Taken (editing)

Chapter 7

On seeing him, my jaw almost hit the ground in surprise.

Now, that, would've happened if I was up and standing. But right now, I was on the floor, knees paining, hair sticking to my face due to the tears. To say I looked scared and in pain would be an understatement. This was the humiliation I'd go through everyday, the fact being that all this pain just worsened day by day.

"What the actual fuck are you guys doing?"

His voice boomed through the empty hallway, and I had a sense It was scaring Hilary.

"What.." I could practically hear the fear in her voice.

"What did you do to her?" I heard his voice come closer as I struggled to sit on the floor, the pain in my knees becoming unbearable by the second.

"She interfered in our matters" Hillary muttered, trying to come up with an excuse, "she deserves this anyway-"

"You think everyone's an asshole like you to deserve that kind of treatment?" He spit, his choice of language speaking out clearly the amount of respect he had for her. "Get you and your shit ass group away from here, I swear if I see you near her one more time, the consequences aren't going to be good"

"It's not like we're afraid of you Styles" she tried maintaining a brave, neutral tone but it completely failed as all we could hear was fear in her voice. "Girls lets go" she quickly mumbles out of embarrassment as they all leave, the dull chatter surrounding the air quickly ceasing as they walk out, some even glancing behind to look at Harry who was by my side, helping me up.

I was taken aback when he held me by the waist, trying to make me stand up but failing as I give way to the pain in my knees, groaning as I try to stop the tears.

"I-" he begins, to break the obvious tension in the air.

"Don't" I half warn, not really in the mood to talk to anyone.

He simply nods, helping me walk as I limp, not even the slightest idea of where we were going.

"I've never seen things get this bad" he mutters, rather to himself. "I knew that bullying went on here, but I didn't know it was this bad"

I scoffed, despite the pain I was in. "Welcome to the real world of victims like me, styles" I say, a tone of venom lacing my voice as I indirectly curse them all.

"How often-" he trails, unsure of whether to ask me.

"Too often" I just say, still surprised that he hadn't joined them and instead was helping me. "But you wouldn't understand" I tell him, on purpose, hinting at the fact that he was just like one of those people.

"I'm-" he begin, but corrects himself. "I don't bully people"

A sarcastic laughter was heard next.

"You don't ow-" I say and he rushes to hold my waist in a more comfortable position, so that it would lessen the pain. "bully people?" I laugh again. "You know, even if you do lie, you should lie in a way that its slightly believable, you know" I ramble, but then again, not really knowing why. Who knew a situation would arise where I would be sarcastically laughing at harry and giving him suggestions? Truth be told, me even talking to him was something I'd never fathom in centuries.

"Why were they after you?" he asks, as I recognize the way in which we are headed.

"I don't know" I say "I haven't done anything to deserve this"

I could feel him staring at me as I looked ahead. Concern? And that too from the guy who used girls like toys? The guy who bullies? Who's the leader of the jocks? Who treats everyone like shit? Who's the notorious heartbreaker of the school and feels no human like emotions for anyone?

Concern was the last thing I'd expect.

So I forced myself to not give attention to the look he was giving me, my mind refusing to believe that he actually gave a shit.

I wasn't one to judge based on rumors either. I didn't know him personally and some of the facts that I did know about him were pretty much rumors. But I never judged based on that. I had judged on the incidences I had seen, wherein, girls cried and cried over him using them and fucking another girl the enxt day, ive seen people being bullied by him, people crying and being physically and verbally abused and bullied by him and his gang. He was that notorious, and I wasn't going to allow myself to believe that he felt even the slightest bit of concern. Or who knows? My subconscious mocked me, Maybe he's doing this all so that he can narrate this when he meets his friends and they can all have a laugh over it.

"I don't need to go to the nurse's office" I say, earning an amused laugh from him. "It's no big deal" And plus, I figured I had to come up with a lie about how I got this injury. Tripped down the stairs? Tripped in the cafeteria? Fell down? I could already imagine the nurse bombarding me with questions.

"Its no big deal?" he scoffed, "you can barely walk"

"Yeah thanks to your friends" I say sarcastically as he looks away. I feel a little blunt and I realize that I have to make an effort to be nice, he was helping me after all. I could hear him move a little away as the shuffling of feet was heard, indicating people were soon going to fill this hallway.

"Jess what the hell?" I could hear a voice behind me as I strained to turn around.

"Niall" I exclaim as he immediately takes my position and Harry backs away, just In time as people start to flock the hallways.

Oh, how gentlemanly of him. My subconscious mocked me. He was obviously embarrassed to be seen with you.

"Uhm Ill just-" he says, awkwardly before turning ahead and glancing at me once before walking away. "Take care"

And with that, he walked away.

"What the hell did he do to you?" Niall almost shouts.

"No No it wasn't him" I clarify, wanting to calm Niall down. A part of me wanted to thank Harry but he didn't seem interested in staying back. I could feel a couple of stares on me and my limping as Niall demanded answers.

"Fine, it isn't a big deal" I say, glad I had wiped the tears from my face earlier, which if had remained, would've raised further questions, no doubt. "Being the clumsy bitch I am" I say, earning a playful glare from Niall, "I fell down the stairs"

"Bull"

"No, really, I wasn't looking where I was going and bam" I say, still struggling to walk properly. "And the infamous Harry styles just happened to be there and maybe there was still a bit of humanity left to him, he decided to help me" I say, trying to joke so that It wouldn't raise any more questions from this curious blonde face.

"I so badly want to not believe this, but it does sound true" he says, and looks at the door that lead to the nurse's office.

"No" I scoff, earning a glare from Niall who knew exactly what I was opposing.

----

And 10 minutes later, parts of my knees were covered In stench filled ointment and Niall was on a chair, looking at his phone.

"How the hell are you so good at convincing?"

"It's the irish charm" he boasts, wiggling his eyebrows, making me laugh. He was turning out to be a good friend and I was glad that people had actually started opening up to me and not just staying away from me because of all the rumors. I was pretty sure Niall and Louis and basically everyone knew that I get bullied, but I knew that it would be awkward bringing up that topic with me.

"We're going to the principal's office after this by the way" he says, interrupting my train of thoughts as he helps me get down from the set up bed I was sitting on.

"Why? Do you have paperwork?"

"No" he says, dismissing my question.

"Then why are we going?"

"To file a complaint against Harry styles for physical bullying and abuse"