I cut a scene from my ch outline for better flow + it was getting too long and this is still somehow 6.6k,,,
Mari dreamt of nothing but the void and a dull sense of pain. As she woke the first sense to really hit was that hospital mouth feel. Second is how dry it felt. Then the headache that encapsulates her head. She's aching all over, if that was anything to count. The pain feels subdued. It didn't take her long to deduce it must've been whatever pain meds they stuck her on.
Worst by far, if not my sheer inconvenience, is whatever guck was stuck in her throat. It felt very much present and she winces at how gross it felt. But her throat feels as if it had no moisture, and that trying to cough it out would strain her lower abdomen.
Oh well, guess she'll just have to breathe shallow with that taste in her mouth for the time being.
Her hospital room was barren yet sterile. No decor of any note. Huh, guess I haven't been here long enough to have anyone visit me. She wiggles her arms enough to free themselves from the covers to check where the IV line was stuck into. It made her mildly uncomfortable knowing there was this long thin needle gabbed in that spot. Somehow barely being able to feel it made it all the worst.
She shutters and examines her other arm. Nothing but a couple of patch bandages. There's only a single large one on the arm with the IV.
Next on her list of what to check would be her legs. She grabs the covers in preparation to pull them aside, but the sound of the door opening hinders her game plan.
She is noticed immediately. "Oh! Ms. Hidaka. You're awake. Faster than I thought you would…" The nurse mutters the last part to himself, but Mari still managed to make it out with how empty these four walls were. He slips his pen to his breast pocket and clips the board to the foot of the bed and goes right to her side to fiddle with the machines.
There's another question on his lips by the time he turns towards her. "Ms. Hidaka, do you remember how you got here?"
She nods. Unfortunately.
He smiles, in the way one does as to get through the motions. "That's good. Good…" He walks over to grab a pillow from somewhere and lays it on her chest, then pulls out some napkins. "Alright, so I want you to gently hold this pillow against your abdomen. When you cough or clear your throat, hold the pillow down so it doesn't hurt your chest or stomach area too much, okay? It's gonna muffle it. Don't try to clear your throat too quickly or too strongly, understand?"
She nods again. That's simple enough. I probably hurt my ribs.
"Yeah," he goes further, "don't try to get it all done at once, if you have to half-ass cough a few times to clear your throat that's fine." He hands her the napkins. She stares at him dumbly. "Uh, don't you want to clear your throat? We did put you under while we were running scans and tests. That stuff kinda gucks up."
She winces at the mention of it, so that's what it was. She does as instructed and wrinkles her nose at what comes out.
The nurse lifts a green waste bin for her to toss it into. "Any pain?" Clank!
"Little bit everywhere but it's pretty low." Her voice is hoarse and she tries to clear her throat again. She's handed more napkins and once more the waste bin.
"On the pain scale?"
"Yes."
He looks back at her, a telltale sign he found something she said to be assuming.
"Oh! You mean like-uh, 3 to maybe 4 I guess?"
"So you'd say something tinglingly but not sharp?"
She nods and requests a glass of water.
He steps over to the small nightstand and fills her a cup from the pitcher. He wordlessly hands it to her and takes it back as she wipes her mouth. "Okay." Clears throat. "You think you can answer a couple more questions for me?"
"Of course."
"Great!" He retrieves his clipboard and slips out his pen.
Mari mentally gulps. She wonders if her voice will last long enough for this.
The click of the heavy door being pushed open reverberates loud enough to push Mari out of her slumber. Mari batts her eyes open, having to adjust to the fluorescent fixtures. Fuzzy pain greets her followed by her family.
Their faces come into view, her parents looking down at her from both sides. Where's Sunny? Her first concern. Her eyes wander around for him, but not being able to get a glance of her little brother without sitting up distracts her. They land on the IV and she begins to wonder just what's in it. Not saline for sure, she didn't have that disgusting salt taste in the back of her throat touching the farthest part of her tongue. Mari found it quite unpleasant, you never forget it. Even if only exposed to it once, at least; in her humble option.
Not that anyone's asking, she doesn't think anyone will.
I don't remember falling asleep… There's this annoying gap in her memory after the staff left her alone post attending to her. They didn't explain what her diagnosis was. (She didn't ask.) That numb feeling also hasn't gone away, now that it's been hours. … Most likely a couple of hours. It would be embarrassing to find out that she's only passed out for like 45 minutes.
