Acapella

Chapter 9- Hurting

We watched the Footnotes sing on stage. The front man looked like he was still in high school. I felt my throat. Why did it hurt?

"Aca-huddle, now. Look, two teams go to the finals, so we just have to be one of them. If we do it exactly how we rehearsed it, we'll get there, okay? Exactly. Hands in," Aubrey explained.

"On three or after three?"

Aubrey sighed. "Screw it, let's just do it."

We started singing, and I looked at the person manning the controls. He went on his phone after a second. The audience looked bored. One judge shook his head once and wrote something down.

Beca started singing Bulletproof, and I smiled. I harmonized with her to make it look like it was part of the routine. As we started the next song, something in my throat panged. I didn't even notice Aubrey's glare as I fought the urge to grab my throat.

It hurt even more as we started the next set. I took the high part as we finished, and I stopped short a second before we finished. I grabbed my throat, tears in my eyes as I tried to look normal.

"What the hell, you two?! Were you trying to screw us up?" Aubrey asked when we were backstage, not even noticing my face.

"Are you serious?" Beca questioned.

"News flash, this isn't The Beca Show," Aubrey spat.

"Okay, I'm sorry that I messed you up, in case you hadn't noticed, people dozed off during our set," Beca said.

"It's not your job to decide what we do and when we do it. Why don't you ask the group how they felt about your whole improvisation?" Aubrey said.

"Amy?" Beca asked quietly.

"It's cool. But it did take us a little bit by surprise," Amy reasoned.

"Yeah, a lot by surprise," Aubrey corrected her. She sighed. "I knew they weren't Bellas."

"Aubrey," Chloe scolded.

"No, that's okay. You don't have to pretend you don't have a say in the group, right?" Beca assured her.

"Your attitude sucks, you're a grade-A pain in my ass, and I know you're hooking up with Jesse," Aubrey spat. She rounded on me. "And you. You have no sense of tradition, you don't know how to listen, and your mother would slap you if she saw what you did."

"Hey, don't you dare talk to my sister like that." Andy stomped up to her as Beca had her fight with Jesse. "Mom was proud of her for doing something different for a change, thank you very much. Our father agreed, too. So don't make assumptions when you have no right to say that to her."

"Andy," I managed to say, causing more tears to flood my eyes.

"Hey, whoa, whoa, what happened?" Andy said worriedly, gripping my shoulders.

"It hurts," I said.

"Okay. Okay, let's get you to the hospital." Andy grabbed my hand.

He ignored Bumper's calls for his name as he took my hand, leading me to Mom's car. Mom looked at me worriedly as I held my throat.

"What happened? Did they come back?" Mom questioned.

"She can't talk. Aubrey got upset, and she couldn't retaliate. She could barely say my name," Andy said, opening the door for me.

I got in the car, and Mom started driving to the hospital. She called Dad, telling him to meet us there. I heard beeping, people talking, and a loud voice before I slowly succumbed to unconsciousness in the emergency room.