Eyes Wide Open

Chapter 11

The next morning at school as they were making their way toward the building, Niall noted how everyone is staring at the five of them more than usual.
"I guess everyone caught the interview yesterday." He says, shoving the last bit of his breakfast sandwich in his mouth. "Everyone is watching us." He adds as Harry opens the side door closest to Jacqueline's locker.

With their, ever present, giants they make their way to Jacqueline's locker, when she opens it there's this loud boom. Acting on instinct, Harry grabs Jacqueline around the waist, swinging her off her feet, out of the way, pinning her to the wall, his body between her and any potential danger. Paul and Marco scramble to take care of Louis, Niall and Liam, making sure they're not injured.

Not understanding what just happened, Jacqueline raises her hand, she places on Harry's side. When she feels something wet she frowns, lifting her hand so she can see it, all she sees is red, realizing it's blood, she screams. "Oh God. HARRY!" She cries, pushing him off her so she can check to see how badly he's been hurt. "Paul, God, help me." Jacqueline yells, pushing Harry against the wall, raising his shirt as she does.

"I'm fine Jack." Harry says.

Jacqueline slaps his hand away. "Stop idiot, you're fucking bleeding." She snaps, causing Harry to finally look down.

"Well shit." Harry whispers, seeing the hole in his side when Jacqueline raises his shirt.

"Ambulance is on the way." Marco says, handing Jacqueline his t-shirt. "Use this to put pressure on the area to help slow the bleeding."

Jacqueline nods and does as directed, hearing Harry suck in a deep breath. "I'm so sorry." She whispers.

Harry shakes his head. "Not your fault." He says, giving her a small smile.

"Bullshit. That's my locker, you can't tell me that wasn't meant for me." Jacqueline spits out, pissed that bullet hit Harry instead of her.

Louis squats down beside them both, not seeing the cops walking up behind them. He places one hand on Jacqueline's shoulder the other on Harry's leg. "Jack listen to me, and listen very carefully." He says in a tone she's never heard from him before. "I'm not saying I'm glad my best friend here got shot, never in a million years do I ever want to go through or see anything like this again. But, you're our friend also now, and if you'll look very closely you'll notice that due to your height differences, had that bullet hit you, sis." Louis shakes his head and blinks away a few tears before continuing. "I don't want to think about where that could have been."

Harry's eyes widen when Louis finishes his sentence causing his eyes to dart directly to Jacqueline's chest.

"Uhm, paramedics are here, so are the cops." Paul says, helping Jacqueline to her feet.

The head detective looks at the group around him. "Tell you what, I'll just search the location, see what evidence I can find. I'll let you go with your friend and meet you at the hospital later."

"Thank you." Paul says, shaking the man's hand, still watching Jacqueline closely. Just as the paramedics were loading Harry into the ambulance, Paul asks if it's okay for Jacqueline to ride along. When the guy looks in her direction, sees how badly she's shaking, he nods. "Jack? Ted here said you can ride with Harry if you want."

Hearing that, she didn't even answer, she just leapt across the distance and jumped into the back. After sitting in the seat indicated, Jacqueline grabs Harry's hand, holding it the entire trip to the hospital.
Just before the paramedics push Harry into the emergency department, he calls out. "Lou, call my mom. She knows you."

Jacqueline's head jerks like she'd been slapped, dropping Harry's hand.

"Got you covered bro." Louis calls back.

"Wait, stop." Harry says. "Come with me, Jack, please." Harry begs, holding his hand out.

Jacqueline looks at the nurse, when she nods, she takes his hand and walks through the door to his room. With all the doctors and nurses working on Harry, Jacqueline steps out of the way, leans against the wall until they decide what to do.

"Okay." The doctor finally says, waving Jacqueline over, seeing the way Harry reaches for her hand as soon as she's close. "Looks like the bullet didn't hit anything vital, but we still need to remove it. Do you have a legal guardian here to sign the papers?" He asks.

Harry nods. "My best friend, Louis Tomlinson." He says. "He's older than me by two years, but I skipped two grades, so my mom gave him guardianship so we could come here to continue our careers." Harry explains.

The doctor nods. "Okay, I'll have him sign the papers, the nurses will be in to get you ready once he's done that."

As soon as the door closes Harry looks at Jacqueline. "Jack, please don't shut me out again. I didn't mean anything bad by what I said." He whispers. "I just needed you in here with me and if you had made that call and I'd had cried out in pain? My mom would have freaked, I didn't want that to happen." He explains, running his thumb over her knuckles.

"It's okay, I'm just not used to having friends." Jacqueline says. "I've spent most of my life alone, being teased. This is all so new to me, I can't help but be a bit insecure." She admits.

Harry wanted so badly to tell her she meant more to him than a friend, but the nurses came in to take him to surgery. "See ya." He waves.

"I'll be here waiting." Jacqueline says, as tears stream down her cheeks.