"Mom." She coughs away that shrieking voice crack.
"Oh sweetie!" An older woman pulls a hand to her daughter to brush her hair away from her forehead. "How are you feeling, Baby?"
Mari's smile drops and wobbles. "Kinda numb? I think that's the pain meds I'm on. I wasn't told what state my body's in." But I can take a few guesses.
She tsks at her in a sympathetic way and slowly removes the pillow left to sit on her chest.
"Oh! Wait, no Mom, I need that." She coughs without the pillow's support and gets a taste of what the initial nurse warned her about. She winces.
"Oh! I'm so sorry. What's it for?"
"Ugh." She whimpers. "For bracing." She explains, "For if I need to cough or clear my throat." She looks over to her dad's form. He's yet to speak, seemingly studying his daughter.
He's always been weird like that. Sunny though…
Was he hiding by the door? …Unless he wasn't in the room with them?
"Actually, could you get me more water?"
Her mother complies and uses the same cup from earlier. Catching the teen off guard, her father is the one to help her sit up to drink, and she shimmies her way into a comfortable position. The pillow never leaves.
Her eyes lock with something lingering by the door.
Her brother was dressed in a thick blue windbreaker with its hood down. Long brown pants covered his legs fully. He appeared as if he didn't sleep last night, his hair oddly combed and neat compared to the rest of his appearance. She can only guess that their mother had not only dressed him, but put in some effort to make him seem presentable. Maybe she wanted to waste time before seeing her firstborn in the hospital like that.
"Sunny?" She dry coughs and takes a drink. "Why are you so far away?" Her voice cracks again as she beckons her brother. Her brows furrow. "Come here, it's not scary. You don't have to look at the machines."
She noticed his gaze was anywhere but them. He peered at the machines to the sides of her bed frame, he looked at the foot of her elevated bed, he stole glances at the window, staring out into the sky.
She frowns.
Their dad turns back to Sunny and gestures 'come here'. The boy hesitates for about all of a second before tiptoeing his way there. Neither of their parents scold him for that behavior this time, she notes. She always hated it when they did that. He can't help it. He just does. Especially at a distressing time like this! It's a small mercy for him. And she wants to tuck this memory away. It just was too heavy for her too.
He doesn't say anything at her bedside. Just stares with his arms tucked behind his back.
She muses at the sight. She'd guess as much that this would happen. He doesn't know how to feel about all this or react, huh? He did…shove her out of the way. Mari lost her balance and hit the bottom. Her brother must be terrified, no, petrified! But it's going to be all okay. She just took some hits. She'll probably be out of here after a week or so. It's not a big deal. Just hurt her ribs and got some cuts.
Granted, it would've been great if all of this didn't happen. The recital was missed (after months of practice…she tried not to dwell on that detail) and now she's hurt… But it was just an accident. She ran in front of him to block him from escaping her. That's…
It was so fucking stupid in retrospect! You can't jump in front of someone trying to go down the stairs. He probably just instinctively reached out to move her aside… It was an accident!
She tries giving him a smile. "Hi Sunny, did you miss me?" It was meant to be a little tease, just to lighten up the mood. She's fine. Everything is fine.
He tears up. Their father brings a hand to comfort him. But he sniffles all the more as he keeps searching Mari's face for something.
She can't help but wonder just exactly what he's looking for. She reaches out a hand for him to hold and he spares it a glance.
"Sunny…" Their mom prods him. The first thing either parent has said since Sunny joined them.
Her little brother blinks away the tears and slowly goes to give her hand a squeeze. His face doesn't change. It's…fear. She knows it well.
And guilt. It's rubbed all over.
It pisses her off but she won't say it. Never.
It was fine. She was okay and soon everything was going to go back to normal and they could just put this behind them. They'll talk about this later. She still loves him despite everything. Sunny shouldn't be scared and even though he hurt her–it wasn't on purpose–there was no need for that sort of look.
She sighs through her nose and reciprocates the gesture. "It's alright Sunny, everything's going to be okay."
Her mother lets out a breathy cry. "Oh Mari." Said girl's attention goes to her. "We haven't been briefed properly on your condition yet."
Mari brows furrow again. She strokes Sunny's hand with her thumb as her father picks up from where her mother left off on.
