They Don't Know About Us

Forever Young - Chapter 18

*Chloe's POV*

After what only seemed five minutes in Harry's strong, muscular arms.. I'm woken up by his soft murmurs "Clo..babe time to wake up." Soft velvety voice and soothing hands stroke my face. Slowly, I open my eyes; blinking a few times to ajust to my surroundings. "Uhh.. What time is it?" I ask, sleep clearly clenching into me as I sit up. My mind slowly starts to click into gear; the past events of what happened yesterday come back one by one, I realise that i'm still in the hospital. I slowly glance over to Harry, who has a smug look on his face. Staring deeply into my eyes. As if bewildered by me. "..What?" I groggily mumble. He takes a moment, licking his plump, slightly dry lips. "You look.. Beautiful when you sleep." Laughing lightly, I shake my head. "Nah, this? I'm surprised I don't drool.. or sleep talk." This earnt a rather scornful look to come from Harry. "Hey! You're cute..verry innocent like. And by the way,  your morning voice.." He pauses, comically wiggling his eyebrows. This causes me to giggle; aiming to slap his arm; but he quickly dodges, quirking his brow and pulling me into a kiss. This causes butterflies to swarm endlessly in my stomach. I close my eyes, feeling the softness and tenderness of his kisses. We seemed to both be lost in the moment, until awkwardly we're stopped by Liam. "Guys, uh.. Niall said we can come into see Paige." He looks at us quickly before chuckling and walking Into Paige's room. Streching my arms out, and yawning; I quickly follow. Part of me still has a good mind to fall back to sleep.. just for a few moments; yet the thought of seeing how Paige- and the others for that matter-were doing. So slowly, we walked in; Harry by my side; as I take his firm hands within my own.

In the private room, I see Niall, holding Paige's unusual colourless hand. Eyes puffy and red; clearly from crying. The room was dull, dark shrouded in dark colours. The heart monitor that beeped steadily, making soft beeping noises that seemed louder against the eary silence that covered the room. I look over to see Paige awake, smiling. "PAIGE, THANK GOD YOU'RE AWAKE!" I exclaim loudly, trying my best not to scream. Rushing to her side, I give her a light hug. Harry tugs my arm, pulling me back to rest against him. "Nice to see you back into the land of the living Paigey!" He chuckles,  before resting his head on my shoulder.

We spent the rest of the day talking, I purposley made sure to check up on both Becky and Shelby; to put my worried mind at rest. Shelby was as fine as Paige, on a slow and steady recovery. Yet Becky.. she seemed to still, I wasn't allowed within the room; but from what Zayn was saying to me, it shocked me, and no doubt all of us. The thoughts of one of my best friends staying unconscious sends a terrible shiver down my spine. "So, are Maddison and Eve dead?" Paige's voice brings me back out of my transe. Nodding, I rub my eyes, I  can still picture both their bodies falling down to the floor after being shot. "Yeah.. the Police got them." I manage to mumble; though what Maddison and Eve did was wrong on every level, I couldn't help but feel sorry for them, afterall what would we have felt like if we were in their shoes? Of course we wouldn't have gone to that much of an extreme, but the anger and the emotions would still be along those lines. I shudder; my eyes adverting towards Zayn. Who is fast asleep, snoring against Liam's shoulder. The whole atmosphere seemed to be low, no one seemed to talk; after my comment. The silence rang out across the whole room, you could easily hear a pin drop if you listened hard enough.  I searched my brain; trying to keep the interest up, but nothing comes to mind. "Right! Time to get you out of here. I could do with some fresh air.." Harry suddenly jolted up; as if electrified by his own chair. "Yeah, I think it's time for us to go.." I glance towards Paige, who smiles softly; "It's been a long couple of days, get some rest Clo." I chuckle, shaking my head. "Hey! I'm not the one who's just been torchured, you need the rest more than I do!" I glance towards Niall, who seems more distant than his happy-go-lucky self, his face more pale, with dark rings around his eyes. He looks troubled, almost. Yet I shrug the thoughts away; it was time to leave Paige and Niall to recover on their own, they needed time to themselves. . Standing up, I grasp Harry's hand as we make our way to the exit. "I'll stay here.. I can't leave her." Niall mumbles, his voice horse, quiet. "You two need some time alone." Liam replies in his usual serious tone; he had now awoken, slowly followed by Zayn, who looks like he's about to pass out on the floor. Paige smiles towards me; urging me to go. I feel a moment of guilt, before Harry pulls me away. One by one we push open the doors. "We're gonna go back to my place guys, but we will be back tommorrow to check up on things." Harry explains to Laim and Zayn. They both nod. "Sure! You guys don't have to stay here.. go have fun." Zayn winks towards me, this earns a dark chuckle from Harry as we walk outside. "Don't worry, we will!" 

To see Paige in that state, so frail, so.. ill. Makes me shudder; I couldn't get everyone's face's out of my mind. Almost playing it on repeat. As we walk slowly towards Harry's car; a red Auldi R8. It's clearly new, as no scratches adron it's shassy, nor has the paint faded yet. "New car?" I manage to mumble towards him; i'm greeted by his soft smile, as he opens the passenger door. "Yeah, thought it might come in handy." I slide into the passenger seat, thankful that none of the press had managed to catch up with us yet. But no doubt they'd be on our trail soon enough. "You shouldn't worry so much, Clo. Everyone's gonna be fine." Harry tries to soothe me as we roll out of the Hospital carkpark and drive into the night. "I'm not.. it's just. Uncomphortable... Seeing everyone so.. quiet. And we're just... awkwardly there, trying to reassure them on their recovery." Harry chuckles softly. "I know what you mean.." He responds. "Seeing everyone so 'ouuta shape is.. weird. But hey! Enough of this, I call a movie and Pizza. I dunno about you, but i'm starving." This causes me to smile. "Sure!" And with that, I focus on enjoying the time me and Harry will have alone; both our scheldues are busy, and surrounded by everyone. Though we were becoming more and more like family, it was nice to step back and take some time out for ourselves; and that was what we intended to do.