Before She Falls

Chapter 28

"That's not how you're supposed to start it" Zayn scolds Louis, but he doesn't seem to care as he sits proudly on one of the four wheelers.
"Who's riding with me?" Louis asks as he grips around the handle bars.
"Madison, you can ride with me. Zayn, go with Louis" Liam instructs. There are only five quads for the eight of us kids, so it's inevitable that some of us have to double-up on one vehicle. "Katrina, you'll ride with Harry yeah?"
"Yeah, she will" Harry answers for me and then puts his helmet over his fluffy hair so all I can really see are his green eyes.
I automatically roll my eyes at Harry's attempt to flirt with me, then tie my hair back into a low ponytail and shove my helmet over my head.
"Are you driving?" I ask with a hint of attitude rolling off my tongue.
Harry nods and kicks one of his legs over the black seat of the quad.
"Hop on" he pats the space behind his seat.
I climb onto the vehicle and Harry starts it up, wrapping his hands tightly onto the handles. By this time, Zayn and Louis are already zooming past us through the open plains, splashing mud everywhere. Drew and Niall are both making figure eights around the field, heading near the edge of the woods and wrapping back near the house again.
"Ready?" Harry mumbles through his helmet and I can barely hear him over the roar of the four wheeler.
"Yep" I reply and wrap my arms tightly around Harry's torso that is only covered in his white v-neck.
I grip onto Harry's shirt when he finally pushes the gas and the force jerks me backward. We shoot through the wet land and mud and grass are already flying up around us as the quad races through the fields.
I don't have the best view of what's going on. Through the narrow vision of my helmet and the limited sight I have from behind Harry's back, I can only really see the endless trees and mud puddles we continue to pass. Occasionally I'll see the other boys riding by us; Louis is sitting behind Zayn as they try and race Harry and I from the woods to the house and back. However they lost. Then I see Drew cruise by us while holding the handle bars with only one hand and pumping his fist in the the air with his other. I glance behind us to see Maddie and Liam's four wheeler sliding through the grass, surprisingly Liam let Maddie drive the quad while he sat behind her, holding on for dear life. I'm not sure if that was the safest decision Liam's ever made, but it was an endearing one for sure.
Harry spins the four wheeler around and my inertia threatens to pull me off to the side of the quad. He slams down on the gas and we race straight for the woods. I look ahead of us and see a glimpse of Niall's four wheeler a little a head of ours. I cross my arms around Harry's back tighter, being sure I wouldn't fall off during this intense race. I can feel splattering of dirt and mud splash up onto my arms and legs more and more as we continue to speed away from the house. I hear an abnormal screech of, what sounds like, a quad's tires. Two seconds later, Harry slams on the breaks of our four wheeler.
"Holy shit" I can feel the vibrations from Harry's loud voice through his back.
Then he speeds up, only to slow down again and stop. And when I look around Harry's backside, I can see a four wheeler flipped upside down, laying sunken a bit in the wet grass and mud. Niall.
I release my grip from Harry's upper body and rush to take my helmet off as Harry does the same. We both run to the side of the quad, where we can see half of Niall's body poking out from underneath the vehicle.
"Niall, hey Niall" I reach for his arm, trying to see if he's conscious because I'm not quite sure from his closed eyes.
"Hm" Niall's eyes flutter and then open slowly.
Harry's first instinct is to attempt to lift the four wheeler off of his friend but as soon as the weight of the quad is too heavy and Harry's drops it back down, Niall groans in pain and squeezes my hand that's resting in his.
"Okay, stop that. Calm down" I wave Harry away from the quad.
Harry pulls back and looks around, in a panicked state.
"Liam!" Harry yells and waves his arms in the air to signal the rest of the boys.
"What hurts the most?" I ask Niall. I can't see any damage done to the top half of his body. He's just soaking wet and has mud covering most of his face and upper body.
"My knee" Niall squeezes his eyes shut and tries his best to move underneath the quad.
"What the fuck happened?" I hear a shout from behind me. When I look, I see Liam running up the scene.
Liam copies Harry's first action and tries to lift the car up. His efforts are more successful than Harry's, but it's still not enough. Harry then joins in and after about ten seconds of pushing upwards, there's enough room for Niall to roll out from underneath the vehicle.
Madison and I help him sit up, still on the ground, and the boys flip the four wheeler back up right.
"Take him back to the house on the quad" I tell Liam and he nods, effortlessly helping Niall from the ground and sitting him on the back of Liam and Maddie's four wheeler.
As I look towards the house I see that Zayn, Louis, an Drew are already running inside to make Geoff and Aunt Karen aware of what just occurred.
"I'm taking this one back to the house" Maddie tells us and hops back onto the quad, starting it up and driving herself away from the woods.
"Let's go" I gesture for Harry to hop back onto our four wheeler.
"You drive" he motions for me to get onto the quad first. His eyes look cold and his eyebrows furrow together as I climb into the vehicle.