When I woke up, I was very confused.
Actually, let's change that to 'extremely'. Extremely confused.
I mean, the first thing I noticed was that I wasn't in my bed. I wasn't facing the right way for it to be mine.
Also, that I was waaaaaay too warm for it to be my bed. It was always cold in my room because the radiator never worked.
'Where ARE we?!'
'I would have thought you remembered, considering the amount of screaming last night. I am amazed that Lucy did not hear it.'
'I wasn't going to wake her up! She was tired, and... oh, I remember where we are now.'
I decided to pry open my eyes.
I was in a-
Oh my gosh I had forgotten about Emmet.
Everything from last night came back to me
The trying to run away.
The rain on my back.
The moment i turned up on Emmet's doorstep and asked if i could stay the night, expecting to be turned away.
Emmet asking if I wanted to sleep in his bed.
I turned my head up, and saw Emmet still sleeping a small distance from me.
I glanced at his clock. It displayed in red digital lettering 7:28 a.m.
I reached over, and gently shook Emmet's arm.
"Emmet?"
He started and woke up, looking around. Then he caught my eye, and smiled.
"Good morning Lucy."
My face dropped. Did I say he could call me that?
Oh yeah, I did.
That felt good.
"I- I can call you Wyldstyle again, if you want, I mean, it was stupid, I'm sorry- "
I began to laugh. "Emmet, it's ok, you can call me Lucy. I- I like it."
I like you.
He grinned. "Ok, well, uh..."
"Are we gonna go downstairs?"
"Sure."
I got up out of the bed and began to open the door-
"Wait."
I turned around, eyebrows raised. "Why?"
Emmet sighed. "Benny and Rex are in the house. I gotta go tell them you're here."
"Why can't I just say hi?" I asked, a bit intrigued at the fact that I could meet Rex for the first time.
"I just..." Emmet trailed off, looking lost. "Benny'll be fine about it, but Rex... ever since Dad..." he left off his sentence again, instead opting to gnaw on a thumbnail.
"What... happened, with your Dad?" I asked cautiously, knowing how some people could be about personal subjects.
"He left."
"Oh."
We stood in silence for a few moments, before Emmet sat down, took a deep breath and continued.
"He used to be fine. He was a great Dad, always helping, laughing, jokes, the usual stuff you'd expect from a dad, y'know. But then, one day, he just... changed. Almost in the click of a finger. He started drinking, taking bad pills, arguing a lot with Mom."
He took a moment to catch his breath.
"It was mine and Benny's 12th birthday. Rex was 14. Dad hadn't been in the entire day. Then at about 11 at night, he came in the door, drunk and mad as hell. He'd put a double bet on for our birthday, and he'd lost it. 500 dollars. He was angry and wanted to take his anger out on- on me. He tried to grab me by the throat and lift me up."
He pulled his pyjama top down slightly, so i could see the small marks on his neck.
"Rex stopped him, held him back. And then..." he choked on his words.
"You dont have to continue," I said gently, reaching over to touch his arm. He wiped his eyes and began again.
"Dad, he, he hit Rex. Really hard under the chin. He collapsed, and Benny caught him. Dad started back at me again but Mom forced him out the house. We- we haven't seen him since."
I stayed silent for a moment.
"Why does that mean that Rex won't like it if I go down unannounced?"
"He used to be a lot kinder. He was the kind of older brother everyone wants, friendly, helpful, would die for you. He almost did. He spent a week in hospital after. When he came back, he changed as well. He was a lot more reserved, and became really sarcastic. Like, really bad. He wont ever let it go if you just walk in."
I nodded, and let him stand up and walk out the door.
I heard him move down the stairs, and listened to the muffled talking.
I heard a gasp, a snigger, then someone saying something along the lines of "Is she ok?"
A few more minutes passed, and then the door opened and Emmet said, "You wanna come down?"
I smiled.
"Sure."