"We were only informed you had already woken up and were okay to visit."
"Oh." she noises. "Well, if they didn't tell you already and just let you in then I should be fine. I probably just hurt my head or something." In truth, she wasn't sure what was wrong with her. The pain meds and lack of moment covered up her physical story.
She watches her parents exchange a glance and feels a welt of worry pop up.
She squishes it as soon as it comes. Nope. No time for that. I'm okay.
She looks back at Sunny, his face dry and gaze fixed to the floor. When she gives him another smile he doesn't smile back.
Her parents continued to fuss over her about one thing or another, but her father made sure she stayed in place. 'Don't exacerbate your injuries.' Eventually the stillness of the room must've gotten to her mother, who pulled her father alongside her to get the kids some food.
She questioned them on the time before they left only to be told it was already mid day.
"You think the others will come and visit me?" Mari poses the question to her brother, unsure of what else to start a conversation with now that it was just the two in the room. He looks a little past her and nods. She patiently waits for him to add something to his response but the boy stays quiet. Shifting his body weight from leg to leg.
It was an empty awkward pause.
Oh, he's not going to say anything.
Mari's smile wavers and turns her gaze back to the ceiling. In all honesty she was kinda bored amiss the worry she'd try to fight. The lack of noise was starting to drive her nuts and she surely didn't feel like moving around much.
"Sunny…?" she tries. "Can you please say something? For me? Anything at all is fine, I just wanna hear your voice." It's a line she's used many times before in her journey as Sunny's big sister. Trying to coax him to talk. Others could try but she was the success story here. They love each other. And other people were just strangers. Sunny always wanted to make her happy and she always wanted to keep him safe.
How could things end up like this?
Was it…her fault? Did she really push him that far? Was he that scared of her? Why did this happen? This stupid silly little mistake.
It has cost them the recital. Months of work down the drain! A visit to the hospital.
Even after she's all checked up on and discharged it's going to be awkward, isn't it? Stupid stairs.
She lets out a huff at her thoughts and Sunny breaks their hand holding. Her head turns to look at him, an eyebrow already raised. "Sunny?"
He steps back.
"Sunny…?"
He makes a noise, a failed attempt at a half form word; she knows. "S-sorry…" He tries telling her more but she shushes him.
"No no, none of that here little brother. We can talk about that later, okay?" she sniffles. "Actually, more water, please."
His head snaps up and looks a little dazed. He shakily gets her more water that Mari worries he might drop the glass pitcher. She takes the cup and down its contents and watches him poorly place it back on the counter.
"Two cups..." he mutters.
Hmmm, indeed. 3 cups already. Huh, she's gonna need to use the restroom soon. Can she not feel that she needs to go or something or maybe…?
Maybe what?
Ah, perish the thought. More at hand is her brother. "Three." she corrects.
"Three." he copies.
Well, he did say something technically and clearly he doesn't want to talk. Then it appeared it was going to be her job to fill the silence now. "I had one earlier when I first woke up." She wrinkles her nose. "It took awhile, ya know? For a member of staff to come in. I was so bored before then." It was a bit of a fib but, something to blabber about.
He avoids making eye contact, and lingers farther away from her than when they were hand holding; hovering near the nightstand. But despite it all he is looking somewhere at her, which Mari counts as a win in her big book of achievements.
She makes a face she hopes will slightly amuse him. "Ugh and I had such a bad taste in my mouth. You don't even want to know what I had stuck in my throat. Felt like I was sick or something."
He lets out a sort of quiet sigh she knows is a tiny laugh behind his breath.
It was a win. Although a momentary one, she didn't know that.
"Want to sit down with me?" She pats the bed as she asks.
A shake of the head.
"Oh…" Well…I don't want him to stand the whole time. He's gonna hurt his feet. I don't know how long the line's gonna be at the café. "Well, at least bring up one of the chairs and sit next to me. I'll get lonely." The girl pouts in jest.
He freezes at the request, eyes scanning the room for the aforementioned chair. He's slow to get and drag it back but Mari is relieved when he plops himself next to her.
"What do you think Mom and Dad are gonna get us?"
He shrugs.
"I'm guessing juice."
He looks like he's about to say something so Mari elects to wait for him to speak. "I hope it's not grape juice."
She blinks. "I thought you liked grape juice though?"
