saw my reflection. My originally white t-shirt was red, there was even blood and the left side of my jeans, my vans had blood on them and the whole left side of my head was smothered in blood with more still coming out.
Once the three of us were in the car, Mrs. M sped off towards the hospital. The entire time she kept looking back at me to make sure I hadn't passed out while Toby held a towel against my head to soak up the blood.
When we finally reached the hospital Toby half carried me in while Mrs. M rushed ahead of us. A nurse was standing next to her with a portable bed next to her. "Dear hop on this quickly," She said patting the bed. Toby helped me get on before walking back to stand with him Mum. They both followed us as the woman pushed the bed I was sitting on into a free room.
"Toby, go and ring the boys," Mrs. M told him as the nurse started to examine my head and started to shine a light in my eyes.
"Well, you've lost a lot of blood, you're going to need stitches and you've got concussion. You're lucky you got here now; if you had arrived any later you would have been in a worse position."
Once she had walked out of the room, I turned to look at Toby and Mrs. M and groaned. "I have to get stitches!" They both laughed at me before walking closer to the bed.
"Don't worry you can hold my hand," Toby mocked. I glared at him jokingly before turning back to look at Mrs. M.
"Mrs. McDonough, thank you and I'm sorry you had to drive me."
"Sweetheart don't talk like that, you know I think of you as the daughter I never had," She replied brushing my hair out of my face.
"I think of you as my Mum too," I replied smiling at her.
She laughed slightly before turning serious. "Where are your parents? I tried ringing them but there was no answer."
"No idea..."
Her phone then rang; she pulled it out and answered it. "Hello... Connor slow down I can't understand you...No go back and take a left and go up the stairs...No you're on the wrong floor...its room 341." She hung up and laughed slightly. "I hope you don't have a headache or it's about to get worse."
I could faintly hear four pairs of feet running towards the room. I watched as Thomas ran past the room before turning around when he realised he'd gone too far. The four of the them walked into the room out of breath.
"Emma? What happened?" Braiden asked rushing forward and pulling me into a hug.
"Yes, I'd like to hear what happened too," Mrs. M commented smiling slightly. "You gave me a scare."
"I was trying to get cleaning stuff from the cabinet and I fell and hit my head on the cabinet handle and then the floor. I was unconscious for an hour, when I woke up I tried calling you all but there was no answer so I called Mrs. McDonough. End of story," I explained quickly.
"That could only happen to you," Connor commented smiling slightly while shaking his head.
The nurse then walked in holding equipment in her hand. I paled automatically knowing what was going to happen next. "Ready Emma? It's probably best if you all stand the other side of her," She said smiling at them all.
Connor and Thomas quietly sat by my feet watching while Mrs. M and Toby grabbed chairs to sit on by their spot by the door. Braiden quickly walked around the other side to grab my hand, he had learnt by now how worked up I got at hospitals. Riley then walked and stood to Braiden giving me an encouraging smile.
I sat quietly while she fixed my head listening as the guys told me about their day trying to distract me. "It was pretty boring without you; there was no one to tell us if the clothes we picked were stupid..." Thomas commented.
"And no one to keep Riley company," Connor joked as Braiden flinched in pain as I squeezed his hand to stop myself from moaning from the pain.
"Wow! For someone so small you have a tight grip," He said looking at me in pain.
"Sorry," I replied letting go of his hand, he laughed slightly stretching his fingers.
"And...You're done, it weren't that bad was it?" the nurse asked, I looked up at her confused not knowing if it had meant to be a joke. She laughed before turning to look at the clipboard next to her. "Now, you can leave tomorrow but I want you to stay here tonight just to be safe, okay?" I nodded to her before she walked out of the room.
"Emma, I'll go over to your house to get you some clothes and a few things," Mrs. M commented standing up pulling Toby with her.
"Thank you," I replied smiling at her.
"Mum, do you think they'll let us stay here with Emma?" Riley asked, the others grinned and turned to look at her. She laughed before walking towards the door.
"I'll ask the nurse on my way out, if she say's yes I'll grab some thing's for all of you."
"I'm covered in your blood after hugging you; I'm going to the toilet to get it off," Braiden said ruffling my hair, I nodded and watched him walk out with Thomas and Connor following while muttering something about food.
I looked over at Riley and patted the spot next to me. He smiled and laid down next to me pulling me into a hug. "Are you still in pain?" he mumbled into my shoulder.
"Not really," I mumbled. He kissed my forehead and pulled me into a tighter hug.
A cough from the doorway made us pull apart slightly. I was shocked to see both my parents standing there. "The hospital rang to inform us you were here," My Dad said glaring at us, Riley noticed and helped me sit up before moving away slightly to stand up. I grabbed hand and looked at him to silently beg him to stay. He nodded and gave me a smile before squeezing my hand. I looked back at my parents to see them watching us with a confused look.
"So what happened?" Mum asked, I sighed annoyed to have to explain the situation again. Once I told them a guilty look appeared on their faces when they realised it was basically they're fault that I was here. "I guess we'll see you tomorrow then." Before I could reply they had already walked out of the room.
"Have I ever told you how much I hate your parents?" Riley asked, I looked over at him smiling slightly with my eyebrows raised.
"No, I don't think you have," I replied.
"Well in my eyes they're more evil than Voldermort," He answered still glaring at the spot they had been standing in. I burst out laughing and put my head against his shoulder. He joined in with the laughter but stopped when his Mum walked back in the room and gave us a questioning look.
"You two are so weird... I have all your stuff here, the nurse said it was fine for you all to stay as long as Emma rests and you don't disturb the other patients."
A few minutes later the others walked back in carrying a few shopping bags. "Emma-bear, we knew you needed clothes for spring break, so you're very welcome," Thomas said handing me two bags. I looked down at them nervously not knowing what to expect when I opened them.
"We've know you for years Em's, you think we don't know what type of clothes you like," Connor argued rolling his eyes at me. I smiled and looked in the bag and saw they'd bought me nearly everything that I would need for when we left on the weekend, a swimsuit, shorts, t-shirts and flip flops and few other things.
"Thank you guys, I love you all," I said smiling while holding my arms open for a group hug. They all laughed and hugged me quickly before looking for their stuff in the bag Mrs. M had brought. I grabbed my pyjamas that were there are walked towards the bathroom that was connected to the room. After I had changed my bottoms, I struggled to get my top off without brushing my stitches making it sting. I pulled my top back down and opened the door "Braiden...can you help me change my top please?"
"What! Why Me? I'm your brother," He augured as the others laughed at him.
"Okay...Well if you don't, Riley's going to have to help me," I replied watching his face change in realisation. He stood up and pushed Riley to the other side of the room before walking towards me. I swapped an amused look with the others before I closed the door behind him.
He quickly helped me change before helping me gather the clothes that were covered in blood to put in a bag. I sat back down on the bed and watched the four of them as the fussed and augured about whose turn it was to go in the bathroom.
When they were finally done Braiden, Connor and Thomas all sat on a bed that had been brought in for them while Riley sat next to me on my bed. They had brought in a guitar from the car so Braiden was currently playing it while Connor and Riley sang and Thomas used two water bottles as drum sticks.
While they were attempting to play Three Words with just one guitar, I leaned more into Riley and closed my eyes smiling as they carried on playing.