"What are you looking at?" Niall asked as he came out onto the balcony to join you.
“You know how it’s like this time in the city. The bars close and a bunch of drunk, tipsy people are just roaming the streets. It’s quite amusing, actually.”
“Don’t you think we should both get to bed?” he proposed. You and Niall, being best friends and going to the same college, decided to share an apartment in the city just ten minutes away from the university you both went to.
“You can… I’ll just stay- oh my god.”
“What?” he asked anxiously.
“That girl just collapsed.”
“Girls do that all the time down here.”
“No, she’s in the street,” you told him, dashing to the front door.
You dreaded the elevator ride down, seeing as it would take you awhile to get from the twentieth floor down to the lobby to get to her.
There weren’t many cars out at this time of night, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any at all.
Niall slipped through the elevator door at the last second in his pajamas, holding a cup of tea in his hand.
When you got down to the first level, you ran out the door. The girl was still out cold in the middle of the street.
Niall tried to come with you as you came up to her, but you waved him off.
“I’ve got this,” you told him. You told him that a lot. And he knew he had to let you do whatever it was by yourself every time you said those words because you didn’t want help. Usually you didn’t need help.
“Ma’am,” you whispered, shaking her arm gently. “Please wake up because both my best friend and I have the upper body strength of a couple seagulls and I really don’t think we could carry you.”
She was fairly tall, an extra six inches added to her height taking in account the heels she had on. She was wearing a little black dress. It was tight and fairly revealing, and she matched it with a leather vest. She was probably about twenty five years old. She just looked like another girl that went to clubs every night and woke up with a killer hangover the next morning only to go back and do it again in a matter of hours.
Her false eyelashes fluttered open, and although it took time and patience to help her up, you did it.
“W-what happened?” she asked as you had her sit down on the nearest bench.
You turned around and gave Niall a thumbs up.
He was standing in front of the apartment’s front doors, waiting for you in his long, plaid pants and a white shirt with a few stains on it. He was sipping his tea through a straw, which you always thought was the oddest thing, because no one drinks tea through a straw.
“You passed out in, uh, in the street.”
Her eyes widened and she rubbed her temples, still slurring her words as she spoke.
“The street? Are you serious? And you helped me up and got me out of it?”
“Um… yes, I did.”
She suddenly stood up and hugged you, her blonde hair tickling your nose.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you, I am forever indebted to you,” she said as she pulled back. She was obviously still drunk, and her breath smelt of every alcoholic drink you knew of. “Well, I should really call a cab to get me home, but I really can’t thank you enough. God bless you.”
“Wow, thank you. Be safe, okay?”
She nodded before flinging out her phone and walking away.
You smiled and went to jog across the street, but you only took a few steps before a shooting pain hit you in your side like a car. And then you realized, it was a car.
The driver had stopped just as he hit you, and it was nice not being run over and all, but what wasn’t nice, was that whoever was behind the wheel committed a hit and run, and your whole left side was going numb.
Niall ran to you, dropping his cup onto the concrete and falling onto his knees in front of you, his breathing unsteady and panicky.
“Oh my god… oh my god. Someone call an ambulance!” he shouted, cupping your face in his hands.
“Ni, Niall… I’m fine.” You really couldn’t feel much of anything.
“No, no, this cannot be happening. Not you. Not here.”
“I’m not gonna die, Sweetie. I’ll just have a few bumps and bruises, that’s all.”
It occurred to you then that you had just been hit by a moving vehicle, and you were comforting him. You didn’t mind it, though. He was definitely more hurt than you were.
“I- I don’t…” he whispered, tears spilling out of his eyes.
And that’s when you started crying.
Now, you weren’t very in touch with your emotions. In fact, you were like a piece of ice. You were rock solid, but once someone warm and kind came along, you would slowly start to melt until you were a puddle. And so here you laid in a puddle of your own tears, although you weren’t scared or sad or hurting. But you knew that he was.
He stroked your hair, now done with his fit of sobs, but now you were hysterically balling, and he was the one comforting you for once.
Maybe you were scared. Maybe you were sad. Maybe you were hurting.
“Talk to me,” he whispered. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“I- I can’t feel my left side,” you responded. “I can’t feel my left shoulder or the left side of my waist, it’s all just numb.”
He hushed you and nodded, your face in his hands.
“Just… get my mind off of it, please,” you requested.
And that was when he kissed you. Your best friend kissed you. He leaned down and placed his left hand under your head, lifting it slightly and not stopping for awhile.
You didn’t want him to. It did get your mind off of what you couldn’t feel.
Soon the ambulance came, and you were taken into it; but Niall wasn’t allowed to come along. You realized that you couldn’t always be the tough one or the one who always took action. You couldn’t just… not feel. You had to let him take the lead on some things. You had to at least let him help. At the very least, let him in.