"Tired." He mutters the single word. "Tired of it." he repeats.
"Ah," As if that answered all of life's questions, she can be content now. "I'm not really sure what type of juice I'm in the mood for. I'd wager there's only grape and apple in the hospital's cafeteria. I would guess orange is too acidic and probably wouldn't be good for most patients."
Sunny shrugs and gestures for so-so.
"Ugh, I hope they don't have those stupid breakfast burrito wraps."
"You still…?"
"Yeah, I still don't like them." she quips. Thinking about her minor food preferences and wondering how much longer she can stretch this conversion or if it was time to jump ship and try another topic to discuss. She just hopes their parents get back soon with the grub. You don't talk as much when you all eat.
Another silence padders out.
"Uhhh…" They look at each other and Mari catches eyes with him. He flinches when their eyes meet and turns his view to the wall. She sucks air between her teeth. "It's okay Sunny, I'm not mad."
"Lies."
"No, I'm not. I think I know how I feel right now."
He looks back at her direction with a frown. "I…I hurt you." Sunny brings his knees to tuck up against his chest and hides part of his head in his arms. "You should be… You… I made you bleed."
Her eyes instinctively shoot to her bandages and she notices Sunny follows her line of sight. She quickly brings her gaze back up to him but he's already shaking again. "Hey hey hey, listen to me. I. Am. Not. Mad." It was a lie, just as he thought. But she didn't burn with it. She was too tired too. And worried. She already was mad at him the other day and now the two siblings were here in this cold clinical room. Now was not the time. She'd keep it to herself. She'll let it boil over, like she usually did.
It was more a pissed feeling at everything being so unfair and Sunny's instinct to shove her out of the way when she stopped him from fleeing.
Of course she knows he was frustrated and scared. He wasn't thinking, it was a spur of the moment but still.
Basil had to see all of that. And it hurt like a motherfucker.
They'll talk about it later, when it's not so fresh.
Basil… Had called the ambulance. She recalls when she woke up after the tumble (the pain—searing and wretched and fresh like bruised bloody skin) she was mainly exchanging with him. Sunny was so shaken up by her bedside to really be much help. It was disorienting, especially when she realized why her arms felt wet.
The blond was plainly terrified yet managed to keep it together enough for them not only to hold a conversation, but also race to the landline where it rested in the kitchen. As soon as the two siblings were left to their devices, she tried to soothe her brother. It hurt far too much to try to wipe his tears away herself. Instead she had to opt for hushed tones and soft words.
She can't remember everything she said. They simply tumbled out of her, but what was still crisp and clear in her mind was the way Sunny laid his head on her bed and simply listened. He only muttered things between her pauses. (She struggled for a comfortable breath, the pain racking her body in a way it never has before. It started to sting so much it became a numb grinding sensation. She fought the tears.)
"I'm sorry." "Don't die." "I didn't mean to." "Don't hate me."
She could never. "Sunny?"
The raven slightly raises his head.
"How is Basil doing? He was there… I wonder how he must be holding up. He's always such a sensitive boy."
The boy freezes, sinks into himself more and turns the words in his head over to figure out what he wanted to say.
She doesn't coax him, but waits and waits. A heavy silence lingers.
His initial answer is a curt "Clingy." He focuses on a spot on her bed. "But so was I. He was upset…didn't want to leave me. Didn't want to go home."
She blinks. Makes sense. Mari thinks his word choice over and wiggles her way to scoot closer to him. He decided to use 'me'. For her, it was something to take note of, to place on a list in her mind. Waiting around for more info to be collected. "Tell him I'm sorry." That was a lot to put on his shoulders.
He looks intrigued if not a bit uncertain. "Why?" he questions.
That one word puts her on hold. How should… How can she even put that to words in a way that felt right to say to Sunny? That this whole thing was a family incident? That this should've been kept between them? That deep inside somewhere there's a part of Mari that is mortified that on top of this all happening a third party witnessed it?
She would never. "Well…what happened was very scary for all of us, I'm sure. And Basil shouldn't have seen that. So…" She goes back to looking him in the eyes to judge Sunny's emotional state. To her surprise, he keeps eye contact. She snaps her jaw shut and gulps. "So I'm sorry… About that." She hates the fact she does it, but the girl looks away. "I just thought he should know."
Sunny huffs from his nose and tilts his head away too.
