Somebody Else ✔

Passing up boys for pizza.

photo of Corey above!

Jace.

Edited.

We met Izzy's parents in the emergency room. She laid on the bed, with Corey and Sam by her side.

Cole, Alex and I pressed ourselves against the curtain to give them space. Her arm was in a sling and the on call doctor was not pleased about her blood alcohol reading. He took one look at the rest of us and rolled his eyes, but did not question the fact that I swayed when I stood still.

A nurse came in had distributed water out amongst us. I rubbed my eyes to keep myself awake. We'd been waiting with her for little over two hours. When Corey said that she had finally managed to get through to her parents at 2am, Cole put extra effort into making Alex and I appear sober. He found us expensive, poorly tasting food and forced us to eat.

Two figures ran toward us, and I cringed. I hated meeting peoples parents. "Izzy!" The man called. She had his eyes, except with a touch more green. He was tall and built, in stark contrast to Izzy's diminutive frame.

Her mother was the kind of woman who, in days past, you would stop and stare at in wonder. She had an air of fading ethereal beauty, but still a prepossessing sight. She wore her greying auburn hair in a messy bun, her startling navy blue eyes wide with fear. She had round features, but underneath you could still catch sight of a once strong jaw and cheek bones. Abruptly, Izzy's looks appeared watered down and secondhand.

"Oh god, baby are you okay?" Her mother fretted over her. Izzy clenched her jaw and tried to swat her away as her mother stroked her hair. She murmured for her to get the bloody hell away.  Her mum dropped her eyes to ground, and let her dad take her place. Her dad glared at Izzy who poked out her tongue, and buried her head into his chest. He whispered something in her ear and her lip curled back over her teeth.

Corey chewed on her lip, fidgeting with her hair. "The doctor said she hasn't broken anything." Lee, her mum, turned her attention to Corey. She was silent and impassive for a moment, before her lips morphed into a forced smile.

"Thank you girls, for looking after her." Mr Harris spotted us in the background. He blinked, like we had just miraculously materialised. "And who are you boys?"

"Oh shit- crap- fuck I mean- sorry." Alex paused to take a breath, much to the amusement of the older man.

Cole cut in, trying to salvage their first impressions of us. "I'm Cole St Michael. This is Alexander Jaxon and Jason Drake."

"Steven Harris, this is my wife Lee. I went to school with you boys' parents." That wasn't really surprising. In Eastwood, you had connections with the majority of the population, one way or another. "How's your dad, Jace?"

Words. Words, words, words. "Very- good - thank- you." Stevie Harris rose his eyebrows at me. I sunk back into the arm chair and closed my eyes.

They wrapped Izzy's arm - wrist? I didn't really known - doped her up almost to the same extent as Alex and I, before sending her on her way.

On our way out of the hospital, Stevie approached us. "Lee and I have discussed it, and both of us would feel a lot better if you came back to our house for the night."

Cole brushed the offer off. He had worn bags under his eyes, his face pale as he fought to keep his eyes open. "That's not necessary." He smiled, exhaustedly.

"Yes it is. Come on. You can barely keep your eyes open son, you're not driving."

"We won't all fit in the car." Cole tried to protest, and I felt his hand grab onto my forearm to keep me upright.