[1/3] NEVER LEAVE ME│s.m

sixteen

Before we returned back home, we brought Levi into the police station and was able to lock him up for a year. It wasn't as much as I wanted, which I guess would be for a lifetime, but I was still relieved he wouldn't be around for a year. That meant the guys and I were safe, and maybe Levi would change his ways through the counseling they're going to provide for him.

Soon after falling asleep that night, I awoke at 4 a.m. to the right side of my ribs crying in agony. I let out an uncontrolled scream at the pain, breaking into a fit of tears.

"Sage?" one of the boys call out, the sound of millions of footsteps tramping towards the guest room I was currently in.

"Sagey?" I hear Simon question, concerned about me beyond belief, wrapping an arm around my neck.

"What's wrong, Sage?" Josh asks, kneeling beside me. I wasn't able to speak because of the unbearable pain it caused so I just pointed to my ribs.

"Oh god," JJ gasps.

"If he fucking broke your ribs-" Simon starts, but it raises questions from Josh.

"If who? Who the hell-"

"Should we bring her to a hospital?" Simon asks, looking at the two boys.

"Let's try some stuff here first because I don't really wish to have another high hospital bill again," Josh chuckles, trying to lighten the mood. But it doesn't help as I can't stop screaming, trying to relieve some pain.

"Here." Simon hands me a pillow and I look at him as if he's the biggest idiot I've seen. "Not the right time, okay. Sorry."

"I'll get her an ice pack," JJ says, running out of the room.

"I'll get her painkillers," Josh says.

"Aren't those meant for her head injury?" Simon asks.

"They'll work for what she's feeling right now, Simon," Josh laughs, sprinting past the doorway.

Simon looks at me, slouching uncomfortably next to me. I've stopped screaming, trying to contain myself. But my chest was still being stabbed at, my eyes still watering. "I want to hug you so bad but I know that won't help."

I giggle, but end up screaming again because any movement so much as similar to talking made things a lot worse.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Simon quickly says, giving me a gentle side hug.

"Here," JJ says, handing me a frozen bag of peas. I give him a questioning look as I make weird, unmentionable noises. "We'll never eat them," he shrugs, sitting by my feet.

"I've got them!" Josh shouts as he enters the room as well, carrying a glass of water and pill bottle. Once he reaches us, he hands Simon the glass and unscrews the cap of the bottle as quick as he could. He dumps out two small pills and sticks out his hand for me to take them. But I couldn't move my arms, in fear of making everything terribly worse.

"Give me that!" Simon shouts at Josh, taking the two pills. "Open your mouth, love," he softly orders, and I obey. He sets them on the back of my tongue and places the cup of cold water to my lips. "Tilt your head." I do as told and swallow the pills with the gulp of water. "Good," he sighs with a smile. "It'll take a bit until they start to work." I nod, still crying my eyes out.

"Want to watch a movie?" Josh asks, trying his best to push my mind away from thinking about how much goddamn pain I was in. I smile a bit and nod. He turns on the TV and clicks on the Netflix icon.

"Give me the remote," Simon says, taking it from Josh. He scrolls through 'My List', which happens to be on Simon's profile, and clicks on one of our favorite TV shows, Friends.

He clicks on the episode we were currently on, laying on the empty side of the bed beside me.

"We're going back to bed then," Josh chuckles, awkwardly exiting the room with JJ following him out.

"You lied to me," Simon says, making me look at him. He was already staring at me, his face mixed with emotions. He was referring to earlier, when he asked if Levi had harmed me.

'I'm sorry' I mouth, frowning.

"You're lucky you're my favorite human being," he laughs, pecking my forehead. "So, uh, how much of that conversation did you hear?" he asks, talking about what him and Levi were shouting before I entered their word, and almost physical, brawl.

I shrugged my shoulders as much as I could, but he didn't believe me. I mouth, 'My girl' to him to see his reaction. His face drops, all emotion fading except for embarrassment. I shoot him a soft smile, informing him it was alright for him to call me that.

"I won't refer to you as that if you don't want me to," he offers, averting his attention to the TV screen.

I press my lips together as I squint my eyes, still staring at him. I look down at his hand, which was laid beside him, palm half-up, millimeters from my own.

I slowly slide my hand to his, clasping my fingers shut. He does the same, suppressing a smile as well. Happy with myself, I turn my face back to the TV.

••••

I fell asleep sometime around 7:30 in the morning, my cheek rested on Simon's shoulder.

But when I woke up, my head was on his chest and the frozen peas that were attached to my ribs had gone mushy and the frost around the plastic packaging had melted into my shirt.

I sigh, lifting my head. It was now 2:18 and I still felt fatigue. I ignored it, took another round of painkillers, enjoying my ability to move.

I tried my best not to wake Simon with my actions, but failed as I heard him moan behind me.

"What time is it?" he asks, his voice groggy and hoarse.

"2:20," I reply, my voice sounding as if I only had a cold or sore throat.

"Hey, you can talk," he points out, my mind knowing a smile was presented on his gentle face.

"For now," I giggle lightly, turning my head to face him.

"How are you feelin'?" he questions as he sits up, rubbing his eyes.

"I'm alright," I reply while smiling hard.

He looks at me, then clutches his chest in the area where his heart is located.

"Are you okay?" I giggle as he rapidly blinks before looking at me again.

"How do you manage to look so flawless even when you've just woken up?" he whines, making me blush madly.

"Stop it," I giggle, covering my face.

"'That's my giirrrrlll! That's my giiirrrrlll!'" Simon sings, pointing to me.

"Knock it off, you aren't apart of Fifth Harmony!" I laugh wildly.

"You guys aren't dating, so shut up your flirtatious asses!" I hear JJ shout, teasing us.

"I should get dressed," I giggle, standing on my feet. I grab a black Sidemen hoodie and put on a pair of shorts. I throw my hair in a messy bun and leave my face clean. "I'm gonna edit my vlog from yesterday," I tell Simon as I pull out my laptop from my duffle bag, along with my ear buds.

••••

As I'm almost done editing, I realized I didn't make an outro. So I grab Simon's camera as I gave Cal's back and hit record.

"So, I didn't do an outro yesterday, and am just now making it whilst editing," I giggle nervously. "Sorry for my appearance by the way, I had a rough night last night," I add before telling them what every YouTuber does in their outros, that slightly annoys the hell out of me. "And I hope you enjoy my channel!" I finish, blowing a kiss to the camera and stop the recording. I transfer the footage to my laptop, but end up with some other things as well.

I was about to put it back into the camera when I noticed my face appeared in the clips. I furrow my eyebrows together and watch them back, feeling guilty the whole way through.