For My Sake

Harry showed up at the hospital half hour after Louis and Rue arrived. He had balloons and flowers. Rue gave him a look, furrowed brows, a grimacing lip. He was still quite a distance away. If looks could kill, he would have keeled over then and there. “Rue, I told him she was sick…” Louis whispered lacing his fingers with hers.
“Sick?” she repeated in disgust. “She isn’t sick” When he approached them, and saw Rue’s tomato red eyes and tear stained face he looked to Louis for answers. “Well Louis, tell him, tell Harry why we are here”
Louis looked scared, frightened for Harry’s reaction, he himself was struggling to keep the tears at bay. He knew someone had to be strong and if Rue was a mess and Harry a usual cry baby, he knew he had to take the torch of strength and bravery. So he pulled Harry aside, walking with him outside and looking around before looking at his friend. “Harry sit on the bench” he pointed to a black bench that sat near a tree that lost all its vitality. The soundtrack to Atlantic City, engines, cars, sirens, all in the backdrop as Harry took a seat and looked at Louis with puzzlement. “What happened to her Lou”
Louis rubbed his temples, how would he tell Mr. Sensitive that Amaryllis was shot, not once, but twice and as they spoke, she laid on a slab in emergency surgery. “She’s hurt okay?” the words fell flat to the ground, and Harry lifted them as he jolted up from the bench.
“Hurt?!” his eyes went abnormally wide. “Hurt how…what happened to her? Is she okay?” Perplexed. Blank. Panic. Blank. Panic. Perplex. Hurt….why was he feeling hurt, he barely knew her, but when he talked with her, he longed for her. Panic that someone, or something was threatening to take it away before something wonderful and beautiful happened. “Louis what happened to her?” he vindicated with a whisper alone.
Louis scratched the scruff that was growing on his face, he always found he did this when he was nervous. “She was shot, twice. Rue called emergency for her as best she could, time wise. Last thing we heard was that her blood loss was some ridiculous rate. And you’d think someone saw something but no, no one saw a thing, either that or they didn’t come forth. Police are doing what they can too”
“Stop rambling” Harry, surprisingly, wasn’t in tears, his voice was normal. Deep and husky, yet rich. “Do you know where she was shot?”
“You’re taking this rather lightly” he noted.
“No, I just refuse to believe some random act of violence is going to take her so abruptly” he made his way back into the hospital, Louis watched as the doors closed behind Harry and he then walked over to the bench. He untied the silver balloons from their weight and let them go into the night sky. The two balloons separated, one with strokes of pink and lavender flying west while the silver and gold one going straight up. He smiled small, content with himself as they became small specs of color, bringing life and enthusiasm to the dull night sky. As he made his way inside, he took note of all the people that sat in the waiting rooms, the first one had a man crouched in the corner with bulging red eyes and balled fists. The second had two families with rosaries and bibles. They were praying and crying and one of the women began singing is Spanish. By the time he made his way to Rue, just as expected, Harry had been in tears, and he wasn’t afraid to let them fall. “I guess I do care a lot huh” he wiped his eyes looking at Louis. Rue sat beside him, rubbing his back, her small hands making circular movements as she herself sobbed like a baby. All the tears around him made it tough for Louis to stay strong, he wondered how in the hell he and Harry grew to care about these girls in a week. Most of all, how did Harry become attached to someone who left him to be a silhouette in her life, a mere outline with no inputs. She had been mean, sarcastic and rude, but he fought for her attention. Still…

