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(Josh’s POV)
Harry, already flustered from Randy stealing his phone and rattling him, ‘real good’ as Randy said, stacked it and disappeared behind the golf carts with a heavy crash, a solid thunk, like something out of the old-timey cartoons they all used to watch as kids.
Everyone laughed, loud rambunctious laughter that warmed Josh’s soul, because all they could see was Harry’s foot in the air, resting on the bonnet of one of the golf carts, the rest of his body out of sight.
Though it was the lack of laughter from Harry, the lack of cussing, that eventually worried Josh; whenever Harry had hit the floor in the past, he’d laughed it off, or he’d screamed in mock-rage, or he’d simply cussed his stupidity and gotten right back up with cheeks as red as a tomato.
He was never silent.
He never stayed down.
In the twelve years Josh had known the man, never was Harry silent when he fell down.
‘Are you alright?’ Josh called, the first to stop laughing, wiping the tears of mirth from his eyes.
The others continued to howl with laughter.
Harry didn’t reply.
Josh clenched his hands on the wheel, worry pooling in his gut. ‘Are you okay?’
There was no reply from Harry.
Josh, fear sinking into his skin and latching on with jagged barbs, stood from the cart, Chris in sync on the other side, having stopped laughing too the moment Harry didn’t respond. ‘Are you alright, or have you hurt yourself?’ Josh asked.
And still there was no reply from Harry.
The laughter began to peter out, leaving behind a tense silence that cut through Josh’s sternum.
‘Oi, Harry,’ Freezy called, cackling to himself. ‘You beat Lux to another clip!’
‘I know!’ Lux yelled in mock-rage. ‘And he didn’t even have to try!’
When Harry still didn’t reply, Chris and Josh shared a worried look. They approached where Harry had fallen warily, and Josh’s heart dropped at the sight.
Harry lay motionless on the cart path, his knee twisted and his foot on the bonnet of another golf cart.
The scariest part, Josh thought, was that Harry’s eyes were closed.
Harry wasn’t moving.
‘Oh, fuck,’ Chris MD blurted out, rushing forward. Josh was hot on his heels, his heart beating out of his chest, like an escapee on the run from their captor.
Harry’s never still.
Harry’s never quiet.
Harry’s never… Harry’s never stayed down.
‘Harry,’ Josh called sharply, collapsing to his knees beside the lad, Chris mirroring his actions on Harry’s other side. ‘Harry, lad, can you hear me?’
Harry didn’t move. He didn’t so much as twitch.
‘Is he – oh my God,’ Seb exclaimed, his eyes going wide. ‘I’ll call an ambulance.’
In the distance, Freezy, Lux, AB and Randy went silent, all trace of laughter now gone, as if they sensed the seriousness to the situation.
In the silence that followed, Josh checked the rest of Harry’s body, his eyes raking up and down every inch of him: scratches painted the sides of Harry’s leg suspended in the air, scratches the beeded with blood, scratches that Josh knew would turn into painful bruising… but for the most part he was okay.
‘Harry?’ Josh tried again, a hand on Harry’s chest.
The Guernsey man let out a wretched groan, a sound that tugged on Josh’s heartstrings, but he didn’t wake. His body twitched, his muscles twitched, yet he also didn’t move.
‘You’re alright,’ Chris soothed, a hand on Harry’s shoulder. ‘Stay still, mate.’
Harry’s eyes fluttered open briefly, just for a second, before they rolled up into his skull with another wretched groan.
‘I know, I know,’ Chris said. ‘Just stay still.’
And horror burned Josh’s bones to dust when he looked down.
‘Chris,’ he said lowly, staring breathlessly down, barely able to compute what he was seeing.
Chris followed his gaze, and his face drained of all colour.
Because something was beginning to spread on the cart path beneath the back of Harry’s head. Something red.
Blood.
Lots of blood
Chris inhaled sharply, meeting Josh’s panicked gaze with one of his own. ‘Josh,’ was all he said.
Seb was already on the phone calling for help, rattling away information that Josh wouldn’t have even had a clue to mention, his voice loud and clear for all to hear.
