Broken ||A Sodapop Curtis Love Story||

Chapter 7

A/N: Small trigger warning, not as bad as last time, but mentions of self harm, suicide and depression.

Emily's POV:
"Is... Is she gonna be ok?" I hear a voice say. His voice is wobbling, like he's close to tears, but I can't tell who it is.

"I just can't believe Emmi would do something like this," He says. It's Two-Bit. I try to open my eyes, but it's too much effort. My head is pounding and I don't want to move. I don't know where I am, or what happened earlier, but I know I'm not in my room, or anywhere in my house.

Abruptly, a door slams and my entire body flinches. Immediately, my eyes are open and I realize that I'm in a hospital. The only problem? I have no idea why.

"Emmi! You're awake!" Two-Bit yells. My eyes immediately close, the pounding in my head increasing.

"Are you ok? What's wrong?" He asks.

"Nothing," I lie. "Now what happened?" I was almost afraid to ask, but I did it anyways. I wanted to know why I was in a hospital room, why my strong as hell, always happily smiling brother was crying, and when I could leave this hell hole.

"I don't really know..." He starts. I open my eyes and look at him.

"You... The doctor said you tried to kill yourself," He says, his eyes flooding with tears.

"Why-" I start, but then it all comes flooding back to me. Instead of asking why I would do something like that I mumble, "I wish I had."

Suddenly another body came into view, Steve's. His eyes are red, it's obvious that he's been crying.

"Please don't say stuff like that, Emily. There's people here who love you. Two-Bit and I... We care about you so much and can't stand to see you hurt like this," He gentle, quivering voice says.

I stare at him intently for a moment before saying, "Get out. Now." He laughs.

"I'm serious, Steve Randle. Get out of this room right now or I'll call the nurses. I never want to see you again, as long as I live," I tell him. Sure, it's harsh, but it's also true.

"No. I'm not leaving. Don't you remember earlier, Emily? You told me you love me. What happened to that? Why is your mood constantly changing?" He asks, but more of snaps it. Tears fill my eyes.

Of course I remember earlier. It was the whole reason I'm here now. I lied to him. I don't love him, I love Soda. But Soda's gone right now, and I was lonely. I can't do that, though. I still cheated, and I deserve everything I got from it.

"I told you, Steve. I never want to see you again. We can't do this," I tell him. We can't go behind Soda's back. He knows it to, he just doesn't say it.

Instead he says, "You're such a bitch, you know that? The worst person I've ever met. I don't know what your problem is, all I've ever been is nice to you," He yells at me, running out of the room. And now I'm crying, and no mater how hard I try I can't stop.

I know it's true, I probably am the worst person he's ever met, maybe even that's ever lived. What kind of person cheats on a guy while he's fighting for our country? He didn't do anything to deserve this. But I deserve everything I've got. Being in the hospital, being called a bitch, the constant bullying I've gotten my entire life. I wonder if there's anyone left who doesn't hate me.

"Hey, Two-Bit?" I say, after I calm down a little.

"Yeah?" He says, coming over to sit in the chair next to my bed.

"I... I just want you to know that I didn't try to kill myself. That wasn't what was supposed to happen. I couldn't so that, you mean to much to me." You should have seen the smile on my big brother's face when I spoke that last sentence. He leans over and hugs me.

"I love you so much, Emily. I don't know what I would do without you, my baby sister," He says. For some reason all I can think of is "Have a much better life, probably. All I am is a burden." But I would never say it to his face. He's the guy who practically raised me, who loves me more than anyone else, one of the only people I'd even stay alive for. He wouldn't like to hear that.

"Ya know..." Two-Bit says after a minute or two of silence. I look up at him.

"The doctor said I saved your life. I had to break the bathroom door down, though. The doc few more minutes and you would have been... You know." Yeah, of course I know. It's too bad you didn't just leave me there. I might be happier.

"Thank you, Two-Bit. I'm so lucky to have you as my brother," I say, somewhat genuinely. He just nods and squeezes my hand.

"So when can I get out of this shitty place?" I ask. Two-Bit gives me a sad smile.

"Not for a while. The docs wanna monitor you here for another day or two, then we decided... Your doctor and I.... That you would spend a few weeks in the psychiatric ward," He tells me.

And now I'm fuming.

"Excuse me?" I demand.

"Em... Please don't be mad at me. It's for the best," He says. He looks sad, regretful, like he would do anything to stop me from going to such a horrible place. The only difference? He didn't. It was his decision to send me there.

"No it's not. Those kinds of things are for depressed people. I'm not depressed!" I practically yell.

That's a lie, though and I know it.

"Emily." He says, sternly.

"You're going and that's final. Just admit it. You're depressed. You have depression and you need to go if you want to get help. Just look at your wrists," He says. I look at them, and I can practically hear his thoughts. "I don't want you to doing that again, Emmi." I already know, without him having to say anything, that I had broken his heart.

"Fine... Maybe I am depressed," I say, pretty close to tears. How many times is that today? I wonder. Too many... Way too many.

But then I hear a tiny voice in my head saying, "Good, keep crying. You deserve it. Why can't you just die already?" Luckily, Two-Bit breaks me out my thoughts.

"Please, don't cry, Emily. I just want you to understand that this is for your own good." I just nod, don't say anything.

"Oh, hey. You got a letter from Soda. Wanna read it?" He asks. Again, I nod. Of course I do, but I'm a little scared of what it says.

"Dear Emily,
Man, Vietnam. I always thout other countries were supposed to be beatiful, but this one is just... dark, scary. War changes you, man, and not for the better. It's scary out there. I miss you so much, you know that, Emily? I ment it when I told you we could get marryed someday. I will be back, so it'll happen. I promise, from the botom of my heart. The Col. told me I'm a great fighter, and that I won't be goin' back for a while, but don't worry. I'll come back for you, princess. And while I'm gone, I'll spend my days thinking about you, my nites dreaming about you and missing you 24/7. Well, I gotta go, but please send me a response so I no that your ok. I love you, please never forget that?"

The first thing I notice is his horrible spelling, something that would usually bother me quite a lot, but now it just made me laugh.

Tears of happiness and relief drip down my cheeks. He's ok! He's safe and alive... and he misses me. I don't think I've ever felt better in my life.

And as worried about him as I am, I mean, "War changes you, man, and not for the better. It's scary out there," reading his letter was the first time in years that I actually smiled, and it wasn't just one of those fake, plastered on ones that I'd grown so accustomed to wearing.

A/N: So like I said, big plans for this story :)
I have a few questions:

First, what did you think of this chapter?

Second, what do you want to happen in this story, anything in particular?

And third, do any of you want to be Steve's love interest? I have a perfect idea and all I'd need from you is your name, a physical and personality description and I might ask you a few other things after. So, let me know in the comments or in a PM if you'd like to!

Have an amazing day and I really hope you enjoyed this chapter.