Unbroken | Ashton Irwin's Little Sister (COMPLETED)

Chapter 29

Little do you know how I'm breaking
while you fall asleep, little do you know I'm still haunted by the memories, little do you know I'm trying to pick myself up piece by piece

***

| Ashton |

I lay down on Calum's couch and bury my face in one of his pillows. It's been a few days since the scare and Bailey's been doing okay. She's still in the hospital though, and we were told yesterday that we can't wait any longer to continue chemo for fear of her cancer getting worse. She's back on her every Wednesday schedule, but because she's still not fully recovered from the surgery she'll have to stay in the hospital for a while. I hope it isn't long, I don't want her to have to live in a hospital.

"Maybe we should visit Bailey today," Michael suggests. He and Luke are fiddling with their guitars and Calum is tuning his bass. I tap my fingers against the arm of the couch absentmindedly and agree, "Yeah, I think Bailey'd like that."

She's been a little under the weather lately, which is to be expected. I'm hoping that the guys visiting will cheer her up, so after we put our instruments away we decide to head over to the hospital.

"Make sure you're quiet though, I don't want you to disturb other patients or get kicked out," I chuckle. The boys nod in response as I lead them to Bailey's room. She looks about the same, her small frame nestled against pillows and blankets with lots of IV's and tubes and machines around her. She's getting her chemo today and I'm hoping it doesn't upset her body too much.

"Hi boys," mom says with a smile. Bailey looks up from the book she's reading and grins; she's such a book nerd. I'd like to think she gets that from me, considering I always had my head in a book when I was a child.

"Hi," Bailey chirps happily. She pushes herself into a fully upright sitting position and I gently plop down on the edge of her bed. Luke sits criss cross at her feet and Mike and Cal pull up chairs.

"I'm going to grab something to eat, does anyone want anything?" Mom says. We all shake our heads and mom nods. "Bailey, you better eat when your lunch comes then," she says in a warning tone. Bailey ducks her head and rolls her eyes as mom leaves, "Yes, mother," she grumbles. "Don't sass me, young lady," mom warns again before leaving. Michael tries — and fails — to suppress his laughter and ends up laughing his head off once our mother leaves.

"Look at this, Bailey's a little sass master!" Michael says between giggles. I grab a pillow from the ground and whip it at him. "You did this!" I exclaim, making Michael laugh harder. Bailey giggles along with Luke and Cal and once we calm down we fall into a peaceful silence. Cal's eyes wander around the plain room and land on the IV with an orange warning label; Bailey's chemo. I follow his gaze and can't help but notice the skull with the bones on it and the bold, all capital letters that read "POISONOUS TOXINS: HANDLE WITH CARE, DO NOT TOUCH WITHOUT GLOVES"

I shudder, the skull and bones making it feel as if she's being put to death with this stuff rather than being saved by it.

"It's not that bad," Bailey interrupts our thoughts as she watches mine and Calum's gaze that's focused on her IV.

"Can you feel it?" Cal asks reluctantly. "Like, going into you or damaging your body or something?" Bailey shakes her head. "No, it's like any other IV. It's going through your veins and into your body, but you can't feel anything. I guess that's probably good," she says as she scratches around the needle subconsciously. I gently tap her hand and she lets it fall to her lap before going back to her book.

"You're such a bore," Michael whines, "Talk to meee!" Bailey rolls her eyes. "But I have to finish this and write a book report for my English class!" She protests. "You actually want to?" He asks, appalled. Bailey giggles and points to me, "You did this!" She mocks me from earlier and I laugh.

"Reading makes you intelligent," Luke argues smugly.

"Says the one who dropped out of high school," Michael scoffs. Cal laughs as Luke throws another pillow at him, "Hey! I finished it online, unlike you," he teases. Michael rolls his eyes, "Please, why would I need a fully rounded education when I have good looks and charm?" Bailey finally closes her book, "But you don't." Everyone "oohh's" and Michael's hand flies to his chest as he pretends to be offended.

"Besides, I like online school because I get to read whatever book I want as long as it's at my reading level. Also, writing about books you enjoy is fun!" She exclaims. All the boys laugh and Calum turns to me. "She's right mate, you did do this," he chuckles and gestures to Bailey, who's explaining what her book is about to Luke and Michael. They seem very bored as she begins to lecture them on how they should be more appreciative of literature. I join in on Cal's laughing as Bailey finishes her rant and goes back to reading, shooing Michael away when he tries to gain her attention.

We continue messing around for a while longer until Bailey gets tired and decides to go to sleep. The guys say their goodbyes and leave for the afternoon, and I'm left watching my sister sleep. Although it's starting to get later, sleep doesn't come. I feel like I'm more afraid of death than she is sometimes and I don't even have cancer. Then I remember something she told me a while back once when we were talking.

"When you have to stare death in the face, it's not really as scary," she had explained. "You'd think having to face the idea of dying so young would be terrifying. It was at first, but I just have this feeling now that everything will turn out okay."

I still don't really understand what she meant by that, but I can only hope she's right.

A/N - woohoo, two updates in one day! What do you think will happen to Bailey? Will she be okay? Stay tuned to find out;)

Have a wonderful day my loves, xoxo - Em:)