Broken and Fearless // C.B.

Chapter 58

I made my way to the bedroom and found Colby sitting at his computer playing Minecraft. "Hi."

He glanced up. "Hi. What's up?"

"You wanna film a video?"

"What kind of video?"

"Guess the emo song?"

"Didn't you do one a couple weeks ago?"

I sighed. "Yeah. Babe, I've got no idea what to do. Covers are Saturdays, and I've done lots of emo videos as of late."

"Have your audience give you songs to react to."

"Frank does that."

"So? Lots of YouTubers do similar things. If you feel the need to, you can give the credit to Frank for the idea."

"Yeah, sure. Danke."

As I stood at the door, I sent out a tweet. 'Send me songs you think I should listen to'

I walked off to another room where I'd set up stuff. Coincidentally, the same room was Sam's filming room.

I turned my camera on and looked through the tweets picking about seven songs, as I figured that'd be a good amount.

Before I could start recording, my phone rang. I checked the caller ID and saw that my brother was calling.

I answered. "Hey, Jack."

"Jenna's in the hospital."

"What happened?"

"Bad allergic reaction. Guess someone forgot she was allergic to nuts."

"How bad is it?"

"Not great, Juliet. Doctors wanna keep her at least a couple days to observe her."

"Jackson, tell me she'll be okay."

"I can't promise that. Julie, I--"

I hung up and threw my phone onto the ground and turned off my camera before yelling angrily.

Colby ran into the room. "Hey! Jules, calm down!"

I grabbed a pillow and screamed into it as hot, angry tears streamed down my cheeks. I tried to stop them, but they kept flowing.

Colby dried them and asked, "Juliet, what happened?"

I tried to speak, but couldn't as I started panicking.

The world around me started to spin. It felt like I was drowning. I couldn't catch any air.

I looked to Colby with wide eyes. His lips were moving, but I couldn't figure out what he was saying.

I started pulling at my hair, trying to catch my breath, but it wasn't working.

Colby's POV:

"Jules, hey, it's okay. I'm here. I'm right here."

She continued tugging at her hair, my words seemingly unheard.

I remembered something I'd read about people who get panic attacks and kissed her for a good few moments.

I felt her body relax into mine. I dried her tear-stained eyes.

After a moment, she slid down to the floor and I sat next to her. "What happened, baby?"

She dried an eye, smearing black streaks around her eye. "Jenna's in the hospital."

"What?! Why?"

"She, uh, she had a really bad allergic reaction to some nuts and, um, yeah."

I kissed the top of her head. "At least she's in the hospital where they can help her."

She scoffed. "My mom died in a hospital where they were supposed to be able to help her."

"Touché. Look, I'm sure--"

"No, no. Don't." She got up.

"Jules, wait."

She glowered. "Until I know or say otherwise, shut up."

"Okay, so now you're gonna be pissy?"

Jules just crossed her arms and glared at me. "Fine. Be pissy. I'm gonna go back to my game. Because you and I both know there's no reasoning with you when you're like this."

She stalked to the bedroom and grabbed her tiny stuffed koala before walking back into her filming room.

After debating whether or not I was gonna walk away, I knocked on the door.

She didn't answer, but the door was unlocked, so I entered. She was sitting with her knees to her chest, hugging her koala. "Eliot's nice."

"I was nice too, thank you."

She nodded slowly. "Yeah. Thanks for helping me with that. That was scary."

"Panic attacks usually are."

"That's what it was?"

"Mm-hmm. How are you holding up?"

"I'm kinda tired. Hey, um, how'd you know how to stop the panic attacks?"

"I read it somewhere. I'm really glad it worked."

"Yeah, me too. Thanks. Sorry for all that."

"Juliet, stop apologizing. I did what I had to do."

"And I--" She stopped. "I love you so much."

She kissed me and I replied, "I love you too. You okay now?"

Jules nodded. "Can I play Minecraft with you?"

I laughed. "'Course, but weren't you going to record a video?"

She shook her head. "I put up another video. I'm not in the mood to record."

"That's understandable with everything that happened."

Her eyes trailed down to her phone, seeing a text. A smile formed on her face. "What?"

"Jenna's gonna be okay."

"Good. I'm glad."

She smirked. "I'm gonna beat your butt at Minecraft."

"We'll see, babe. We'll see."