ALL OVER DANCE SHOES

"Did you call Will?" Jay asked me for the second time. I shook my head.

"I don't want to go home," I answered him.

"That wasn't the question," Jay responded from his chair. "I asked if you called Will."

"If I call Will he is going to tell me to go home, so no, I didn't," I snapped, turning away from him. Will always took Dad's side. He wasn't here. He didn't know how bad it really was.

"He needs to know what happened, Gracie," Jay tried to reason. I planted my eyes on the television screen and ignored him. If Will didn't care enough to believe me and come home, he didn't care enough to need to know.

"Fine," Jay sighed. "I'll call him," Jay resigned, pulling his phone from his back pocket and stepping out of the room. I thought I would finally have a moment to myself, but a nurse walked in right after he left.

"How are you feeling?" She asked while she put on the blood pressure cuff. I shrugged.

"My head hurts," I complained. The medicine they gave me when I was admitted was wearing off.

"I'll check with your doctor to see if we can do something about that, sweetie," the nurse – I think her name was Donna – promised. "Are you up for a visitor?" She asked once she finished documenting my vitals. My eyes flashed to her face.

"Who is it?" I panicked. It couldn't be Will because he was in New York and there was no way he was getting from New York to Chicago in the time Jay was on the phone with him. That meant there was only one other person who knew I was in the hospital and I definitely did not want to see him.

"Miss Beatrice. She's from the state," Donna informed. "She just wants to ask you a few questions."

"It will have to wait until Jay gets back," I groaned. He warned me there were going to be people who would want to talk to me about what happened and to make sure he was in the room with me when they were around.

"No problem," Donna smiled. "I'll let her know to wait a few more minutes and check in later. I'll be back too with some medicine once I get the doctor to clear it," she patted. I nodded. Praise Jesus for morphine.

I closed my eyes, hoping it would help with the pain. I could handle the fact my arm was all messed up, but a constant headache was driving me crazy. The lights and constant noises that went with being in the ER weren't helping, plus, nurses like Donna kept coming in and out, asking me questions.

"Hey," Jay whispered, peeking into the room. He probably thought I fell asleep or something, considering it was the middle of the night.

"Hey yourself," I grunted, maneuvering myself on the gurney with my functioning arm.

"Will wants to talk to you, but I told him only if you were up for it," Jay explained, covering up the phone. "You can say no," he insisted, squeezing my knee. I nodded, holding my arm out as best as I could.

"You need to go check with the nurses," I told Jay. "Donna just came in and said someone from the state wanted to talk to me."

"I'll take care of it," Jay kissed me on the forehead. "I promise."

"Good," I sighed, and held the phone up to my ear as best as I could. "Hi, Will," I muttered into the phone. I sounded pathetic.

"Gracie, baby, what happened?" Will stammered on the other line. He sounded exhausted.

"I'm fine, Will," I tried to reassure him.

"You have a concussion, a wrist fracture, and your back is covered in bruises. You could have died!"

"I've broken bones before and the bruising isn't that bad, just uncomfortable," I lied.

"You got lucky. Jay said Dad pushed you?" Will asked, absolutely horrified.

"It was an accident," I deflected. "It wasn't his fault."

"Was he drunk?" Will continued, ignoring my defense. I groaned. This was exactly why I didn't want to call Will.

"When isn't he?" I countered. "Look, it's over. I don't want to talk about it. Jay said I could stay with him, so it's over."

"You aren't going home?" Will seemed taken aback.

"How can I, Will?" I hissed into the phone. The last thing I needed was Jay to walk in with that lady from the state. "This isn't the first time something like this has happened. Jay's home now and he said he isn't leaving again. He has a good job with the CPD now and he is in a good place. I can't keep living in a place where I feel like one wrong move will get me killed."

"I didn't realize it was that bad, Gracie, I'm sorry," Will apologized into the phone.

"Yeah, whatever," I rolled my eyes. Will knew exactly how bad it was, he just didn't care enough.

"Gracie, I mean it. Tell Jay I can send him some money if he needs some help," Will offered. "We can try and get Dad into a program or something, get you home. It's been hard on him since Mom died. He needs us."

"Give me the phone," Jay grumbled from behind me. I didn't realize he was back already and was surprised to see he was alone. I handed him the phone and took a deep breath. Will was in La La Land if he thought a program was going to help Dad.

"She's thirteen, Will! What am I supposed to do, put her into foster care?" I heard Jay yell into the phone from outside the room. I tried to listen more closely, but Jay was much quieter now. A nurse probably yelled at him.

"I don't want to go to foster care," I mumbled quietly to myself, picking at the blanket.

I didn't mean for any of this to happen, I thought as my eyes dampened. I quickly tried to push the tears away, but they weren't leaving. I hated this.

"Hey," Jay rushed over when he came back in the room. He took my good hand and sat down on the gurney. "It's okay," He comforted.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled, resting my head on his arm. He ran his fingers through my hair.

"None of this is your fault," Jay insisted. "Do you understand that? This is on Dad. This is Dad's fault. He needs help, Gracie."

"I shouldn't have forgotten to put my shoes away," I admitted. Jay sighed.

"Is that what this is about?" He asked. I nodded.

"Dad found my dance shoes," I explained. "He threw them out."

"We can get you new dance shoes," Jay mumbled into my hair. "You don't have to worry about that anymore."

"I don't want to go home," I repeated my earlier statement.

"Your home is with me now," Jay held me tighter. "I'm gonna take care of you."

A/N: I hope you all liked this first chapter. I'm testing this out to see how it goes, but if people like it I'll make it happen. There is an intentional vagueness to this first chapter and I plan on filling in these holes as the story continues. Thank you for your time and please let me know what you think!