Discovering Rowan [on hold]

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

I woke up to the sound of beeping. I opened my cracked lips and took a breath of air. I decided to open my eyes. Ugh. Bright light. That was nasty. I closed them again.

"Miss Howell?" A voice asked. "Are you conscious?"

"Yes." I forced a voice out. My voice was raspy and horrible. I opened my eyes again.

"Your guardian, Luke, he is away at the moment as he couldn't stay, but we will call him straight away to let him know you are awake." Luke couldn't be bothered to stay. Mmm hmm. That sounded right. He probably had work but still. Nice to know he cared. "These are from Elle I think her name was?" She gestured to a bunch of purple flowers from El. Aww.

"What happened?" I asked the nurse.

"Well, the guitar amp fell on your foot," She gestured to my bandaged foot. That's why it hurt like a bitch. "Your foot was ok, just badly bruised and you have a few broken toes. You've been out for just over two days." Two days?! Man. "There is someone waiting outside but because they are not family we did not let them in. Do you mind if they come in to see you?" It was probably El.

"That's okay, they can come in." Or not. I felt like shit. Oh well, best get it over with.

"Rowan." It was Skylar. Oh no. I took a deep breath, wanting to say something but only air came out. "How are you?" Truthfully? Angry. Scared. Wary. Tired.

"I'm okay." I croaked.

"Mmm." Skylar pursed his lips staring at the ground. "Are you really okay?" He looked up at me. His dark brown eyes locked with mine. The colour of chocolate. I wanted to lose myself in them.

Shut up.

What did he mean anyway? Was I really okay? Was he joking? No. Of course I wasn't! My foot hurt, he was sitting beside me and my heart felt like it was on a roller coaster.

"Yes," I replied my tone flat, glaring at him.

"Fine." He raised his arms in surrender. "Another time though. We need to talk. When you're better." He got up and left.

We need to talk.

What was that boy on? Exhausted by everything that had happened I closed my eyes and fell asleep to the sound of the heart monitor beeping.

***

Three days later and I was ready to go back to school. Hey, you almost got crushed by a guitar amp but only your foot was damaged so back to studying algebra at 9am! Whoop die doo! The only good thing that had happened while I was unconscious in hospital is that we had adopted a stray cat which Zoe had named 'Dog'. I had spent the day I had at home curled up on the sofa with the cat on my lap, reading Sherlock, drinking hot chocolate, watching rubbish on TV and feeling very sorry for myself. El came round to see me briefly after school that night and gave me the run down on what I had missed. Skylar had freaked out as soon as I had fallen unconscious (El's theory was he felt bad for shouting at me) and the school hall's (I quote El) 'awful crap and out of tune' piano had been slightly smashed so El was expecting another grand in its place soon. She could hope. Mr D expected me back on guitar when I was back and they had taken a look round Becks Arts Theatre. 

The next morning Luke offered to give me a lift in and I gratefully accepted. Showering was a pain with your foot in a bandage and I had to cut the end off one leg of my tights. Dog had also taken a shine to me and decided to wrap herself round my legs causing me to trip over my crutch. Great.

When I arrived El was waiting at the front of the school and helped me out of the car.

"It's fine." I mumbled extremely embarrassed. El ignored me and helped me to the music block. The one leg I had to stand on felt like dropping off my body by the time I reached the top of the steep drive leading up to the school. We got into the music hall and I sat down immediately on the stool.

"Wait here, I'm going to get Hayley and Soph." El hurried out the music hall. I looked around. It was oddly quiet. I got out my phone checking my texts. There was one from Luke wishing me well on being back at school. Mr D burst into the room followed by El, Hayley, Soph and a lot of others. Including Skylar. I looked up at El and raised my eyebrows.

"Oh Rowan we are so glad you are back my dear," Mr D came over to me waving his arms, "can you still play guitar? Oh I'm sure you can." My opinion obviously wasn't valid. After what felt like one thousand 'I'm so glad you are okay's from everyone Mr D ushered everyone to their seats.

"Gather your bags, anybody who needs to go to your locker GO NOW and yes," He turned his head to me, "you lot are going on the minibus with me."

"Cheers Ro, gal!" Soph punched the air with her fist. "Minibus here we come!"

We arrived at the Beaks Arts Theatre. It was a tall glass fronted building with a mood light making the glass glow different colours. When you walked in you could see the whole way up the building, floor after floor of twisted silver staircase. Everything was lit with mood lighting from the booths where they sold you tickets to the posters advertising the shows. We walked around the circular building until we reached the back. There was a 'secret' door leading backstage. We were not allowed in our dressing rooms until the dress rehearsal on the day but we were given 2 hours to practice each morning. When I walked (or hobbled) out onto the stage, I couldn't help myself, I gasped. It was a huge stage, with the biggest grand piano I had ever seen, beautiful Marshall amps (which were positioned not to fall on me, I hoped) and a massive drum kit. I imagined Skylar sitting there playing them, a grin on his face.

Shut up brain.

El let out a squeal of delight. I stayed rooted where I was looking at one thing. The amount of seats. There had to be at least 1,500 seats.

"Shit, man." I turned round to see Hayley at my shoulder.

"Yeah." I looked out into the sea of black seats. "Thats a heck of a lot of people."

"I've seen it before." Hayley laughed. "It still scares the shit out of me."

"Well you better get used to it!" I turned forgetting about my foot and tripped. I braced myself for the fall. Accept it didn't come. I opened one eye. And then the other. Skylar had caught me.