Take a Bow

I jump down right as I hear voices screaming “Call 9-1-1!” around me.

“Ethan! ETHAN!” I’m afraid to touch him. He isn’t responding.

Ethan lies there unconscious with blood dripping from his mouth.

What the hell is going on?

My head is throbbing and my mouth is dry. No, dry is an understatement — it feels like I drank the Sahara. I try to move my mouth around and feel something sharp.

“Ethan?” I hear a familiar voice in the distance. Emme.

My eyes feel so heavy, but I try to open them. As I move slightly, I feel my right arm encased in something. And a gentle squeeze to my left hand.

“Ethan? It’s me, Emme. Please open your eyes.”

My eyes flicker open. The effort it takes for such a simple task is exhausting.

I finally open my eyes all the way and it takes a second to soak in my surroundings.

Am I in a hospital? Why is Emme crying? Why is my arm in a cast?

Emme stands up. “Ethan, can you hear me?”

I let out some sort of noise. She lets go of my hand as she runs over to the door. I want to reach out for her. I don’t know what’s going on, but I want her back.

A nurse comes in, flashes a bright light in my eyes, and checks the machine I’m hooked up to. All I do is stare at Emme, who has tears trickling down her face. I know that I’m responsible for those tears. I wish I knew what I’m supposed to apologize for.

The nurse talks softly to Emme, who nods. Once we’re left alone, she picks up a glass of water. “Are you thirsty?”

I nod. Did I lose my voice? Why can’t I talk? What is this sharp thing in my mouth? What did I do?

Emme picks up a glass of water and puts the straw to my mouth. The cool liquid feels refreshing, even though I taste something metallic.

“Ethan.” Emme grabs my hand and sits down next to me. “I called your parents and they’re on the first flight they could get from London. They should be here in a few hours.”

I start to cough and she looks panicky. She gets up like she’s going to leave, and I grasp her hand so tightly she can’t move. She’s surprised by my strength.

“Wh … What?” I try to get out.

“What happened?”

I nod.

She bites her lip. “Um, to be honest, I don’t really know, Ethan. I was sort of hoping you could tell me. Because right before the gig, you disappeared and before we knew it …”

The gig. Tyler with Emme.

How do I tell her that I snapped, seeing them together, and tried to find a temporary reprieve to get me through the show? The headlining band had a bottle of vodka and, well … I knew it was a big mistake at the time. Clearly, this is one of the few instances when I should’ve listened to myself.

“During the first song, you were out of control and you fell off the stage and your head hit one of the speakers on the way down. You broke two of your teeth and I guess you reached out to break the fall, but ended up fracturing your arm. It’s going to be in a cast for at least six weeks.”

Six weeks without being able to play the piano or guitar. I don’t even know what this means for school or the band.

“I’m sorry,” I finally speak.

Emme’s quiet. She looks at the door. “Um, I need to let my mom and the guys know that you’re awake now. I don’t think the doctors believed for a second that I was your sister, but I wasn’t going to let you wake up all alone. But it’s six in the morning and …”

“Please don’t leave me.” I feel a tear run down my face.

She hesitates. “Just give me a few minutes.”

As soon as she leaves the room, a sense of panic overwhelms me. I’ve done stupid things. Oh, how I’ve done stupid things, but I can tell by the way she’s looking at me that I’ve crossed a line I will probably never recover from.

She comes back and sits down. I reach my hand out for her. She takes it. Her eyes are puffy from crying and she looks miserable and exhausted.

“I’m sorry.”

She doesn’t respond.

“Emme?”

She looks at me.

“I’m sorry.”

She nods.

“Please say something to me. Anything.”

She closes her eyes and her lips start moving slightly. I’m temporarily relieved that she’s doing something that’s normal. Any sense of normalcy in this foreign environment is welcome.

She sighs. “Honestly, Ethan, I don’t really think I can say what I want to say to you right now. It wouldn’t be a good idea.”

By the way she won’t look at me, I can tell she hates me. But I need to know what she feels. I need to know she can still feel something toward me.

“Please, I know you’re mad.”

“Mad?” She clenches her jaw. “Mad is an understatement, Ethan. I’m furious.” Fresh tears start pouring from her eyes. “Do you have any idea what you did? I thought you were dead.” Her voice cracks and she buries her face in her hands. “I can’t keep watching you do this to yourself. I can’t … I can’t really object to what you do after a show, but before our biggest gig? You had to get wasted? Did you for even one second think about the rest of us before you did such a stupid thing? How much more do you think any of us can take?”

All I could think of was Tyler kissing Emme. An image I wanted to get out of my head as quickly as possible.

“I’m sorry.” That’s all I can think to say, but I know it isn’t enough. Nothing I do will ever be enough. Especially now.

Emme sits there with me for the next few hours as doctors and nurses come in. She has tears in her eyes the entire time. But neither of us says another word.

“Ethan!” My mom breaks the silence when she opens the door and runs to my bedside. “Oh, sweetie, I’m so sorry we’re just getting here now. We came as quickly as we could.” She looks up and sees Emme. “Thank you so much!” She gives Emme a hug, but Emme doesn’t respond. She just heads for the door.

“John!” Mom nudges my dad. “You’d better make sure she gets home okay. It looks like she hasn’t slept in days.”

I want to run after Emme, call after her, do something. But instead I lie here. In the bed that I made for myself out of self-pity and self-destruction.

One week.

That’s how long I’m away from school. Away from the band. Away from Emme.

Everybody comes to visit me — Jack, Chloe, Ben, Mr. North, even Kelsey — but I don’t hear from Emme.

I head into class with my arm in a cast and sling.

“Welcome back, Mr. Qui

“The prodigal jackass returns!” Jack says with a laugh.

Jack and Ben both seemed to have accepted my apologies for my behavior. I know Jack likes to have yet another thing to pick on me for.

“Oh, nice sparkly white teeth, Toothy McGee.”

My tongue runs over the caps that were put on the teeth that I broke. If only there were caps to fix everything in life.

Emme walks into class and gives me a halfhearted smile as she sits down.

“Hey,” I say to her.

She nods at me.

Mr. North gives us the hour to go over our pieces for next week’s concert. The one where I’m supposed to do a killer guitar solo.

Jack gets right to it. “We obviously have a problem with old gimpy here.”

Mr. North pulls up a chair beside us. “Listen, guys, we still want you to perform. I discussed with the other department directors, and we are fine if you want to pull a guitar student from the junior class to perform with you.”

Jack and Ben start going over different guitarists to fill in for me.

Emme speaks up. “I’m going to do the solo.”

“What?” Jack looks surprised.

I smile.

“Find someone to fill in for my rhythm part. I’m going to do the solo.”