"Did the Garcías come to the house after I…" 'was taken away' died in her throat. She clutches her pillow and clears it up and starts anew. "After I left, did the Garcías come by? Hero? Kel?"
Sunny draws circles with his index into the fabric of his pants. "Hero."
"Oh?" She opts to stare at his hair, gleaming the same color as hers under the harsh light. "What did he do? Say?"
He hmphs. "Can't you ask him later?"
"Yessss." she draws out. "But right now I'm asking you." She tries her best to sound endearing and wonders when she started to get annoyed. Maybe she's pushing it again. Maybe this conversation should be dead. Maybe she's a hypocrite and this steps too close to taking about that and she's on thin fucking ice with her brother.
Or maybe she just wanted some comfort in the form of having solace that Sunny was taken proper care of after she was loaded into the ambulance.
He sighs, quiet and sad and unbends his legs to let them dangle above the floor. "Hero came inside after they took you. Basil…Basil talked to him and told him what you said to tell everyone."
She nods. "That's good. I'm glad you guys listened to me." That was the part she was most worried about. If it got out to anyone, she wouldn't be able to control the situation anymore. The flow of info had to stop at them. It was the only way.
Her heart nearly jumps out of her chest when the door clicks back open. She notices her brother jolting his chair too.
She can feel the blood flow to her ears as she presses her lips to a thin line. Why!? Did they have to walk in on that part?! I'm sure they didn't hear anything, the doors are too thick but still. Just the fact it's this conversation. She hides her scowl.
Oh her little beating heart.
Mom and Dad got for themselves some pasta and string beans along with a side of rice. They brought some sort of fancy water that they no doubt got from a vending machine. As for the kids' meals, Sunny got mac and cheese with chicken strips. A safe choice. He was also handed an apple along with juice. (Grape, she noted. The light scrunch of her brother's nose when he accepted the drink from their mother didn't go unnoticed by her.)
She was passed over soup, probably soft chicken or ham chunks floating around with noodles. A cup of watermelon cuts sat on her tray and a slice of toast with a tiny slab of butter. To her surprise she was handed prune juice which she promptly swaps with Sunny before he could open his bottle.
They share a brief look and she smiles at him.
He looks away and fails to reciprocate, but brings digits flat under his mouth and pushes his hand back to her general direction.*
She beams, good enough for her!
The family eats in relative silence. Chewing and the sounds of plastic cutlery hitting their trays rattle in her ears. She slurps the broth of her soup and looks up at her parents who quietly eat from the chairs they placed at the foot of her bed. They're tilted as to have their knees touching each other, she imagined. Judging by how close they were and said angle. Sunny remains in the chair next to her and fidgets some with his chicken strips. The macaroni was already gone but he didn't take more than a bite out of the other half of the dish.
Mari weighs in her head if it would be more effective on Sunny if she asked him to try and eat just a little more or simply handing her wonderful toast slice over.
Sunny freaking loved the texture of toast. When they were little he'd declared that toast was his favorite food, much to the dismay of their mother. However as they got older, the two seemed to realize that Sunny just really enjoyed certain textures in food.
Same went for the other side of the road. There were just some food items that no matter how tasty to her just couldn't be downed by Sunny for the way they hit his tongue or roof of his mouth. Like mochi or jello. Mushrooms were the big no-no.
Oh well, she gets more on her pizza then.
She grabs her plastic knife with her unsteady arm and attempts to spread the butter all over. It's not even but it can't be helped with how much the butter has cooled. She clears her throat to get Sunny's attention and gestures for him to take it.
He doesn't waste time stuffing down the bread. She giggles a little at the sight before stifling it out, remembering that her parents were still here. (Her little silly ever so slightly tugged at her abdomen, but the pain was only a ghost of a warning.)
Her parents exchange a look before her mother puts her tray down to rest on her chair. She pulls a brown paper napkin out of her purse to brush the crumbs off Sunny's face. The boy puts up a weak resist but the moment is over just as quick.
She pops a watermelon chunk into her mouth. "Do we know when I'll be discharged?" Color her impatient, but she didn't feel that bad and just wanted to get out and go home and sleep in her own damn bed and maybe think about the fact that they missed the recital and—
It wasn't even that bad of a fall. (Not that she can remember.)
