Spanner in The Works
Chapter 8- A Stab In The Guts.
"Don't do this, please, Joey. I'm begging you" Emily said, as he opened Number 23's front, sighing and pointing her to leave.
"Don't make it harder for yourself. Just go home and pretend this all never happened" He told her, sighing, following her outside.
"What? Like you pretend that Lauren never happened? Maybe I should tell my Dad about you two" She replied, raising an eyebrow.
"Go for it but I think Lauren's gonna beat you to it, anyway, hopefully" He said, going into deep thought.
"You had this planned out all along didn't you?" She asked in disbelief, going to slap but he stopped her, grabbing her arm.
"Don't make this any more difficult then it is" He replied, before walking away, creating some distance.
"You know, you can't use girls then throw then away. It's gonna get you back on day, karma and it won't be kind" She said, crossing her arms, walking forward, refusing to cry.
"Funny thing that, Alice has been saying that for years. Never has yet" He laughed, sighing. She narrowed her eyes, she felt like the ground had been swept from beneath her. Anger and upset was boiling away inside of her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a car coming around the corner and she saw Joey's uncle, Jack and his friend Michael, arguing behind the wheel of the car. Emily saw red and did something that would live with her for the rest of her life. She stepped forward and at the right point, pushed Joey into the car, knowing that Jack and Michael were too involved in their argument. She screamed when she realised what she had done
•••
As Emily was held by her father, comforting her as help was its way, realisation and shock hit her on what she had done and began to violently shake in Jake's arms.
"Em? Ssh! It's okay" Her father said, trying to comfort her.
"I think I'm gonna be sick" She replied, pushing her father away and ran into the square gardens, throwing up. Lauren was behind her, rubbing her back, helping her up as she recovered from being sick. Emily stood up and looked at Lauren whose mascara was smudged from crying and looked white as a sheet.
"He's gonna be alright, Emily. I know he is" Lauren told her, giving her a odd smile.
"He still has a pulse" Jake told them, checking again.
"Don't, Jake, please. You're making it worse" Lauren sighed, squeezing her temples.
"Oh I'm sorry, I'm trying to help. I know your cousin's life is hanging by a thread here. Excuse me for trying" He replied, sighing.
"Try less" She said, through gritted teeth, sitting on the curb when there was movement from Joey on the ground. She shook her head, thinking it was her imagination and looked at Jake hugging Emily tightly.
"Lauren.." Joey said, quietly.
"I'm here, it's okay. I'm not going anywhere" She replied, moving forward and took his hand. Jake and Emily turned around, looking at the sight. Emily sighed a small sigh of relief.
"Lauren, I..." Joey tried to say, but struggled from the amount of pain he was in.
"Sssh, it's okay. Don't speak yet. We'll talk later" She told him, squeezing his hand.
"Lauren, please, I love..." He still couldn't form the words. She briefly looked at Jake, sighing.
"I know, I do too. You don't have to say it" She said, giving a small smile.
"Emily, she, I..."
"You broke up?" Lauren whispered. He nodded.
"But she..." Joey went quiet. Lauren narrowed her eyes, squeezing his hand.
"Don't do this to me. Stay with me, talk to me" She said, shaking him.
"Lauren, come on, babe. The ambulance will be here soon. He will fine" Jake told her. She hadn't seen him move. He was trying to move her but she didn't want to be moved. She wanted to stay where she was but at the sound sirens she moved with regret, allowing Jake to move her to the curb.
•••
Emily paced the hospital corridor whilst Jake was unsuccessfully trying to comfort Lauren who was ignoring him but jumped up when she saw Alice, rushing into her cousins arms and hugging her. Jake sighed, leaning back against the wall, turning his head to look at Emily, becoming worried and concerned about the young girl's current state.
"Emily, a word please" He said after a moment. She looked at him scared and he saw a young and scared Emily, who has handled too much too young. She looked like his six year old little girl again. She nodded and he pointed towards the exit. She followed him as he led the way before stopping in a corner, taking her arm and looked around, making sure no one could hear them.
"Okay, Emily, tell me what really happened" He told her, raising an eyebrow. She burst into tears, collapsing into him. He sighed and hugged.
"...I just saw red. I didn't know what came over me. He just broke up with me and I wanted to hurt him like he had just hurt me. I didn't mean to. It just happened" She cried against him. Jake sighed heavily and tried to comfort her.
"Did he give you a reason why he broke up with you?" He questioned, tucking her head under his chin.
"I can't tell you" She whispered, sniffing. He narrowed his eyes, pushing his daughter away, placing his hands on her shoulders.
"Tell me now" He said but before he could reply, the police was coming down the corridor.
"Emily Stone?" One asked her. They didn't look like they suspected her which relived her.
"Yes" She whispered, wiping her tears.
"Lauren tells us you are Joseph's girlfriend and was present at the time of the accident?" The female officer asked, raising an eyebrow.
Accident. It stabbed her in the guts. It wasn't an accident and she felt sick and dizzy, everything began to come unclear. Jake caught her as she felt her knees.
"Can you save this please? My 16 year old daughter has just witnessed her boyfriend get knocked over by a car and she doesn't know if he going to live or not" Jake quickly said, pulling Emily close to him.
"We understand that Mr Stone but we are trying to piece together why Mr Branning was in a position to knocked over" The male officer answered him, sighing.
"We had an argument" Emily said quietly "I can't remember what about but he was storming off and I was turning around. He just off been angry to not look"
"Will you accompany us to the police station to make a statement?" The officer asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Can it wait? I want to see if Joey is okay first" Emily replied, putting on a smile wondering how the hell she was gonna get out of this one.
