Can You Keep A Secret?

Chapter Eight

       

-Mikey's POV-

            The whole thing happened so suddenly that I was left sitting in shellshock, unsure of what had just happened, as if a tornado had swirled through the flat, picked me up, and left me off here.

Brooklyn had walked into the flat, pale as a ghost, and said, "Andy and Rye will be up soon. Blair's coming, too. They're, they're okay, but...I think something's wrong." His voice went small, and I had walked over and wrapped him up in a hug.

"Whatever it is, we'll get through it together." The day had taken a hellish turn, and rather quickly, as well. It hit me that most terrible things happened like this – On a normal day, with no warning whatsoever, and the thought made me feel sick.

There were a stressful couple more minutes before they came in – And when they did, the whole place burst into pandemonium. Brooklyn had been waiting patiently with a bag of frozen peas because we didn't have any ice packs (which was a lack of foresight on our part, considering how often injuries happen around here), mumbling something about Andy overheating. Andy collapsed almost as soon as he walked in, and Jack and Rye carried him to a bottom bunk, and Brooklyn pressed the peas on his head, looking a little scared and hopeless – I think he looked how we all felt.

After a few moments of fussing, Blair came in and spoke with Rye privately in the hallway. I tried to listen by the door without making it too obvious, but Liv noticed – She didn't stop me, though, and I knew that she was desperate for information, too. Andy was conscious, but curled up into a ball, only answering our questions with what were obvious lies – That he was just tired, and maybe he had heatstroke, until Jack told us to stop bothering him and let him rest.  I could tell that Brooklyn was hanging onto every word that he said, eager for them to be true, and my heart ached. It felt like a dark cloud of anxiety hung over the flat.

I couldn't make out anything other than the occasional word from the other side of the door – They spoke in hushed tones, and words like "Secret," "Please," and "Worried" popped out to me. None of it sounded good. Liv came over to me, silent tears streaming down her face, and I held her close to me, seeking comfort from her, just as much as she was from me. This was one of my best friends here, and I hated being in the dark about all of it. Suddenly the door opened, but Rye looked so stressed that he didn't even mind that we were standing right there. Blair had on a casual, calm exterior, but I could tell that he was bothered as well.

"Please let me go," Rye begged.

"No." Blair's voice was firm, but caring. "You need to stay here and explain to Liv and the boys what's happened." I felt Liv tense up when she heard her name. Rye shot him a panicked look.

"What we said," Blair clarified.

"Please. I'm his best friend." Rye looked like he was about to punch something.

"I know. You've been with him all day, though. You've done good. He'll be alright." His patience was wearing thin. Rye obviously wasn't very happy about it, but he didn't fight back anymore. Blair rested a hand on his shoulder.

"You did the right thing. Let me take it from here." Hearing their conversation only made me even more confused than before – And, for the first time with all seven of us here, the entire flat had gone silent. Blair walked over to Andy and whispered something to him before lifting him up, as if he was a small child. We all watched them leave, then looked at Rye expectantly.

"He just, um, we think he got heatstroke." What he said didn't match what I had just heard him arguing about with Blair – And, besides, Andy didn't even look sunburned. The room burst into questions, and Rye looked scared and overwhelmed.

"We should probably just taken turns speaking," I said, raising my voice to be heard above the din. Liv squeezed my hand, letting me know that she was still on my side. It felt nice to have somebody in all of the commotion.

Jack spoke first. "Where's Blair bringing him?"

"To A&E," Rye replied. Next was Brooklyn.

"I still don't understand why you didn't bring him back right away."

"I don't know." Rye's voice cracked. "He, he didn't want to. He said he was fine. And I didn't realize, and...It was stupid. I was stupid."

            I let go of Liv to go over to him. "Don't blame yourself," I said, wrapping him into a hug. "It sounds like he'll be alright, and that's what matters." The rest slowly joined in until it was a giant group hug.

            "You're squishing me," Rye let out a little laugh. We separated.

            "So what should we do next?" I asked. Liv spoke up for the first time in a while.

            "One of you should probably tweet. So the fans don't get worried or anything."

            "Good point." We all stared at Brooklyn, considering he was who tweeted the most often.

            "Okay," he said quietly, pulling his phone out. That was perhaps the most discerning thing of all – Brook was rarely quiet – Just a few hours earlier when we'd been shopping for ice cream he'd been so loud that he got us strange looks from almost everyone we passed by, and he was so hyper he was practically bouncing off the walls. Now just the thought of eating made me feel ill. Suddenly, he let out a big breath and squeezed his eyes shut.

            "What? What's wrong?" Rye asked. I think we were all on edge, prepared for any number of things to go wrong. Brooklyn whispered something so quietly that I couldn't make out a word that he said.

            "What?" Jack asked.

            "There were fans outside," he repeated himself. "And they're tweeting about it. And photos." He was right – That was pretty bad.

            "FUCK!" Rye yelled, punching the bed closest to him.

            "Come on," Liv said. "The last thing we need is for somebody else to have to go to the emergency room. Mikey, you DM them that you guys were busy today, that everyone's fine and they were roleplaying. Brooklyn, you tweet something random so that nobody else gets concerned." She took control of the room.

            "I can't," He said feebly. "It feels wrong. To me. That life is going on as normal for them, that hardly anyone else has an idea..."

            "We don't want them to," Jack said, grabbing Brooklyn's phone from him. "I'll tweet for you, then."

            "Wait, what – What are you saying?" He leaped up, trying to take his phone back. Jack swerved around, hiding the screen from him, and for a moment, things felt like normal again.

            "Show me," I said, knowing that it would irritate Brook that Jack would show me and not him. Sure enough, he gave me a peeved-off look as I read what Jack had sent – "What's up brobeans 😎😎✌🏼️-Brooklyn"

            "To be fair, that's pretty accurate," I said. Brooklyn lunged for his phone, so I tossed it to Rye.

            "Come on, we're not playing pass with my phone," he whined, and, unfortunately, Rye handed it back to him, ruining the fun. When he saw what Jack had wrote, he stuck his tongue out at him, but didn't say much else – Jack's impression of him had been pretty spot on.

            "People are asking what's going on with Andy," he said, scrolling through the replies.

            "Gimme your phone so I can DM the girls who were outside." He raised an eyebrow at me.

            "I promise I'll give it back," I said. "But then I think you should turn your phone off after that, 'cuz it's clearly stressing you out." He looked down, guilty – I knew that we'd be having a long night ahead of us, and I was dreading it.