Now Liam finally really showed his frustration with what was happening around him, he was no longer capable of being strong and supportive for anyone, not even his rejecting girlfriend. He broke down on the chair and hid his face in his hands.


“How?” he mumbled after a few minutes where the rest of us had just been staring at him knowing exactly how he felt.

Em took another few seconds before she just answered: “It hurt.”


His hands were now turning white from pinching them together tightly for so long.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to elaborate anymore,” Officer Green said. “We’ve taken a few tests and samples from around your body and mouth to see if there was any DNA to find, we’re still waiting for the results. But you said you bit his tongue when he tried to kiss you. Do you remember whose blood was that you tasted? His from you bit him or you from when you hit your head?”

Em shook his head. “I have no idea.”

“Okay, do you know anything about how long it took before they left you in that alley?”

“Very long. It felt like that,” she cried. “They were both…”

She stopped once again struggling so much with finding some way to finish that sentence. The waiting made it all so much worse for all of us.

“I think they were affected by… something, alcohol or drugs… cause it took them… a while…”

“You don’t have to finish,” the woman said as both Em and the rest of us were struggling with the words that we knew were coming, they would simply tear all of us apart just thinking about the scene itself in our minds.



Officer Green and the man, Ashton Wood, stayed for a few more minutes asking a few more questions about the guys’ looks before leaving with the message that a psychologist would come see her within the next hour.

Poor Em still wasn’t capable of letting any male figure getting any close to her and it was easy to tell how sad and upset she was feeling about it as she just kept staring at her boyfriends’ miserable and unmanageable situation when he just sat on his chair not being able of letting her out of sight at any point, probably feeling so scared from now on that someone would ever touch her beautiful and innocent soul.


When the psychologist arrived she told us to go outside as she would have a chat with Em alone, and so we went down to a café to have something to eat, even though I personally just ended up poking at my omelet without a chance of getting anything in to my system.


“I know it sounds weird…” I mumbled and this way broke the silence that seemed never ending, “but how was Fabric? Is it a great club?”

“Not for us, I think,” Aida said sipping at a cup of coffee. “Very… hardcore. Both the music and the atmosphere, you know.”

I nodded. “You look pretty though,” I added in a desperate attempt to lighten the mood just a tiny bit, but it was also true – Aida did look rather fabulous despite the fact that she hadn’t gotten any sleep the entire night; She was wearing a dark navy blue t-shirt with a lighter blue owl on it tugged in to an army green high waisted skirt along with some strappy blue sandals that only made her legs seem even longer.

Despite having a thousand other and definitely more important things to think about I couldn’t help but feel quite underdressed and ugly next to her in my oversize denim shirt, black skinny jeans, my brown leather watch, some black leather boots and my slightly greasy hair in a tall ponytail. Physically it felt very comfortable, not mentally, so to speak.


Liam didn’t say a word for that half an hour we spent at the café, he just sat staring out in the air and at some point I heard myself say: “Liam, come with me outside for a second.”

At first he looked at me a bit confused as I stood up and started pulling him outside in the cold where I sat us both down on the nearest bench.


“Have a cigarette,” I said handing him one of my Marlboro Lights as I lid one up myself.

“No thank you, I don’t smoke…” he began but I kept on pushing him.

“I insist, it helps,” I said and he actually did as I said.

“It’ll calm you down a bit,” I elaborated. “You’ll have to inhale.”


He did as I instructed him and just ended up coughing terribly.

“Keep on going, it’s going to help, I promise,” I said. “Just don’t ever get used to it.”

“Why are you doing this?” he asked looking up at me.

“Because you’ve started to scare the hell out of me,” I said honestly but it didn’t actually seem to get to him as he just snorted looking in the other direction and so I added: “And Em as well.”

The second I said her name he did as I expected; staring at me with wide eyes to listen to what I had to say about her.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“I know this is tough on you, on all of us. What happened last night was… the most horrifying and… unfair thing that could ever happen to someone as nice as her…”

He glanced down at the cigarette and took another puff of it.

“But you really have to believe that everything’s going to be okay. Liam, look at me!” I said raising my voice since I could tell that he was about to do that snorting again. Now it was his turn to be a bit scared as he stared at my tired, but hopefully also persistent eyes.

“Everything’s going to be okay. Em’s going to be fine. And do you know why? Because she has to be fine.”


It took him a few minutes to take in what I had just commanded at him. But then he mumbled with a small nod: “I know. I know. I just… Don’t know what to do.”

The tears started building up in his eyes again and I placed my hand on his back hoping that it would comfort him just the tiniest bit.

“You have to be strong for her. We all have. Even though I know it must be even more difficult for you than the rest of us…”

“She won’t even touch me!” he suddenly exclaimed bursting completely in to the tears that had been pressing for a while now. “She thinks I will do her harm! It kills me that she could ever think that way about me. It kills me that those guys made her think that way, I feel so sad on her behalf, all I want is for her to be happy and right now I honestly haven’t got the slightest idea of how I’m going to help her in any way. I mean… I just… I love her.”


That made even my arrogant and wise mouth shut up. For good. My hand on his back stopped moving around and I just sat staring at him.


“What… Have…” I stumbled and really had to do my very best to overcome my own awkward behavior to talk properly. “Uhm… Have you told her?”

He shook his head. “No. And now I don’t know how she will react, but all those things that have happened through the night just really made me realize that… that I simply just… love Em.”