‘Is he okay?’ Freezy asked from somewhere behind them. ‘Guys, what’s going on?’
‘His head’s bleeding,’ Josh announced shakily. ‘Get me a jumper. Now!’
Without hesitation Randy threw one over, and everyone crowded around.
Catching it without taking his eyes off Harry, Josh laid the jumper on his lap. Slowly, tenderly, Josh carded his hands through Harry’s hair, gently lifting his head, swallowing down bile at the way his hands immediately felt wet and warm and slippery with blood.
The amount of the stuff pooled on the cart path twisted Josh’s insides, and he feared he was going to hurl. It wouldn’t be long before the crimson rivulets made a lake, wouldn’t be long before it smothered Josh’s knees and seeped up and down his trousers.
But currently, Harry’s blood spread like a crack in an old glass pane.
Josh exhaled loudly, trying to calm himself down, trying to stop his hands from shaking lest it hurt Harry more than he already was.
‘It’s alright,’ Chris said. He reached over for the jumper when Josh couldn’t bring himself to let Harry go, balled it up into something that resembled a pillow and slipped it beneath Harry’s head. ‘There we go,’ Chris said. ‘You can lower him back down now. Slowly.’
Somehow, Chris’s voice steadied Josh’s hands and he lowered Harry’s head back down, easing him onto the jumper. He moved his hands then, quickly, to the jumper and put pressure on the wound, trying his best to ignore how red, red, red his hands were.
The lad groaned at the pressure, whimpering, his fingers twitching uselessly at his sides.
‘It’s alright, mate,’ Chris soothed for the second time. ‘We’re here. We’ve got you.’
Seeing Harry down and out of the count so easily was a big shock for everyone involved, Josh knew. Harry was never the butt of a joke, and he was never the one that needed medical attention. Not seriously, anyway. Not like this.
While Chris kept talking to Harry, a hand on his arm, Josh kept pressure on the jumper, kept an eye on the bleeding while they waited for the paramedics to arrive.
‘Harry, can you hear me?’ Josh asked again, loudly.
Harry moaned.
Then he vomited, choking on it, guttural sounds sending chills shooting down Josh’s spine.
‘Roll him,’ Josh ordered, and together himself and Chris managed to get Harry on his side, careful of his leg, careful of his head, letting him clear his airway, letting him vomit onto the cart path instead of himself.
‘Easy, easy,’ Josh murmured, keeping Harry steady. ‘You’re okay, Harry. You’re okay.’ He averted his eyes for a few seconds. ‘Seb?’ Josh asked, trying not to let his panic show to everyone who crowded round.
‘Paramedics are on their way,’ he said, phone still against his ear, his face as white as a sheet. ‘They won’t be long.’
Harry vomited again.
He whimpered.
‘That’s it,’ Chris said, rubbing his thumb in small circles on Harry’s side, a firm hand holding Harry’s waist. ‘That’s it.’
Harry shuddered, groaning.
‘Can you hear me?’ Josh tried again.
The lad muttered something intelligible, lost in the soft breeze that blew by.
‘Harry?’ Chris asked, sharing a worried look with Josh. The fear shining in his friends’ eyes did little to ease Josh’s worries.
‘J-J-J…’ the Guernsey man stuttered. His eyes were still closed, his body tensed in all the wrong places. ‘J-J-J…’
Josh’s heart broke at the sight, at the way Harry couldn’t get his words out.
This is bad.
This is really, really bad.
Tears filled Chris’s eyes, and Josh had to look away lest he started crying too.
‘We’re here, Harry,’ Josh said, his voice wobbling. ‘We’re looking after you, alright?’
In the background the others talked, noise which Josh blocked out, focusing solely on Harry and that fact that he couldn’t talk.
What if it’s permanent?
What if it’s something serious?
What if… what if Harry’s different after this?
‘J-J-J-J-J…,’ Harry stuttered out again, heaving painful breaths, before his body went rigid. His jaw clamped shut, and his body twisted, convulsing, his arms and legs moving uncontrollably without the rhyme and rhythm in which he usually moved.
