We

three

"Do we need to call an ambulance?" "This is all my fault!" "Get her some water!"

I opened my eyes have light assault my face. "What the hell happened?" I asked no one in particular.

"Brent hit you, really hard, and you blacked out. Are you okay? You would normally just get pissed," Evan relayed.

"Yeah, I feel fine. Just sore," I answered. "I don't know why that weak hit took me out, but I feel fine."

I got weak, nervous laughter in response. Axel helped me to my feet, where I was a little shaky at first, but regained my balance. That balance was taken when Brent pulled me into a bone-crushing hug.

"I'm so sorry Emily, I can't believe that happened. I didn't mean-" Brent started.

"Can you please let go of me?" I asked. Brent released me and his cheeks began turning pink. "I'm fine. I was probably just wiped out and I didn't eat anything this morning, so it wasn't all your fault."

"I'm still sorry," he said sheepishly.

I gave him a small hug. "I know, and you are forgiven."

I walked over to my bag, assuming we were going to leave after my little performance. Nate came over and handed me a protein bar. "Thanks."

"Eat. Evan, do you want to go check on your boyfriend, he looks pissed," Nate suggested. Out of all my brother's friends, Nate was my favorite because he wasn't al lovey-dovey for Axel like Evan or hitting on me 24/7 like Jason and Brent.

"I'll go check on him," I quickly interjected. I walked over to where Rudy and Axel were talking.

"I'm calling Caroline," Rudy proclaimed. Whatever they were talking about, he wanted to call my mom.

"You don't need to call her, she'll call Em's doctor and they said they wanted to push her treatment up even more than it is, and I don't want her to miss all of her exams and be stressed. Do you not see how worried she is?" Axel spat out in a hushed tone.

I hate when people talk about me like I'm property. "Hey, right here. I have a plan, see how I feel the rest of the day, and then we decide how to proceed."

The two of them looked at each other for a minute before turning to me. "Fine, but if anything happens, call me," Rudy replied. He pulled me in for a hug.

"We're probably gonna order in tonight, want to come over?" Axel offered.

Rudy nodded. "See you guys later. I assume we'll watch the Pens game, right?"

It was my turn to nod. "Well, duh. What do you take us for? Awful children?"

Both of them started laughing and we said our goodbyes and headed outside where the rest of the guys were. "Are we going to get food? I'm starving," Jason whined.

"Em, you choose," Axel replied.

"I want pizza, Brooklyn?" I suggested. All the guys nodded in response. I got started to get in my brother's car before Axel made a declaration.

"New plan," he started. "I want my boyfriend and the buffoons. Because my car doesn't have A/C, Em shouldn't ride in it."

"I didn't go out because of heat exhaustion, I'm fine, and your A/C works fine," I countered.

"We should just stay on the safe side. You go in Nate's truck," he finished. "See you guys there."

I flipped him off before getting in. It wasn't easy getting into that behemoth of a vehicle when you're 5'2" but I did it. Axel laughed as he drove off with the guys. Ever since we were kids, we were friends with Nate. I don't know how my brother met him, I wasn't alive at the time, but they were babies and it was just like my dad and Rudy. A perfect match. When we were growing up, Nate was always really nice to me compared to my brother's other friends, he still is. I developed a crush on him when puberty hit and I learned what feeling was. Or maybe I always had it.