Take My Hand

Chapter 12: The Boy's POV, Calix

Back in the waiting room, Leo put his hands on either side of his head and sank down to the ground. He was freaking out about the whole situation, we all were. I couldn’t stop seeing the look on Rae’s face when I took her hand and she screamed. It was horrifying. I had felt my heart stop.

Even worse than knowing that something was wrong with her hand was not knowing what had caused it. We were all desperate to know why she was sobbing, and I think we were all secretly concerned that we were the cause of it. It didn’t escape any of us that we had just been announced on the telly two nights ago, and today she was back at school. But we couldn’t think of anything we had done that would have cause a problem.

I looked around the waiting room at the other people there. I watched a mother and daughter come in through the doors and walk up to the desk. They both looked panicked, the daughter was looking around the room for someone. Her eyes fell on me and went wide. She turned back to her mum who was beginning to walk away with a nurse and said something. Her mum nodded, not totally hearing the girl.

She whipped around to look back at me and the four other lads as if to be certain of something then began to come towards us.

“Mates?” I said, snapping their attention up as the young girl marched right up.

“What did you do to her?” The girl asked.

“Sorry?” Wes asked, looking at the girl in confusion.

Declan and I looked at each other.

“What happened to Rae?” the girl asked. She pointed at Leo. “She hangs out with you a lot. WHAT HAPPENED.”

Leo looked like he was going to cry. “I have no idea.” He said pathetically. 

Lucas stepped in. “How about you tell us who you are instead of yelling at us. We didn’t DO anything.”

“I’m Rae’s sister,” the girl replied. She couldn’t be more than 15 years old but had more authority in her voice than you would imagine in someone that young. “And I’m yelling because I would have loved to meet you boys in a totally different situation!”

Lucas couldn’t help it, his anger vanished and he giggled. “Well, nice to meet you…”

“Heather.”

“Heather,” he repeated, extending his hand towards her. She shook it, a look of strangled enjoyment on her face. “We’re not sure what is going on with Rae.” He continued. “I picked her up from school today, and she was just sobbing. She didn’t say anything. So I brought her to the lads, hoping she would talk to us, but she didn’t, she just kept crying. Then Calix took her hand, and she screamed.”

Heather whipped around to look at me. “What did you do?” she glared at me.

“I don’t know. I just took her hand trying to comfort her and she screamed. The nurse said it might be broken or something.”

Heather was still glaring at me. “Dammit, that’s a lot harder than I thought it would be.”

I looked back at her, confused. 

“I’m trying to look angry at you, but I can’t keep that expression on my face, you’re just too perfect. I don’t think anyone can ever be mad at you.”

I tried not to smile. “How about you stop trying to be mad at the lot of us? We don’t know any more than you do at this point, we’re all just really concerned about her.”