Change

                                    

                                          
Lia's POV
                          
We've been in and out of hospital for the past month. Rose has been there every day with her new arrival, Ember, since she hasn't been discharged yet. Demi's been there quite often, impatient to get the cast off her leg, or because she's got flu, despite having her tonsils removed. It's been different, to say the least. I had agreed to drive Rose to the hospital today as she had been informed that Ember's progress has been impeccable and that she could be discharged very soon. Jackson had been to fit the car seat in the back of my car, since his work van wasn't child friendly, and Rose was still working on getting a 5 door car. 
                          
"Lia door!" Demi shouted up the stairs to me from the kitchen of Saph's house. 
"Well can you get it?" I shouted back. Why wouldn't she have just got the door?
"I'm busy." Demi shouted back at me. I huffed and threw my hairbrush down, running down the stairs to the door.
"Oh okay I see how 'busy' you are," I muttered to Demi, who was stood in the kitchen at the toaster, waiting for her bread to toast. She didn't answer me. I opened the door, my eyebrows still furrowed and my lips still pursed. 
"Hey..what's wrong?" Rose said immediately. I flattened out my face and shook my head.
"Nothing, don't worry about it." I said, darting my eyes to Demi as I let Rose in, and looking back at Rose, rolling my eyes a little. Rose nodded and pretended she saw nothing. 
"Can I get you a drink? I need to do something with my hair quick before we go." I asked. 
"Water please, but go do your hair I'll grab it." Rose replied, shooing me off up the stairs. I gave her a look as in to say 'don't say anything to Demi', and she nodded, and pushed me away. I jogged up the stairs, and could already hear them talking, which made me anxious. I tried to ignore it, but as long as I could hear voices, the anxiety kept bubbling. I threw my hair up in a messy bun, quickly put some mascara on and put my glasses back on. 
                          
I came back down the stairs, bumping into Demi as I did.
"Shit, sorry babe I didn't expect you to be right there." I said, backing up and moving out of her way. 
"It's fine." She said with a sickly sweet smile. I frowned a little, more with concern than anger. She turned and headed up the stairs. 
"We're going now, so I'll see you later yeah?" I asked. 
"Sure." She replied, not even turning around. 
"..I love you." I said in a lower volume. 
"Love you too babe." She replied as she turned the corner at the top of the stairs. I sighed and turned back, almost walking into Rose as I did. 
"Car. Now. We need to talk." Rose said, pushing me forward to the front door. 
                          
*****
                          
"What the hell was that?" Rose asked as soon as the car doors were shut. I reached over and grabbed my seat belt, pulling it over myself and plugging it in. 
"Belt." I said to Rose. She did the same, and I started the engine. 
"I don't know. Things are just getting a little rough with her. Literally we never clash like this, it's been like it for weeks." I began to explain. 
"Why? Have you done something that you don't know about?" Rose asked, clearly just as confused as I am. 
"Apparently, I just don't know. I've been nothing but perfect to her, I'm so whipped like I'll go out and get her whatever she wants, I do everything for her and she just doesn't react. She barely wants to go out and do stuff anymore, it's always 'I'm tired can we just stay here', or 'I'm tired I think I'll go to my house tonight'." I explained more. 
"Lia that's not okay. Have you talked to her about it?" 
"No I can't, she doesn't talk about feelings anymore. All we've talked about is her new apartment, because she can't wait to get out of that sober living house." I gritted my teeth.
"Maybe it's that, maybe she's scared of being on her own in her own apartment because she's had this constant support from specialists and other girls and now she's jumping straight into independence and she's just scared about it." Rose suggested.
"Maybe, I'll try and talk to her about it later, if she's there." I agreed.
                          
*****
                          
The rest of the car journey was quite silent, the radio played quietly in the background and Rose mainly just looked out the window, and I focused on the road. As we pulled up into the hospital car park, I could tell that Rose was itching to get out and run to Ember. But she also knew that if she unplugged her seat belt that I would just stop the car until she plugged it back in again. So she waited, quite impatiently but it was enough for me to park nicely and turn the engine off. We got out the car and went into the main reception, asked for Ember-Marie Holloway. 
"Pediatric Ward." The woman smiled at us. 
"Wait what? Not ICU?" Rose asked, confused. 
"I'm pretty sure..yes she got transferred this morning." The woman confirmed. Rose turned to me, the biggest smile slapped across her face. 
"We better go then." I said to Rose, pulling her out of her trance.