Perfectly Dysfunctional

My shoulder was painful; extremely painful. What the fuck? I must’ve slept on it weird. And what the hell was that beeping noise? That was pretty damn annoying, actually. I felt absolutely dead, I couldn’t move my body much, and my eyes just didn’t want to open. Then I heard voices and at first I was really confused; why was my dad in my room? He never talks to me. And who was with him? I listened in to the voices and soon realised that it wasn’t my dad; “Why didn’t you tell the police, then?”

“Come off it, Bird; how would that look? ‘Oh, I have a hunch...’ Please, like they’d buy it. Besides, it’s not important. All they could do is look for someone who we’ve got half a guess against, and even then, they have no evidence to arrest him, so what’s the point?” Nathan sounded tired.

“Sorry to be behind on this but I don’t remember…” Siva cut in.

“You must remember me telling you? You know me and Liam from One Direction went to the same school before I left for Sylvia's? Yeah, and I told you that this new guy came in like half way through the year, and he thought I spread a rumour and never really got over it?” There was silence, “Come on! Was never quite right up here- and I know you didn’t go to school with us, but I did speak about it a lot.”

“I was actually gonna say that I remembered,” Siva said. “Fuck, why now, though?”

“Probably still not over it,” Nathan said with such venom in his voice.

“Surely if you told her she’d help?” Tom whispered. I wracked my brain trying to remember why The Wanted would be in my room. I remembered the gig and I mentally grinned. I remembered meeting them! They’re gorgeous. I got my pictures then... Dave had to go home... Then what? I wracked my brain. This was fucking scary now.

“Ask her to help keep me alive?! Tom, she got shot because of me! He was aiming for me!” Nathan’s furious whisper sounded from right beside me and it all came back to me. I got my pictures then got shot in the shoulder, which would explain the pain there. I couldn’t breathe properly, and they owed me two t-shirts because Jay had to rip mine. I found it highly sad that I remembered that. And then I arrived at the conclusion that I was in hospital. Then I thought ‘fuck that, I’m dreaming’. And I stuck with that one. I mean, why else would I be hearing The Wanted right now, right?

I forced my eyes open and blinked a few times. Both natural and artificial light at the same time is rather painful. I groaned and moved my head, soon realising that I wasn’t dreaming, and that I was in fact in hospital. “Fuck.”

“Good morning,” Max said cheerily and I forced a smile then turned away.

“Ugh, I feel like shit.” I tried to move both of my hands to my face but cried out in pain when I moved my right hand.

“Yeah, I wouldn't move that arm for a while,” Nathan smiled.

“No shit, Sherlock,” But I smiled to show it was all good-natured. “So what happened?”

Ah, taboo topic. The atmosphere switched to uncomfortable, really quite quickly. “Someone shot you in the shoulder. We don’t know who it was, but you’re fine. You knocked yourself out last night cos you weren’t breathing right which made you have an anxiety attack and you had surgery last night when you came in at about half twelve, and you’ve been sleeping ever since. It’s one, now,” Max added and I smiled in thanks for lessening my effort. Something told me that ‘we don’t know who it was’ was a big fat lie, but I didn’t press it, because Nathan looked stressed and everyone else looked extremely uncomfortable about the whole situation. “Oh, and by the way, your phone was ringing off the hook from someone called Emma, so we ended up answering one of the calls. Literally, she called every ten seconds.”

I laughed, “Sounds like Emma- oh, God, who spoke to her?”

Jay raised his hand, “Guilty.”

“It had to be you,” I laughed, “What did she say?” I sobered a little, “Did you tell her I was in hospital?”

“Well she was all over the call before I even said hello; ‘Oh my God, how was The Wanted? Did you meet them? Tell me you met them! Did you get pictures? What did they say to you? Did you talk to Jay?’,” I laughed at his impression of her – it was pretty bang on. “That was when I spoke up. She seemed to take it pretty well...” he trailed off and I winced for her, “Well; she didn’t say anything for a while, so, yeah. Then she demanded to know why I had your phone and what I’d done with you, but I explained what happened. She freaked out, but I convinced her you were absolutely fine, and she made me promise to get you to call her when you get up, and she doesn’t care what time it is,” he added. He paused, awkward for a moment before continuing, “She told us not to call your father...”

“Good, she was right to. Although, I should probably call him to tell him I’m alive...”

He nodded, “Okay. We just weren’t sure about it, you can call him later, I guess.”

Something suddenly dawned on me, “Not that I don’t appreciate everything already, but why are you guys still here? Surely there are more important things to be doing?”

“Well, probably, but it’s not like we were gonna leave you to wake up on your own, is it?” Tom said.

“Yeah, but... still...” I felt like such an inconvenience in their lives right now, they were touring for God's sake! I mentally slapped myself; they were putting aside their lives at the moment to do something nice for me. “I'm sorry, I mean thank you, very much.”

A nurse entered the room as they were all muttering a ‘no problem’ to change the drip that was connected to my hand. It was only then I realised it was there and gagged as I looked down at it. “Not a needle fan, then?” she asked politely.

“Definitely not,” I said, still avoiding looking at my hand.

“Well, everything looks good. The police are waiting outside, they’d like a few words with all of you, and then after that when we get you your medication we can discharge you if you feel you’re ready to leave,” she smiled and then handed me my pain killers and a glass of water.

“That sounds great,” I breathed out. I really didn’t fancy being in hospital for much longer. She left to bring the police in and something just clicked in my mind that I was part of a crime. Cool. The police were in for about half an hour asking the six of us to tell our stories from last night, and who I had been with at the gig etcetera. I’d told them that I went alone but I met Dave inside, not knowing he was going to be there and that he came round the back with us. After they found out he left just before I was shot they asked for a description and I complied.

“There’s a picture of him on here,” Max said as I struggled to remember the colour of his eyes and exactly what he was wearing last night. I glanced at him as he handed over my camera before remembering I’d never got it back. Nathan whipped his head round and glared at Max before wiping his face clean of any expression and I frowned.

“Is there any way you can get us this picture on paper within the next day?” one of the officers asked and I nodded.

“I can print the picture out when I get home and hand it in,” He seemed to find that fine and they asked us a few more questions before thanking us and leaving.

“So Jenny,” The nurse said as she re-entered the room, “Ready to go?”

“Definitely.”