The courage to say no

First I want to thank you for all incredibly amazing stories about Richard telling Hyacinth off. They are all great and it's about time that he did something like that. But (no offense) I believe that even other characters need to say no. So I have focused on them instead – anyway thanks for inspiring me, it was really fun to make up scenarios that would so desperate that everyone gets enough, because I figured that the scenarios had to be horrible that the characters preferred to face Hyacinth instead.

I own only the characters that I have "invented" myself.

And by the way, I'm not a native English speaker and I have never been to an English-speaking country. I write this to practice and if you see something that is "very" wrong I'll be more than happy for a hint.

Yours

Sjeherazade

Alpha

No I can't drink coffee with you this morning!

"NO I CAN NOT DRINK COFFEE WITH YOU TODAY HYACINTH" Elizabeth cried and then, before waiting for an answer she simply slammed down the phone.

She was heartbroken, tears ran down her cheeks and they refused to stop, making it hard for her to breath. Trembling she picked up the phone again, she could barely see the numbers for the tears ...

***

Previously

Elizabeth woke up and got dressed, she had slept really good this night, and she was happy and felt refreshed. On the way to the kitchen, she saw that Emmet had fallen asleep on the piano with his head resting on the keys. She took a blanket that was lying in one of the armchairs and put it over him, and then she thought no more about that, she went to the kitchen and made breakfast.

When she was done and went back to Emmet to tell him that breakfast was ready, she saw that he had been crying before falling asleep.

Elizabeth thought for a while on what could have happened, but did not really dare to ask him, she knew about his nerves. Instead she went away and made a cup of coffee. When that was ready, she sat down at the kitchen table and was just about to drink when she realized that she probably would soon be forced to drink coffee anyway.

She pour the coffee out. She was not hungry anymore neither, maybe she would stop drinking coffee anyway. She had, after all, been threatening about it a few times.

Meanwhile, Emmet had awakened. He went out to fetch the milkman. He hadn't arrived yet, or rather he hadn't reached the address. The milkman was still sneaking up to the neighbor's door. For once he succeeds without anyone opening the door. The poor thing looked very relieved over that.

Then he turned around and caught sight of Emmet standing and watching him. He went over to him.

- Good morning, this might sound a little weird but ... Is it okay if I just give you the milk over the fence and run away without coming across? It would take so long that she would get out.

Emmet knew exactly what he was talking about and took milk he was handed. He would do anything for this kind of opportunity so why would he deny someone else the pleasure?

The milkman gave Emmett a grateful smile but then he discovered how pale he was.

- Are you okay?

- I guess ...

- I still believe that you should rest today!

***

Emmet walked back in with the milk.

I must have overworked! He sighed as he entered the kitchen.

Elizabeth had breakfast ready, they sat down at the table but Emmet didn't eat.

- How was the matter yesterday Emmet? I saw that you had been crying!

Emmet looked down again.

- Hyacinth has gone to my boss and fixed so that she gets the lead role in my next opera ... and he said yes. As I understood it, he was very stressed at the moment and he didn't even ask her to come and to an audition.

Elizabeth looked scared and sat the cup down so she wouldn't spill anything.

-But that's terrible! What are you going to do about it?

***

A little later – still in the morning, Elizabeth came in from the garden, she looked anxiously towards the phone, she knew that it would ring soon, it was the right time.

She tried to practice the words in her head, but gave up. She hadn't succeeded before and didn't even dare to hope that she would do it this time either. Often, she would not even get the chance to say anything and it often felt like years before she was rescued by a strange phone call from Violet.

She went in to the living room to continue talking to Emmet about Hyacinths future career.

He wasn't there.

- Emmet?

She walked in to the room they had prepared for him and discovered that he has gone to bed. She made a sigh of relief because he would get some sleep after the last sleepless night and was just about to close the door to let him sleep when she caught sight of the sleeping pills that were everywhere over his bedside table, it was obvious that he had eaten more than one.

- Emmet? She shook him, nothing happened. EMMET ...

Suddenly Elizabeth heard the phone ringing. She knew instinctively why and run over to answer it. Normally these used to end with her going over to the neighbor - against his will - to drink coffee, but not this time.

With tears in her eyes, she run away to the phone and answered. She did barely give Hyacinth a chance to say anything at all before she screamed:

"NO I CAN NOT DRINK COFFEE WITH YOU TODAY HYACINTH!" Then she threw the phone back.

Desperately crying she then called for an ambulance, she just couldn't believe she has let this go this far. She couldn't believe that her little brother didn't even want to live anymore…