‘He’s fitting!’ Josh yelled, his voice cracking. ‘He’s… he’s having a seizure!’
Chris and Josh struggled to keep him on his side, struggled to keep him steady while allowing him to move freely.
Lux and Freezy finally joined them, moving everything in the vicinity out of reach, and made the decision to remove his leg from the cart and reverse the vehicles out of the way to give them all space, to make sure Harry didn’t hurt himself even more.
‘Don’t hold him down,’ Seb called, his words broken and twisted. ‘By all means him keep him steady, but don’t restrain him.’
Josh didn’t have the heart in him to scold Seb for stating the obvious. Instead, he focused on Harry, on keeping the jumper pressed against the bleed on the back of his head. Chris hovered, fighting the urge to pin Harry down, his bottom lip bleeding where he’d obviously bitten it hard at some point.
Freezy and Lux loitered, ready to grab Harry should something go wrong.
The seizure ended as abruptly as it started.
Harry slumped down, curling in on himself, his body exhausted. He twitched. He twitched all over.
Chris was openly crying, yet he refused to leave Harry’s side, helping him into the recovery position upon Seb’s strict instruction, reciting out loud whatever was told to him on the other end of the phone.
‘Is he breathing?’ Seb called. ‘Can someone check if he’s breathing?’
Josh leaned down without hesitation and waited: Harry’s hot breaths hit his face. A little ragged, a little uneven, but he was breathing.
‘Yeah,’ Josh said, relief flickering in his veins. ‘Yeah, he’s breathing.’
‘Harry?’ Chris asked, just shy of a sob. ‘Harry, can you hear me?’
Harry groaned again, his eyes jittering beneath his eyelids, and he threw up again. The bright liquid stuck to the corner of his mouth, dribbling down the side of his neck like a vampire who had been caught mid-feed.
Lux, in a moment of tenderness, wordlessly wiped Harry’s mouth and neck with his sleeve.
‘You’re alright, Harry,’ Josh said, hoping Harry heard him. ‘You’ve had a seizure but you’re alright.’
Harry just laid there, on his side, not saying a word, lost to the world.
Freezy and Lux were stony faced, looking like they wanted to hurl.
AB and Randy stood well back, their faces ashen like chalk.
The crew were morbid and concerned, hovering while knowing there was nothing they could do without being in the way.
And Josh didn’t know what the fuck he was supposed to do, didn’t know how the fuck he was supposed to help.
Harry’s eyes continued to twitch beneath his eyelids. He flexed his hands. His muscles tensed and untensed nonstop.
The aftermath of a seizure, Josh told himself. It’s just the aftermath of a seizure.
Harry’s eyes opened for a moment, and when Josh peered closer, they appeared foggy, and to Josh’s alarm, one of his pupils was completely blown. There wasn’t even a hint of the usual blue hue that lived there. ‘J-J-J-J-J…’
Why can’t he talk?
Why the fuck can’t he talk?
‘He’s asking for you, mate,’ Chris croaked out to Josh, sniffling. ‘He wants you.’
Josh barely managed to hold back the sob that wriggled in his oesophagus. ‘How do you know?’
‘No one else’s name here begins with a J.’
Josh swallowed, realising the truth to Chris’s words, realising the bittersweetness to the reality he currently resided in.
His hands were red with Harry’s blood, as were his knees, his trousers, his fucking socks and yet –
What if he has brain damage?
That’s what happens when a pupil is blown, right?
It means his brain is actively bleeding.
Is that why he can’t talk?
Fuck, what if he’s got brain damage from this?
But he had to be there for him, for his little brother. Nothing would ever stop Josh from loving him. Absolutely nothing.
‘It’s okay, Harry,’ Josh soothed, stroking a lock of his bloodied hair, smoothing down the lines of Harry’s face with his thumb, making sure he was within Harry’s line of sight. ‘It’s me. It’s Josh. You’re okay. I’m right here. You’re okay.’
Josh couldn’t help the sense of relief that filled his heart when the sirens sounded, growing ever closer, though in the same breath, the sense of dread dancing along his fingertips grew even more foreboding.