"Harry she just keeps getting worse, we have to see a doctor," Stevie tells me after two days on an endless road to nowhere. The roads began to all look exactly the same the further we drove, the nerves never ceasing to throb through my bloodstream.
"I know," I admit trying to think up a way to go in unseen. One mention of our names and the police would be all over us.
Everything becomes jumbled as I try my best to focus on the road. My blood runs but my muscles lock into place, almost as if someone froze every muscle in my body. I look over to Stevie in the passenger seat to notice her talking but nothing is coherent to me.
She knots her brows together in worry but everything presents itself in slow motion. "I can't-" my words are slurred making it hard to come up with something coherent to say.
"Harry!" Stevie screams but I lose my muscle control and fall limp in my seat watching tears stream down Stevie's soft face. Terror colors over her face as she grabs the unattended wheel, regaining control over the car that I had lost. "Harry, can you hear me?"
"I'm fine..." I mumble out but I know it's hard to understand with my speech slurred. I become unaware of my surroundings and feel myself fall numb to anything at all even though I know Stevie is touching my arm after stopping the car.
"I'm sor- rry you... you... you... ended up with... m... me,"
Stevie's POV
"Oh god! Harry!" I cry seeing the side of his face droop downwards as if gravity had gotten to him. It was like he was melting away. His eyes flicker in and out but his gaze remained constant on me as I fumbled around for our burner phone we had picked up.
I breathe heavily and erratically as a wait for the 911 call to go through, there was close to no service but Harry needed help and I needed no get him to a hospital as quickly as possible. My breath was crippled as my vision was blurry from the tears that ran profusely down my face, seeing Harry distorted like this disturbed me, I never wanted to see him like that.
"911 what is your emergency?" The operator answers causing my stomach to drop when I realized what I was putting at risk. I didn't care about any of it, all I cared about was Harry. He was the sole thing that I cared about and I wasn't about to let him slip through my fingertips.
"My boyfriend, I think he's having a stroke! Please, you have to help me, there's something wrong the side of his face is drooping and he can't talk," I spout off trying to get as much information as I could across. "Please, Please, Please help!"
"Miss I am going to need you to stay calm, what is your location?" The operator asks while my blood runs and my heart beats as if it were running a marathon. Everything about the way I was feeling was racing, I could barely catch my own breath.
"I don't know! We are somewhere in the desert... please hurry! Please!" I plead not bringing much help when it came to the direction in which we were in or headed. I knew for certain we were still in Texas but other than that I had no clue as to where we were.
"What road are you on?"
"I DON'T KNOW!" I scream afraid that the time was running out to save Harry. I couldn't imagine losing him like this, coming this far just to have him be taken from me. "OKAY? I DON"T KNOW WHERE I AM!"
At the sound of screaming, I wake up Kyla who is startled and begins to cry from the loud and distressing screaming I was doing.
"Just keep breathing okay miss? What is your name?" The operator backs off and asks while I push hair away from my face. The heat rising in my cheeks from being frustrated and scared beyond belief.
"Stevie," I say looking back to see Kyla's rosy red cheeks burn on her face. She was getting worse and worse and on top of her sickness now I had Harry passed out in the driver's seat.
"Okay Stevie I tracked your phone and I sent officers your way, just try to breathe alright? Is there anyone else in the car with you besides you and your boyfriend?" The operator asks in a calm tone that makes me feel a little more settled that I could talk to someone who knew what they were doing.
"My boyfriends baby is in the backseat," I would assume that is what he was hearing was Kyla's crying in the background.
"Is the baby okay? Is anyone else hurt besides your boyfriend?"
I was getting tired of all these questions but I knew it was only passing along knowledge for more help. "The baby is sick, I don't know how to help... I don't know how to help any of them. I just need them to be okay. I need him to be okay," I sob glancing back at Harry whose life was ultimately in danger.
"Harry, please be okay, please don't go," I sob squeezing his hand while the other one is holding onto the phone that I pressed against my ear. Was this the end of everything? Was this where the road ended for the both of us?
It felt like hours before the sirens roared in the distance. Lights flashing and causing my stomach to drop inside itself, I didn't think I would be hearing that sound ever. It blares in my ears as I step out of the car with Kyla cradled in my arms. The sickening heat strokes my skin as I hold the baby in my arms and begin to cry once again, pointing to the driver's side where Harry was breathing erratically.
