proud// 5SOS

24

Esme

"What was all that about earlier, huh?"

I shoved my phone under my pillow which was facetiming Link, and stared at dad, who came and sat by my feet.

"You embarrassed me. I am not a little kid, I knew what they were asking, and they can see my head is twice the size and gather it really hurts which it doesn't seem you can do even if you're literally a neurologist,"

"I know it hurts. I am sorry you felt embarrassed, that was not my intention, I only wanted you to get to bond with your uncles again,"

"We bond just fine without you pulling the ropes,"

"Do you wanna know what else I know? Because you are right, I am a neurologist,"

"What?"

"I know concussions can make you feel extra emotional, and irritable,"

I looked away from him and pulled my duvet up to my chin, picking at my lip. He was right, and I hated feeling snappy.

"I think that's some of it,"

"Me too," he said, "What do you think could be the rest of it?"

"I dunno,"

"Is it still hard adjusting to living here?"

"A bit,"

"Yeah. I am having a hard time too. It will get easier... do you think school is stressing you out at all?"

"No, I wanna go back,"

"Hopefully next week! No stress at all? What about uni?"

"What about uni?"

"Link said you applied to some and,"-

"Link said what?"

"You applied for some journalism courses?"

"He wasn't meant to tell you that," I said, instantly tearing up, "I am gonna go to sleep now,"

"Let's talk about it. If it's making you so upset we can talk about it!"

"Not today,"

"Okay. Soon though,"

He stood, and kissed my cheek, then tucked me in and left, shutting the door behind him. Wiping my tears, I pulled my phone out and ended the call, then turned it on silent and rolled over, sighing heavily. Tears ran down my face still, but I just shut my eyes and hoped to sleep soon, because it felt like I couldn't trust anyone now.

**

No one woke me up in the morning, which was nice. I went to the bathroom and saw my face had dramatically changed back to almost its normal self, but my head still hurt so I took my medicine.

Out the window, I could see Luke's car, so I went downstairs and found him in the living room, sitting next to him. It was starting to make me feel really down being stuck at home, especially now I was upset at Link. I had never felt this upset at Link, but he knew that was private information that I barely even told him about.

"Your head looks a bit better,"

"Yeah. I thought that,"

"Would you like breakfast?"

"Yes please,"

"Okie dokie. I thought, if you are up to it, you could freshen up and we could go out for lunch somewhere nice?"

"Yeah, if it is quiet,"

"We will find somewhere. Come and chat at the table. You seem a bit down,"

"Don't pretend dad didn't ask you to talk to me,"