Page 9 of Tone Deaf
Danny is right, though. The last person I want to see right now is this jag-off.
“What the hell is going on?” I croak out in a whisper, looking between Brian and Danny. But no one is paying me any attention. I glance at Tobias, then Dom and Pen’s backs—they are positioned at the end of the bed like two protective sentinels. “Please?” I stress a little louder, feeling a tight ache in my throat.
Finally, I get everyone’s attention and they all swivel their heads my way.
“Callum,” Pen says, relief settling across his face as he reaches my side.
“Why are you shouting?” I ask, but my attention goes to Dom on my other side for the answer. I don’t know why I’m seeking his guidance. But lately, I’ve been looking to Dom—and sometimes Pen for… Reassurance? I don’t know.
“Your father stormed in here demanding—” Danny begins.
“I have every right to—” Brian barks.
“Fuck you do,” Danny shouts back. “You have no right to be here, not after all the years of?—”
I shoot my uninjured hand up—the one with the IV line, to cut off Danny’s rising voice. “Danny, please,” I croak out in a plea.
“I’m sorry.” Remorse coats my friend’s voice. He squeezes past Pen and smiles sadly at me. “How are you feeling?”
I take a moment to analyze myself, and the pain radiating from my face and my arm. “I hurt… my face especially.” Right down to my eyeballs.
“I want everyone out of here,” Brian booms out. “My son doesn’t need?—”
“That’s a good idea.” A man standing in the doorway interrupts Brian. He walks in, dressed in blue scrubs. “And it starts with you, sir.” He points to Brian.
Thank you.Brian’s shouting is adding to the pounding in my head.
“Who the hell are you to tell me what to do?” Brian leans toward what I assume is a nurse and snarls. It’s his strategy to intimidate. Brian has done that to me and to my mum for most of my life.
“Back off or I’ll show you what exactly what I can do.” The beautiful nurse raises a hand and huffs, before smoothing down the front of his scrub shirt. “I’m Lyric, Mr. Fitz’s nurse. And if you don’t quiet down, I’ll have you thrown out of the hospital quicker than you can shoutspit, and you will not be able to enter again. Understand me, sir?”
“Damn,” Raef mumbles quietly in awe, but I still hear him.
“But I’m his family,” Brian argues, calmer now. “They are not.”
I slowly look around at my bandmates —my best friends since I was a kid, and at the security team I’ve known since we started this journey into the rock world. I glance at the familiar looking nurse and say, “He’s wrong. These people are my family.” Then I realize the one person I want to see isn’t here. “Where’s Mum? Danny and Mum are the only ones on my emergency contact list.” I glare—or try to, at Brian.
He doesn’t meet my eyes. “She’s at home,” he says with cold frankness. “I answered your mother’s phone—and thank God, too.”
I blink. “Why didn’t she come?” But I know the answer before he speaks, and it makes an ache bloom in my chest.
“She doesn’t need to see you in this… condition,” he says, waving his hand toward me as though I’m an inconvenience.
“You didn’t tell her I’m in the hospital, did you?” My voice, scratchy and weak from pain, still crackles with ire. But I know the truth from the pinched expression in the corner of his eyes. “You didn’t tell her that I was hurt?”
“Trust me?—”
“But I don’t trust you,” I say bluntly, giving him a dose of his own medicine. “Not after this. What are you into now, Brian?”
“What are you talking about?” There’s confusion in his eyes, but I’m not buying it.
“This,” I say hoarsely, pointing at my face. “Your shit is bringing trouble to my doorstep.”
I try to sit up, but Pen lays a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t move.”
Lyric claps his hands to get everyone’s attention. “You all can go to the waiting room down the hall right now. I’m only allowing two at a time in Mr. Fitz’s room.” He huffs, then looks at Dom before continuing. “And since his bodyguards won’t leave, then only two more of you can stay.” He raises a finger. “However, if there are any more disturbances in here, I’ll be calling hospital security and I’m going to kick everyone out—I don’t care who it is.” Then Lyric folds his arms across his chest and slides a brook-no-argument frown onto his face.
“The nurse is right. Dom and Pen will remain here for protection” Tobias nods at them, “and Bobby and Mr. Fitz senior can stay. The rest of us will head to the waiting room.”