only for you // l.h.

|7|

I tried to start at the beginning, which was easier said than done. My tongue stuck to the top of my mouth and my voice came out as a rasp. "It's...it's really hard to start," I said, clearing my throat. I reached for a glass of water on the bedside, wincing as it pulled at the sensitive skin of the wounds. I hoped they wouldn't heal over badly. I already had too many scars on my body.

"Don't you think we need to know?" Ashton said. "Luke—help me." Both of them pushed the couch closer to the bed.

(Also, let's acknowledge Luke Hemmings in general. Especially his very nice shoulders. Ahem.)

When they finally settled with a lot of shoving and elbowing and lots of Luke move your fat ass off of my leg and god Ashton you are so sweaty, they all leaned forward like kids waiting to hear a story.

This was not a nice story. It was a mean story.

I upped the morphine level, because I was starting to feel my legs again and the pain that accompanied was not pleasant.

"How did you even find out about this whole fucking mess?" Michael asked, because I was hesitating again. I was grateful for the prompt, and tried to collect myself.

"I saw you," Luke said. "You were in the front row. You didn't even look over once. And you were crying."

"I was not," I said, crossing my arms.

"You were," Luke said. "You say you weren't, but there you were, in the front row looking for the person meant to kill us and crying."

I glanced at Calum. "Is he telling the truth?"

Calum gave me a wary look. "Yes."

I pouted. I'd cried.

"It was really sweet, actually," Luke told me.

Michael shoved him, shaking his head and muttering something that made Luke smile and snort.

"Well, it was laser sight. The assassin had laser sight and turned it on too soon and I saw it," I said, changing the subject away from me.

"Through all the lights?" Ashton asked. "I have trouble seeing through those sometimes."

"Through all the lights," I confirmed. "I was looking specifically for something so it was easier to spot."

"How'd you even know?"

I bit my lip. I could tell them about what I did, or could try and spin a lie.

I looked around at them, each one half-scared and half-awed. There was no way I could lie to their faces. The threat had been to them, after all.

Truth it was, then. They needed to know.

"I spend a lot of my time on the Internet," I started.

"Same," Michael chimed in.

"On social media," I elaborated.

Calum held his hand up for a high-five, agreeing with me. I slapped his hand.

"Are we done congratulating ourselves?" Luke asked.

I rolled my eyes. "Anyways, people ask for my help when something nasty has been written about them, or an...unflattering...picture of them has cropped up somewhere. They ask me to take it down. So I hack into wherever I need to and take care of it. Sometimes I go in person."

There was silence.

"Are you the police?" Michael asked.

I laughed. "No."