"No." Her father shakes his head along with his answer. He places his own tray down to join his wife next to his kids for his question. "We…" He shoots his wife another look, she nudges him with an elbow. "We wanted to ask you something first."
"Hmm-mmh?"
"What happened, Mari?" Her mother has a stoic look on her face that felt out of place.
Those simple 3 words cause her to go cold, for her heart to become much more noticeable. Thump thump thump against her ribs. She internally winces at the feeling. " What? Weren't you told?"
Don't look at Sunny. Don't look at Sunny. Don't. Don't look.
She fights off the instinct to glance at her brother despite her remaining option being to keep facing her parents. Which was infinitely more uncomfortable.
Darn, now her mouth felt dry all over again, even after all that soup and grape juice.
"The Garcías' oldest gave us a rundown on what happened after his parents called us. But he said that he got that information from your friend Basil." Her dad explains to her like she wasn't already aware of all that.
She picks up on Sunny shuffling at the mention of the blond.
"But if you already know…?" She tires. Why bother asking me?
Her father doesn't scowl, but something close to it. Her mother interjects before he can seemingly reprimand Mari. "You want to know from you, Honey. Don't be frightened. We're not mad, only worried about you. What happened? We were just at the auditorium helping the Jeffersons and staff when your father got the call from Mrs. Garcías."
She takes in a breath. "Sunny didn't tell you?" It was more for clarification. She just wanted to make sure they didn't know anything. Not that she thought he'd tell them, but just in case. She just needed to know for sure to get rid of the dread filing into her chest.
Her mom sighs. "He barely spoke a word to us since we got back home. He just kept asking if we knew if you were okay." Her lips tremble at the end of her reply, indicating she was stopping herself from crying.
Mari forces her expression to soften and scrambles for the right thing to say. They want to hear it straight from the horse's mouth. She hopes Basil really did say the right wrong details. "I…uh," she instinctively looks at her father, someone who hates when their family mumbles or stutters. She finds him to hold a practice face, instead of a scorned one. It comes as a surprise. "I fell down the stairs." She withholds the rest of her lies explanation to see if either parents wanted to add something. When she's greeted by a couple second silence, she pushes onwards. (There was no way back.)
"Sunny and I were practicing last minute in the piano room when he just ran out the door and up the stairs." She breaks her mental mantra when she looks towards Sunny. The boy sinks away from her gaze, but wide eyed at her telling. "He ran up the stairs so quickly, I only got to see him hold his violin above his head at the top before he threw it down." She takes a breath and studies her parents' faces. She hopes they don't think she's saying more than necessary because she really is just stalling. "So I ran up the stairs and started yelling at him." She fiddles with her hands and opts to look at them instead. "It got really heated and I wasn't focused on my surroundings. He was trying to flee from me to the bottom floor but I kept blocking him."
She brushes her bangs out of her face and decides it'll probably be more convincing if she looks at them for this. They have to buy this part. If they don't, Sunny will be taken away from her.
What is she supposed to do without him?
"I guess I wasn't paying enough attention because I felt my heel just…slip out from under me?" She poses it like a question, to sell the fact it was supposed to be a quick random accident. Her mother grimaces at her words and her father glances at Sunny before diverting all his attention back to his daughter. "And the next thing I know I'm waking up in pain on my bed. Sunny was kneeling in front of me." Oh Dear God she hoped Basil mentioned the bed part. While it would look better for the kids if everyone thinks they called the ambulance right away, she never told Basil not to say that so…she has to assume he mentioned it.
Shit, I should've interrogated Sunny more.
She resists the urge to grind her teeth because successful people don't do that and she was raised to be successful and appreciated. "Basil was there too. I couldn't get Sunny to really speak to me so I talked to Basil instead. He told me what he saw and that they dragged me upstairs to put me back in bed.'' She lowers her voice and attempts to lean in for her parents, but immediately regrets the action when it tugs at her core. She lays back down to soothe the pain and continues. "They thought I was sleeping." She whispers. Her mother nods along in understanding, her father frowns a bit. He steals another look at his son.
Oh, how she wishes he'd stop doing that. It was stressing her out. Stop focusing on Sunny, focus on me! Leave him out of it!
"So that's when I got him to go call an ambulance. Sunny stayed with me and the EMTs came pretty quick." Mari gives herself a mental pat on the back for finishing up her 'mostly' true retelling to her folks.
