butterfly// 5SOS

21

Michael

"Goodmorning," Ash said, swinging his arm round my shoulder, "Can I steal Elijah tonight?"

"For what?"

"Pizza and a movie at my place,"

"Of course, he'll love that,"

"How is he holding up?"

"I think he's a lot less achey. Though, all he has done is sit and do school work, or lay and watch tv,"

"That's what he needs," he chuckled, "I'll pick him up at five?"

"I might take Crystal out for a meal then,"

"Any new kids yet?"

"Not right now. We've not heard much from Jasper either. It's weird how they just leave. The littlens, well they were babies so they had no way to contact us... but Jasper? He promised us,"

"Maybe he's shut it all off for a bit. The social workers would be involved if something was wrong,"

"You'd hope," I mumbled.

"It'll be okay, I promise. You've still got Elijah who needs all your attention right now anyway,"

We separated and I did rounds, then got my page and wrote up some notes in the meantime. I jumped when it went off, along with several others, because it had been so quiet, but we all rushed down to the ER.

I went behind one curtain, no one else seeming to join, so I shut it and gave the young boy a smile.

"What's your name?"

"Cole,"

His eye was black and bruised, his knuckles red and bloody. I put on gloves and shone a light in his eyes, which were pretty dilated; the red mark on his head telling me he'd been hit.

"What happened here then?"

"A fight,"

"A fight, huh? Do you have a headache?"

"Yeah,"

"Have you been sick?"

"No,"

"Mkay. I think you have minor concussion, so take it easy. You can lay back if you want,"

"Is the other person here too?"

"There were four others," he mumbled.

"Four? Damn. Violence is really not the way to go, you know? You should talk things out first,"

He hissed as I wiped his knuckles clean, then I grabbed ice and gave it to him to hold it to his eye.

"Clifford, can we have assistance?"

"I'll be back in a moment, keep that on your eye,"

He nodded and I left, heading down the hall to another curtain, where another boy was quietly sobbing.

"Hey, bud. Take some deep breaths," I said, swapping my gloves and dabbing a tissue under his eyes, "I'm Dr Clifford, what's your name?"

"Mattie,"

Mattie... Cole... five boys.

The ones that beat Elijah up.

And they'd all fallen out.

"What happened?"

"We all beat each other up because our group fell apart after we beat someone else up and I've not slept, and I feel sick. They said I would get money and I got not money, and I need money to help buy our shopping because mum pretends we have money to give to other people, and we don't. I never wanted to beat anyone up, I didn't want to be their friends and they called me a coward and we fought. I ruined my life, I'm scared,"