“Wow, Liam,” I gushed and couldn’t help a smile from forming on my lips.



Half an hour later we were sitting out on some chairs in the hall outside Em’s room waiting for the session with the psychologist to be over. None of us were saying much yet but it was easy to tell that the mood around all of us had lightened up just a bit, the thought of our girl talking to a professional that would help her in the best possible way calmed us down a bit, even Liam who had seemed just a tad more relaxed after our conversation down outside the café, but he was still looking incredibly concerned, exhausted and sad as he rubbed his hands against each other anxious for seeing his girlfriend again.


And about twenty long minutes later he got his will as we were finally let in the room, but this time he made sure that he didn’t touch her and kept a certain distance between him and the bed that she was lying in.


“Hello sweetie,” Aida said and walked over to give her a peck on the cheek. “Everything all right?”

“Better,” she said and I had to pinch my arm when I saw a very vague, but also definite, smile on her dry pale lips.


And that smile seemed to have the same effect on everybody in the room as on me, it was like the atmosphere had completely changed; it was now no longer only depressed, sad and anxious but also… hopeful. I think we all saw the possibility that Em would somehow get better, maybe find a way to process what had happened in a constructive way that wouldn’t become destructive to our dear friend in any way.

And most important: That she would soon be able to build up a healthy and safe relationship with the boy sitting right next to her that wouldn’t leave her for anything.


And so it didn’t take long for the first ones to finally get some rest and fall asleep at the sofa, Harry and Niall were looking so cute as they lay closely snuggled together in the small sofa and when Niall started snoring slightly, even Liam couldn’t keep himself from chuckling quietly.


“He always does that…” I told them smiling as well. “Just like me.”

“Can imagine how cute a couple you two make,” Aida teased.

God, it felt so relieving to hear the first joke, to think the first light thought and saying it out loud for the first time in what seemed like forever.


Eleanor and Louis had gone home to sleep, but would get back to be there during the night, when Aida and I would have to leave because of work early the next morning.

I fell asleep resting my head against the edge of the bed right next to Liam who had, probably against his will, done the same. Despite the very uncomfortable position that we were in, none of us stayed awake for more than a few seconds, but instead we drifted off in to a rather deep sleep.


I was quickly woken up by a female doctor who asked us all to leave the room once again as she would have to do all sorts of tests on Em to find out if her the lack of oxygen had done any damage on her brain activity in any way.


And so we she was driven to another room in another hall and didn’t come back for another two hours which the rest of us spent with sleeping, this time snuggled up in a ball on the floor with Niall’s jacket over me.


When she finally came back we were all surprised to see her walking.


“You should see your faces,” she said as she sat back down on the bed. “I’m not physically bruised guys. Or at least not that bad…”


Aida and I sat down on the bed as well chatting with her, since we were the only females that wouldn’t make her feel too uncomfortable. She told us about the great results from some of the tests that showed absolutely no signs of damage, but they weren’t finished with it all yet, there were apparently an awful lot to do still.


“Guys?” she suddenly asked all of us. “Can I… talk… to Liam… alone for a bit? I’m sorry that you have to sit around waiting all the time…”

“Sure!” Harry exclaimed jumping up from the sofa along with Niall and Zayn and they immediately walked towards the door so fast that Aida and I quite got surprised and got out of Em’s bed.


On our way out I quickly took at glance at Liam who looked… I’m not sure what was going through his head, but as far as I could tell he was calm and a bit relieved.


“You can…” Em then began before we closed the door. “Just go out and… do something… for a little while.”

The two of us couldn’t help but chuckle at her cute face expression when she asked us that question.

“As you wish,” Aida said as she slowly closed the door behind us before turning towards the rest. “Boys, do you want to go for a walk in a park or something? They needed some privacy.”

“Of course,” Zayn said.



And so we went out to the cars, we decided to snuggle up in only one, to make it easier to find a place to park in the overfilled city of London.


We found a street market that sold various different things, such as food, flowers and vintage clothing. I actually ended up buying a pair of Cheap Monday worn out denim jeans, a sweater and some jewelry. Niall and Harry got themselves a huge sandwich each, while Aida and Zayn were gushing over some old comic books.


It felt really nice to be doing something as normal as this; Just hanging out with some friends knowing that the friend that we’d been so concerned about for the last many hours was now feeling safe and secure with the other friend that had kept our minds occupied as well.

Em and Liam were hopefully both enjoying just the two of them for just a little while during this difficult time.


“Hey, let’s buy her some of these!” Niall exclaimed when we got to a small booth that sold some cute and delicious looking cupcakes. “And then we can taste one as well.”

He made all of us laugh since we all knew that this wasn’t a joke – the boy was dead serious.

“All right,” Zayn smiled.

“And flowers,” Aida added.


Of course Niall had finished his two cakes in the matter of a second, when I was still about to bite in to mine.

“Smile,” he suddenly said as I had just bit down in it which almost made me choke on the cake that I had in my mouth.

“Niall, wha a u doi?!” I exclaimed trying to prevent all the crumps to jump out of my mouth.

“Instagram,” he smiled down at his iPhone. “Hanging with ma boo…” he then quoted as he typed it in on his profile.

“Classy,” I mumbled before getting a peck on my cheek from him as he smiled cheekily at me.


“Is that a good idea?” Harry suddenly asked him with a concerned expression.

I glanced surprised over at Zayn who had the exact same concern written all over his face.

Notes

Another update, as promised! Please leave a comment or a vote for me! <3