Coffee Shop | Elizabeth Olsen

54: Flashbacks

"Thank God you're here," Colin says opening the door. He had a dirty nappy in his hand and Rose was crying. We stop by every morning with breakfast from the coffee shop. "Where is she?" Nell says walking in dumping the bag of food on the coffee table and making grabby hands at Scarlett. She handed her Rose. "Hi princess." She greeted and Rose cooed, it had been a month. I had been hoping on flights to LA for press and back home again so I'm only away for a max of 48 hours and it's been working because I get to be with my girlfriend more and she takes the mornings off to come to see Scar with me and then we get to hang out for a while before we do our own thing for the rest of the day both working and then we go get dinner either cook or eat out somewhere. It's been working for us.

"Are you giving muma a hard time? That's not nice." Nell was really good with Rose, like super good and it was such a turn on. I handed Scarlett her food. "Not to sound like the worse mum ever, but I count down the hours that you two come over." "We all need a break sometimes," I say handing her, her coffee. I sit with my food. "I count down the hours we come here too." "But you're excited to see, Rose. I'm excited for you to take her." "Still excited," Nell says rocking the baby walking around the room. "How cute is she with her?" "So cute. I love it." I say watching Nell and Rose.

Nell's phone was ringing. "Bug." "Answer it please." She says too enchanted by Rose to care what else was happening. "Hello, Nell's phone." "Lizzie?" "Hi Annabella, have you changed your number." "No, I'm calling from the hospital phone." "What?" I stand up and leave the room, Nell has been happy this whole month it's been blissfully perfect, we have been happy together, we're working and none of us was bad. We've been good. Why does this always happen? "What's happened?" "It's Cassie." My breath got caught in my throat, it was hard to not panic after what happened in June. "Is it bad?" "Yeah, you guys need to come home." "What's happened?" "She didn't learn." "What?" "Nora and Cassie they, they did it again. The car flipped caught on some rocks by the sea... She's in pretty bad shape." "Oh my gosh." "Please just come. Please. Please." "Yeah, we'll be there. We'll be there as soon as we can."

I hang up and go back into the lounge. "Lizzie?" Scarlett stood with a concerned look on her face. "Nell, we need to go." "But we just got here, and Rosie hasn't had her aunty Lizzie cuddles yet." "We have a plane to catch." "No, we don't." "Nell please just come on." "What's happened?" She finally looked at me and could probably see the state I'm in. Her mother was begging me to get her there so it's bad. And her mum was crying and... It's bad. It's Cassie and car and Nell is going to... She's going to break. "It's Cassie, she's in the hospital with Nora... Um." "No." She shakes her head her lip already wobbling as she reads my expression reading my mind before I've even said anything. "Car got caught on the edge of some rocks by the beach." She physically stopped breathing, I saw the moment she just stopped. Colin took Rose from her and I genuinely think Rose was the only thing keeping her standing. She collapsed onto the floor.

"Nell, Eleanor, breathe please," Scarlett said kneeling beside her. "Eleanor." She rubbed her back and she did start breathing but it was far from regular. "Sweetie." Scarlett was trying to get her to talk to her but she was elsewhere her eyes vacant. "I got her," I tell her kneeling in front of her and taking her hands. "Baby," I whispered to her. "Is she alive?" "I think so, your mum said we need to come now." "I need to call. I need to know." "Okay, we can do that. Can you stand?" She nodded and stood she was a little shakey but she stood and she went to Colin and he gave her a side hug and she pecked Rose's head softly.

We walked home and I looked at flights whilst she was on the phone with one of her brothers. I packed us a small bag just hand luggage with our meds and chargers and both our purses with our IDs. I put her a change of clothes in too. "The flight is in two hours." She nodded, she had chewed her lip so much it was bleeding. "Angel." I pulled it from her teeth. "You're hurting yourself." She didn't respond to me. "Angel," I say again when her lip went straight back between her teeth. I kissed her to get her to stop the taste of her metallic blood on my tongue. "We need to go." She nodded and stood up. I held her hand and walked her out to the car I had waiting and I kept her close, she was so vacant, empty, she wasn't here and it was horrible to see. I had no clue what she was thinking.