Troubled Boy

Six

"Harry?" Kylie said his name as they rolled down the interstate in his old, beat up Cadillac. It was already 6pm and she was starving.

"Yes?" he smirked. Damn it. That smirk always got to her.

"Where are we even going?"

"You'll see..." He glanced at her and re-positioned his hands on the steering wheel and Kylie got a peek of his bicep when his short-sleeve slid up. He had small carvings of ink etched onto his arm starting from, where she guessed was his shoulder, to his elbow. She hadn't noticed them before. How? She took a gander and assumed he most likely used that tattoo remover lotion stuff that you can only get at a tattoo parlor.

**Disclaimer: I know that Harry's tattoos in reality are on his left arm. But in this story they're going to have to be on his right arm.**

Kylie gazed at the tattoo of a black, golf ball-sized heart and wondered where the idea of it came from.

"You okay there?"

She looked up at him, oblivious to his staring.

"What? No...I mean, yes, I'm okay. Sorry," she said as her face flushed with embarrassment.

"They're random, you know," he said. She fiddled with a loose string on her faded and distressed skinny jeans.  He continued.

"The ship? I got it because I miss home. Holmes Chapel, W. Mandeville Bakery, Louis..."

"I'm sorry...." Kylie said. "Why did you move here, then?" Loneliness flashed in his his eyes and she could tell, even from the side, how homesick he really was.

"To get away. Start a new life. Travel, I guess," he said.

"That's good. At least you're happy, right?"

"Yes. I love it here!" He perked up and Kylie couldn't help but smile at his cheekiness. She made a mental note of everything she learned about him as they kept driving.

He was 22 years old, he was from Holmes Chapel, he loved animals, he worked at the bakery before settling here in America, his favorite color was orange, and his favorite seasonal movie was Love Actually.

It wasn't a lot that Kylie learned about him but it was enough to melt her growing heart and she cherished that. But one thing she did notice....not once did he mention this 'Louis' fellow. She guessed he wasn't that important so Kylie didn't push it even though she was immoderately curious.

** Song suggestion (for the rest of the chapter) :  We The Kings --Sad Song **

It wasn't until Kylie had started telling Harry about her favorite movie that he had started to shake again. It started with his large hands twitching continuously, then his pupils started to vibrate side-to-side.

"Harry?" Kylie's fingers latched onto the wheel to keep them from crashing. Kylie kept calling his name but he kept trembling and didn't answer. Kylie doubted he could even hear her. His face turned an ashen white and sweat dotted his brow and nose.

"Harry!" Kylie screamed frantically while unbuckling her seat belt. She climbed over the console and landed on his right knee, pressing the caution light button with one shaky hand, and maneuvered through the cars on the road hoping to catch a glimpse of any gas station or hospital or somewhere they could stop.

"Fuck," Kylie mumbled. She used her free hand to feel his forehead. It was burning up. He kept shaking and soon his head had lolled to the side and his eyes rolled to the back of his head. Kylie's heart hammered against her ribs and tears slid down her face. She took two fingers and pressed them to his neck to try and find his pulse. Bum bum. Bum bum. Bum bum. Saliva dripped from the corner if his mouth and she used the back of her hand to swipe at it.

"Harry! Oh God, please wake up! Please be okay!"

Kylie continued to weave along the interstate and she finally spotted a vacant gas station off to the right. She then swerved onto the other lanes and pressed on the horn signaling to the other drivers to move. His whole body was now frantically trembling and it took everything in her power to not break down in tears. When Kylie pulled into a parking spot, she turned the AC on to keep Harry cooled down, and snatched her cell phone from the passenger seat to dial 911.

Once the operator answered, Kylie put the phone on speaker and set it on top of the dashboard. Every so often, Harry's shaking would subside, then he'd jolt with another round of tremendous vibrating throughout his limp body. Kylie's stomach kept tumbling around with fear and salty tears streamed down her cheeks causing dark, wet splotches on her jeans as they dropped. The operator tried to keep Kylie calm but it was no use. She was beyond terrified. Within minutes the ambulance arrived and one man, possibly in his mid-to-late thirties dragged Kylie away from Harry. She kept sobbing.

"What's happening to him!?" She screamed at the man. "Let me stay with him! I just-- oh God, this has happened before! I don't-- Fuck!" Kylie couldn't contain her anger, her fear, her desire to see Harry and stay with him so that she was the first person he saw when he woke up from the alarming seizure that overtook him. Kylie was overwhelmed. How could this have happened?

"At least let me ride with him," her voice was calmer yet still shaky and hoarse.

"Ma'am, you need to stay calm. Your boyfriend will be fine."

Boyfriend?

"I don't -- he's not --," Kylie was interrupted by another EMT who called the mans name.

"James!"

The man turned to Kylie with dark brown eyes. "You'll be okay. Now, do you see that woman over there?" She did. The woman looked young. Maybe mid-20's. Kylie nodded.

"She will help you into the ambulance. I will be there soon." James assured her. Kylie was grateful for his calm and sympathetic demeanor. She didn't want him to leave her. His name was called again and he jogged over to where Harry was now lying on a yellow and black stretcher. Kylie stood still and looked toward the woman who gave her a beaming smile. Relief washed over her and she walked toward the woman.

"Good evening. My name is Clara Thomson," the woman said.
Her long brunette hair reached her shoulders and it was waved in multiple directions creating a voluminous look. Her green eyes were kind and welcoming as they stared into Kylie's. The woman was tall, much taller than Kylie.

"Come on. Let's get you both to the hospital," she said. Kylie nodded and Clara helped her into the towering vehicle where she sat on a metal bench next to the space where the stretcher was being rolled in to. Wires trailed Harry's body and she saw that his chest was bare except for a few tattoos including two symmetrical birds near his collar bone. She thought about those birds as they fled to the hospital with the steady beeping of the heart monitor signaling the rhythm of Harry's fragile heart. Beep...beep...beep...beep... beep...