"I am Gemma." I told her. "And I'm leaving."
"Good," She sneered. "Go."
"Bitch." I said and turned to leave.

When I got up to the hospital Andy was sitting up in bed with a cup of crushed ice looking worried.
"You okay?" I asked him.
"I woke up and you were gone." He told me, his voice full of concern.
"I had to give Shaun his "present" back."
"Ha, you don't look impressed," Andy laughed. "You must have met Brooke."
"Yeah," I said, "I think so."
"Poor you."
"I guess, so anyway… are you okay."
"Yeah," I said. "The nurse came in and saw me awake so she gave me this cup of …ice."
"You sound disappointed,"
"I can't complain; it's better than lemonade and apple juice."
"GROSS!" I almost yelled.
"Gem! Quiet," Andy hissed. "We are in a hospital you know."
"Yeah," I said, "Sorry about that."
"Hey, it's okay, just don't do it again, okay?"
"No, not for that… I mean the reason you're in here is me."
"No, the reason that I'm in here is because I was stupid. I am stupid, you should know that."
"But I like your stupidness."
"Ha." Andy chuckled. "Now go to sleep."
"Okay," Then a thought struck me. "Hey, Andy… can I go and see Bradie tomorrow?"
"Yeah sure,"

The next day after Andy ate his breakfast (I actually knew what it was… toast!) I went to visit Bradie. I had to ask him about Brooke, he knew her, she was one of the popular girls at school. She didn't seem like the type of girl Shaun would usually date. I wondered why he was with her?

"Hey, again." Bradie opened the door for me and I stepped over the threshold.
"Hey, stranger," I greeted him, "Your Mum home?"
"You really came to see my Mum?"
"No, but I was wondering…so is she?"
"Nah, don't be silly it's Saturday."
"Ha," I giggled. "Yvonne is quite a shop-a-holic, isn't she?"
"Yeah," Bradie agreed. "But I could live with that if she ever bought me anything."
"Hey, she bought you that… thing ... you know the one she called a t-shirt."
"Ha, ha I'll rephrase that I could live with that if she ever bought me anything half decent."
"Yeah, so anyway I need to ask you a few questions."
"Yeah, anything."
"Well, you know Brooke right?"
"Yeah, Brooke… the blonde one who hangs out with Katie and that."
"Yeah, her… did you know about her and Shaun."
"Yeah… that's weird I agree. Shaun would never have gone out with her a few weeks ago."
"That's what I wanted to ask you… why would he go out with her? I mean you know her right?"
"Yeah, 'course. We were best friends in Primary School."
"Well, what type of person is she?"
"Hm, to put it nicely-
"Screw being nice, I just want to know about her."
"Well, she's a popular girl… a stereotypical popular girl. You know what I mean right?"
"Yeah, I used to be one of them." I shuddered. I hated those girls.
"Why, anyway?"
"She just-she gets on my nerves."
"Brooke gets on everyone's nerves sometimes."
"Apparently not Shaun's though."
"Oh, I bet Shaun's really regretting dumping you for her."
"I don't care –he can suffer, he's the reason that Andy's hurt."
"Gem, you can't blame Shaun for that."
"Well, I guess not."
"Hey, anyway. We've got this new song anyway… you wanna hear it."
"Yeah sure, what's it called?"
"Tell you in a sec, 'K."
"Sure."

And Bradie set off down the hall to get his guitar. Bradie, Andy and Shaun played in a band called Short Stack. Bradie was the drummer but he could also play guitar and keyboard. Shaun was their lead singer and guitarist and Andy (you guessed it) played bass. They had a few bits and pieces of songs that Shaun had written but this was their first whole song.
"Back." Bradie sat down on his chair and leant his guitar against his knee, rummaging around in his pockets. "Where's my pick?"
"Here," I reached into my pocket and extracted a twenty cent piece.
"Thanks," He said. "It's not a pick, but it'll do."
"I use it all the time, Andy said they're very useful."
"Ha, yeah he uses one too, I think." Bradie said, clearly thinking hard. "Anyway, it's called Princess." But before Bradie could strum the first few chords his phone vibrated and skittered across the table, almost falling off the edge. He picked it up and answered it, putting it to speakerphone. "Hey,"
"Hey is Gem there?" Said the voice on the other end. I recognised it as Andy's.
"Yeah I'm here," I said.
"Oh, hey, I must be on speaker."
"Yeah, you are… what's up."
"They said I can go."
"Oh, that's great. Me and Bradie can come pick you up and you can stay here with us for a while."
"Cool, if Bradie doesn't mind."
"I'm cool with that," Bradie told him. "I'm showing Gem our new song."
"Be there in ten, Andy."
See you then, bye."

Bradie and I drove down to the hospital to see a very happy Andy sitting out the front in his pyjamas. I smiled at him as we pulled up out the front and climbed in the back seat.
"Feeling better?" Bradie asked.
"Loads," said Andy. "Now I can go back to eating normal food." Everybody laughed. "So what do you think of the song?"
"I haven't heard it," I told him, "You rang just as Bradie was about to play it."
"Well, you'll hear it soon," He said. "We're going to play it at Christmas."
"Oh my goodness, Christmas is three weeks away and I haven't even bought presents."
"Which Christmas?" Bradie asked.

Andy's dad's side of the family were Danish so they celebrated Danish Christmas on Christmas Eve and then Andy celebrated normal Christmas with his mum.
"Umm, I didn't think of that… normal Christmas I 'spose."
"Makes sense…"
"And," Said Bradie, "We're playing a gig in Sydney next weekend."
"Yeah, I almost forgot about that."
"Ooh, can I come."
"Sure," said Bradie.
"It'll be good for you two to make it up to make it up to Shaun."
"I guess we've been a little harsh on him," Andy said.