The machines came to a screeching halt at my yelling. I looked down at Louis under all the rubble. "What's going on?!" the voice outside this mayhem called out. I shoved the debris off of Louis. Pushing off slowly, he rolled himself over. His eyes shut tight as he winced. "Some debris fell on Louis when the machine came in! He's hurt." I squatted by Lou's face. "What hurts? I asked with worried eyebrows. Pointing at his foot, he choked out "my ankle." My eyes strolled down to his ankle. I fell backwards when I saw it. It had been crushed, probably by the metal bar that had originally been above our heads in this debris pile we were trapped in. It now lay a few feet away from us since i had thrown it off of him along with the other debris. Part of a bone stuck out the front. The bar must've landed on the right side of his ankle or more towards the back. "It's not too bad. You'll be alright," I lied. It obviously looked terrible. A police man came as close to out side of the debris as he could . We must've been on the side of the debris that was against the actual mall, because he wasnt that close. "Can he move his ankle?" he bellowed. Louis looked up at me. "Can you?" I questioned. Lou looked down at his ankle and grunted a bit. "No.." he finally squeaked. "No," I repeated in a louder tone for the officer to hear. A bit of banter went on outside the debris. Decifering whether they should try again or come up with a different way. Sounded like there was some arguing. I couldn't quite hear everything, though.
I looked at Lou's ankle. It needed assistence and quick. On the bone, I saw wood particles and dust. An infection would be coming out of that soon. I lay down next to Louis to comfort him.
"On a scale of one to ten, how bad does it hurt?" I asked. He turned his head and looked right into my eyes, flashing a huge smile.
"Doesn't hurt at all!" he lied. "Seriously," I laughed at his sarcasm.
"I don't know! Alot!"
"Like so much you think it will have to be taken OFF?"
"My ankle isn't going to be taken off."
"It looks really bad, though. It might seriously have to be amputated."
"WHAT?!" he jumped a bit.
"Kidding!"
"Wow. Now's not the time to be joking!" he laughed. He turned his head the other way. I saw his hand come to his face. He rolled his head back. I noticed he was crying. Trying to hide it. "You just said it wasn't that bad. Now you're saying it looks bad. Which is it?" he said in a worried tone of voice.
Glancing at his ankle, I replied, "Well, I mean, it's broken. So of course it looks bad. But I think you're going to make it."
"8. It hurts like 8." he coughed.
"Alright. We're going to try another way? This way might push more debris onto you guys and hurt you," the man called. I sat up.
"Um. okay," I spoke, not sure really how to respond to that. "I'm um... kinda hungry." The men ignored my statement of being hungry. I heard them all talking to eachother with excitement in their voice. They must've thought of a good way or something. All of a sudden, without saying anything to me or Louis, we heard everyone run out. "What's going on?" Louis shouted to them. But their footsteps got quieter as all the men left the mall like nothing happened. "Hello!?" No answer. Hearing sniffles, my eyes darted to Louis. He was crying. Not even hiding it now.
"I know it hurts Louis, I'm sor-"
"No. Not that! We would have gotten OUT of here if i wasn't standing right THERE! Not only have I hurt myself, but I've hurt you."
"Louis but I'm not hurt I'm fi-"
"You're hungry. You wish I HAD moved so that way we wouldn't be stuck longer in this damn -- room -- with -- no -- f*cking -- space!" he started to hyperventilate.
"Calm down Louis..." I'm super awkward. So I didn't know what to do. I squated by him and looked him in the eyes. "It's gonna be okay!" He looked at me funny the pulled me down on the ground next to him. He wrapped me in his arms on the floor in a huge hug. It was warm. It was sweet. It lasted for minutes, yet it only seemed like a brief second. His cologne flowed into my nostrils.
Then the next thing I heard made my heart skip rapidly. I shot straight out of Louis's arms when I heard him. "Louis? It's Niall. You okay in there?"