She watches as her mom grabs her hand on the free side of the bed and rubs circles with her thumb like she did earlier to her brother. She had to pick up that from somewhere. "We see. Thank you for telling us, I know that was probably a little scary to go over again."
The girl just nods dumbly, not certain if she should speak anymore. Not trusting herself too.
"You landed on the violin?" Everyone turns to look at the family's patriarch. His wife begins to chastise him for bringing that part up so bluntly. She admonishes him for his lack of tact.
Sunny stares in a wide eye terror, he doesn't look away like Mari though he would.
And Mari? Mari just looks. "I guess I did, I do remember Basil mentioning that when I asked him what happened." She raises an arm. "That must've been what cut me." She's holding it all in, and it's a tougher feat than she'd imagine. Keep a straight face, keep a straight face. If only she was blessed with Sunny's poker face, that'd be nice. (It's sad that he's been more expressive under these circumstances.)
"Why did you throw it?" He ignores his wife and glares, yes glares at Sunny.
Sunny just freezes up, he bites his lip, tries to speak but nothing comes out.
Mari is overtaken with anger. At the question, at his firm tone of voice, at the conversion slipping out of her control and focusing on the only person in the room she wanted out of it. "Why are you asking him that?!" She shouts, her throat already drying up from all the talking. "Can't you see he's already frightened? It's not like he meant for me to land on it!" She wants to talk another swing of her juice to help soothe her throat. Her stomach aches at the force she used to shout.
Her mother looks between her husband and her oldest, not yet interfering.
The teen continues to stare him down as his face contorts with confusion and annoyance. As if his kids were some sort of bug. "Do not raise your voice at me Young Lady. I said not to overexert yourself. That includes yelling."
She puffs as he had a point but continues to stare him down; no, glare at him.
"Your brother," he emphasizes, making a move to also point right where Sunny was curled up in his seat, "is the one who threw his violin before the recital. There would be no argument without it, you wouldn't have slipped trying to stop him from leaving," he voice rises, as if realizing something that is only getting him madder, "and there would be no violin for you to land on if it wasn't for him!"
No shit! Of course none of this would've happened if Sunny hadn't broken his violin. But it's already happened! Isn't he the one that taught her about 'no what ifs' since then everyone would be there for days? What a hypocrite!
Mari felt light headed, winded, and furious. She hates how weak she was feeling in the moment. How just getting upset and shouting that much has plagued her with these symptoms. She's fighting back tears when she hears something light thump onto the linoleum and a new hand gripping hers. She turns to a shaking Sunny holding her hand and her anger mostly melts away.
She looks back to her father and shoots him a dirty look. He's scaring her lil brother.
Ah, now she's angry again.
Mari makes an attempt to calm down, since this is obviously doing her no good and if she's being honest the girl is scared of passing out again. She tries stomping on the flames but they can't help but lick her.
It's not fair. She's the one that got hurt, it was mainly her big recital that she missed. And yet? Why does her father get to act like this? She should be the one kicking and screaming! She's angry at a lot of things right now.
A part of her is mad at Sunny. Mad at getting hurt. Missing something she had looked forward to for months (something that had stressed her out all this time). For making Sunny worried and skirmish, for her parents having to fuss over her. For Basil having seen what he did, for Hero seeing her get sent off.
Everything. Maybe she was mad at everything. And yet this 15 year old was trying to keep it all inside, to ignore it and deal with the present. It just felt all so unfair to her. She wished this never happened. That this was a dream. She wanted to cry and scream and maybe even strike Sunny for what he did. (She's off-put by the thought when it greets her.)
She feels Sunny combing his hands through her hair like she'd do to him when he meltdowns or gets overstimulated by everyone around him. It was a sweet kind gesture and it finally lets her cry. She sniffles and leans into it. Her hearing blurs as the lightheadedness comes back with a lurch and she thinks her mother may be speaking right now.
But she can't really make it out, can't really focus. Maybe her mother is talking to her, maybe she's scolding her father for his tone of voice or for upsetting them, maybe-
The conversion is prematurely ended by the click of the door.
*This means 'thank you' in ASL.
I'm probs not gonna be writing Sunny physically signing often as that would be a lot of action to write. I'll probs be saying he signed smth followed by the general sentence he's trying to convey 'Like this.'