Cherry Bomb [h.s]

32

After what seems like hours, Harry finally stills. His eyes remain closed, but his breathing is steady again. I let out a shaky breath in relief. At least he doesn't look like he's in pain anymore. 

I continue to hold him in my lap, afraid to look away. 

The paramedics finally arrive, and put him onto a stretcher. 

"How long was he seizing?" One of them asks me, but I shake my head. 

"I don't know, I wasn't timing it-"

"About five minutes." Niall answers, and gives me a sympathetic look. 

"Is this the first time its happened?" 

"Uh, no," Niall explains, "He's had them before. He has epilepsy."  

We follow them downstairs and out the front door. As they're loading Harry into the ambulance, Niall locks the front door then digs in his pocket for something. 

"I'll ride with him, can you follow with the car?" He asks, holding out the keys to Harry's car. 

I stare down at the keys, my throat feeling dry. 

"Um actually, can I ride with him?" I ask, and look back to Harry in the back of the ambulance. 

"Sure," Niall nods, "I'll drive then." 

"Thank you," I breathe out, then hop in the ambulance. 

The paramedics shut the doors, and we start heading off. 

I sit next to a still unconscious Harry, watching his face for any changes. 

I instinctively reach over and grab his hand for comfort. His or mine, I'm not really sure. 

We stay like that for a little while. Just me holding his hand in silence, hoping he's okay. 

Suddenly, his eyelids start fluttering, face contorting a bit until he finally opens his eyes. 

"Hey," I say softly, "You had a seizure, we're on our way to the hospital." 

He doesn't say anything, just closes his eyes again and nods ever so slightly. 

As soon as we arrive at the hospital, the ambulance doors fling open and a few doctors are there to bring him inside. 

"We'll take it from here," one of them says, "Are you family?"

It takes me a moment to realize what she's asking me. 

"Um, no we're... friends, I guess." I say, unsure of how to describe our relationship. 

"Okay, well we're going to be taking him for some tests. You can go wait in there." She points to a door labeled Waiting Room. I nod, and slowly make my way over. 

They wheel him out of the large double doors at the back, and he disappears into the hospital. 

●

I take a deep inhale of smoke as the sunset bathes the hospital parking lot in a fiery orange. I had been needing a cigarette for the past hour or so, but I wasn't sure when the doctors would be done with the tests for Harry. 

When sunset rolled around, Niall convinced me that it was okay if I smoked outside instead of sitting in the waiting room with him. 

Niall had called the others and told them where we were, but to not worry. 

"He'll be fine," he told me, "Harry always bounces back after a day or so." 

That had made me feel a little better, but it still didn't stop the turning in my stomach. It probably didn't help that I hadn't eaten much today.