Another hour went by, then two, and finally three before a man in green scrubs approached them. He had blood spots on his shirt, Harry knew it belonged to her. Rue stood, taller than the surgeon but shaking like a leaf in autumn, her knees threatened to give in, her hand squeezing Louis’ tightly. “Please tell us she’s okay” Rue pleaded. Louis saw Rue’s parents approaching in the distance.
“Yeah…is she okay?” Harry had a hand in his hair, his eyes closed with a silent prayer that consisted of pleading and begging to the higher power.
“Doc please tell us something we can hold onto” Rue squeezed Louis’ hand harder.
The doctor sighed. “She is in ICU, we removed the bullets. She was hit once in the shoulder and another in the face.” The face, Harry thought. He couldn’t imagine what she looked like, how someone could damage something so beautiful, and leave her for dead, because surely a shot in the face wasn’t just for shits and giggles. “She should wake soon, but her face is bandaged”
Rue’s parents were by their side now. Her mother, a woman just like her but with silver grey hair cocked her hips. “And I suppose she’s going to be wretched for the rest of her life because some asshole wanted to pull a trigger” she was a fierce woman, outspoken and blunt.
“We wont know until she heals for sure, within the next month we can see how it affected her face and work from there”
“There are surgeries” she responded. “Cosmetic surgeries” she looked at Rue, then at her husband. A CEO for a hunting company, they had good money, money to help her look like her. “We can pay”
“Right now I think we just need to focus on her healing” Harry said with a defeated tone.
_______________________________

He could see where the bullet had gone in, and the one on her face where it got her. Right side of her face, close to the corner of her lip, he imagined her smile line fading within the soon to be scar. Her brown hair that was always in a braid was out in chestnut waves, those hypnotizing hazel eyes shut and framed by long lashes. Her face bare of makeup, a dry caking of blood on the left side of her lip. Her tan skin warm with the temperature of life, her lips still a enticing shade of rose. He stayed the night, sleeping on the chair that was beside the bed. Rue and Louis went back to the Chambers household, and said they’d return the next day. So he did what he could to occupy himself, he played Temple Run, watched television, checked Face Book and twitter. He even took a book from one of the waiting rooms and read half of it before finally catching four hours of sleep. He awoke with the sun and a friendly nurse who was there to replace the bandages and put antiseptic on the wounds.
Watching her was almost calming, she moved with ease, confidence and spoke to him about his night minus the shooting. She kept him updated about the case, the police were there with the doctor, and then she revealed the damage done to Amaryllis’ face. He felt his body tense in disbelief. It wasn’t terrible, not too bloody, no gore, but it wasn’t pleasant. Whoever did this to her got her right near her lip and the stitches gave her as rag doll look. The corner of her mouth turned downward with the direction of the stitching that kept that side of her face intact.
“Its unpleasant, I know” the nurse cleaned up her face and looked at him as he laid his head on the bed space beside her hand. “I wont be much longer”
“she’s still beautiful” he responded tracing squiggly lines and shapes and words into her hand. “I don’t care about that stuff”
The nurse smiled at him. “that’s sweet…you’re her boyfriend?”
“No” he said softly. “But I will be one day, mark my word” he told her matter o factly.
“I don’t doubt it, any girl would be flattered to find someone waiting for them when they wake” she applied new bandages and sighed. “I’ll bring you some oatmeal okay?”
“Thank you” he smiled at her and stood, stretching. When she returned with the food, he hadn’t realized how hungry he was. “And a banana?”
“And a banana” she handed him the tray with oatmeal, fruit and orange juice. He sat in the chair, devouring the tray of food in front of him and downing it all with the OJ. By noon, Rue and Louis arrived and Harry went to Rues home for a shower. He returned in less than an hour. “You two can go” he told them
“I cant leave her” Rue responded, brushing Amaryllis’ hair with a paddle brush.
“Rue, we came here from across the pond for you girls…Louis wants to get to know you, not memorize what the hospital room looks like”
“Good Point” Louis chimed playing with his phone. “Though, I don’t want to sound like a insensitive bloke, so we can stay”
Rue sucked her teeth and looked at Louis. “We can get lunch, but then we come back immediately”
“Sounds like a plan” he stood and hugged Harry before following Rue. Once again, Harry was alone. So he began to talk to her. He felt odd doing so, but if she could hear what was going on around her like everyone said then he was okay with testing the theory. He spoke for two hours straight, loosing himself in time and not caring that he found himself alone again. By dinner time, the same nurse bought him a tray of turkey and mashed potatoes with vegetables and a coca cola. Another tray devoured.
He fell asleep at twelve, her small hand covered completely with his.