Masked Insanity (Harry Styles)

Chapter 9: The Phobia

"Wait, what?" I asked in utter shock. Despite my deep-rooted disliking for Sophie, I couldn't help but feel worried about her. "Why? What happened?"

"I honestly don't know. One minute, she was just standing there talking to Eliza at the party last night, and the next, she was on the ground, unconscious," Brittanee explained, her voice lined with distress.

"How was she acting right before she fainted?" I asked curiously, my investigative instincts taking over, "Was it too hot there? Did she seem a bit faint, exhausted, upset?

"Well..." Brittanee paused, "she did seem really angry, like, even more than usual. She was cursing and screaming for no reason, ordering us around. Personally, I thought she was on her period or something... Why?"

"Ah," I nodded in understanding, the gears clicking in my brain, "her emotional upset must have caused a temporary reduction in blood flow, leading to a shortage of oxygen delivered to her brain, causing her to blackout."

Part of my job description was to be prepared to handle worst case scenarios; things like seizures, heart attacks, serious injuries. A blackout was one of the more trivial problems I was faced with, and with a little bit of background information, it was pretty easy to determine the cause of a fainting spell.

"What are you mumbling? I can't hear what you're saying from all the way back here!" I heard Crystal's voice faintly in the background.

"Sorry, I probably should have mentioned that you were on speaker," Brittanee said sheepishly.

"It's fine," I assured her. "Her emotional distress must have caused a temporary reduction in blood flow, leading to a shortage of oxygen delivered to the brain, causing her to blackout," I repeated word by word, this time in a louder voice so Crystal could hear. There was a long pause following my statement.

"How the hell do you know that?" Crystal asked, her bewildered tone evident. I quickly scrambled my brain for an explanation.

"Um, I took a first aid and basic medicine course in high school. I might wanna become a nurse someday," I replied, rather proud of my excellent alibi.

"That's pretty cool," Brittanee said thoughtfully, "maybe we should have taken her straight to you instead of calling the paramedics. She's been here all night!" Brittanee let out a groan of frustration.

"Yeah, I'm still in my party dress, and I haven't taken a shower!" I heard Crystal complain. One look down told me I wasn't doing much better myself.

"Wait, where are you anyway?" Crystal suddenly asked, her voice suddenly really loud. She must have moved in closer to the phone.

"Uh... you know what, I'll tell you guys later. Meanwhile, what hospital are you guys at?" I immediately changed the subject. I didn't feel like discussing the crazy series of events that ended up with me in Harry Styles' bed, especially not while he was in the room. I stole a quick glance in his direction. He now had his feet on the table, his hands behind his head as he leaned back into the kitchen chair. His eyes were absently traveling around the room, but I knew he was eavesdropping.

"We're at St. Thomas' Hospital," Crystal quickly replied, "hurry up and get over here. We don't want to be alone when they begin to allow visitors in Sophie's room."

"I thought Eliza was with you guys."

"Well, she was," Brittanee enunciated in an annoyed tone, "but she said she had somewhere more important to be. Some friend she is," she added quietly.

"Did she by any chance tell you where she was?" I prodded. I needed some more information on Eliza. All that I'd gotten so far was that she was really popular, artificial, and super materialistic, and last time I checked, those weren't sufficient reasons to incriminate someone for a murder.