"Please help him!" I cried as I watch them open up the door and lay his body on a yellow stretcher. I am escorted onto the ambulance with Kyla and huddled into the corner holding the baby close to me for more comfort on my end.
"Is he going to be okay?" I ask weakly not even sure if the paramedics could even hear me. They were talking among themselves and hooking Harry up to fluids and talking about medical things I didn't understand.
"We are going to do our best to make sure he is alright," One of the paramedics told me. My anxiety rushed through my bloodstream and let me feel on edge the entire ride to the hospital. Eventually, they took Kyla away from me to asses her heath which seemed to be depleting every day.
She was also given fluids and would be closely monitored under the doctor's supervision since she had a high fever that could otherwise be dangerous for a baby her age. Harry was also under supervision due to the stroke he underwent.
The sky was falling around me when I peeked into Harry's hospital room, his skin was pale and he looked rundown and exhausted. I lean against the window and hold back my tears by looking down at my feet instead of looking at Harry any longer.
The doctors had told me the stroke was caused by extremely high blood pressures due to stress. I had helped them come to the conclusion since I told them about the situation over the past few months, how it had taken a toll on him. The media was flooding the hospital entrances and exists just to get a glance of me and Harry.
I wasn't sure where my fate was going to lead me but I had to be prepared for the worst. Harry and I had been running from the world it felt like and now that I came to terms with that I had to come to terms with the consequences with that choice.
"So you must be her," The clicking of shoes echoes through the empty halls of the hospital. It was quiet around this time of the evening, most patients were sleeping and in no need of assistance.
"Who are you?" I ask as I look at a vaguely familiar looking woman with wispy long blonde hair. She was gorgeous piercing blue eyes that reminded me slightly of a serpent by the way she looked at me. Without saying it she almost told me to be intimidated with her eyes alone.
"Aw don't tell me you don't know who I am," She circles around me and I turn my gaze to look at her once again. She truly was stunning in appearance but for the life of me I couldn't figure out who she was.
"I'm sorry," I apologize not wholeheartedly caring much about the apology, I had other things weighing in on my mind and forgetting a strangers name wasn't one of them.
"Oh, sweetheart he couldn't have possibly not brought me up at some point. Not to mention I have been quite the star on the news recently," She winks flipping her long hair out of her face to look at me straight on.
"You're Layla," My mouth drops seeing her in person and I feel the heat radiate in my chest and legs.
"The one and only," She smiles slyly looking into Harry's room at the man that was stuck in a recovering body. I didn't know why she was here talking to me, what did she want from me. "Tell me, was he good in the sack?"
"Excuse me?" I give her a twisted look of confusion by her question, I didn't know what her question was accomplishing exactly.
"You heard me, I know you were fucking my husband but the truth is, Harry was just trying to fill a void. Whatever you think you had with him wasn't real, he's mine" Layla take a jab at the relationship between us and I would be lying if I said it didn't sting.
"I think you think you know him but you don't,"
"Ha! And you do? I think you enjoyed being me for a little too long and now that play time is over its time to let go. You are going to disappear and leave Harry and Kyla to me if you so much as step into Southern California I will press charges and both of you will have your asses hauled to jail," Layla smiles at my touching my shoulder, threatening me with her piercing words.
"Harry will never go for it, he ran away from you! What makes you think he will get back with you, to begin with?" I said glancing over at Harry who was still sleeping.
"Because if not his ass is going to jail, I think you have forgotten that Harry ran from the law. I'm not pressing charges as of right now but don't think I won't. Like I said the life you were living belongs to me. Harry and Kyla are mine, don't get it, confused sweetheart," Layla arched a brow causing my hands to ball up by my sides. Emotions were boiling but there wasn't anything I could do about this, she had control over the situation.
"Why do you want to be with someone that doesn't love you back?" I ask her arching my own brow hiding away most of my frustration and devastation. In one swift movement, I feel contact with my face, my head turns from the abrupt slap I received from Layla.
"I suggest you go and say your goodbyes while I am still feeling generous. Be careful what you tell him if he gets the idea to come after you... well you already know what will happen," Layla pats my shoulder and walks down the hall. The click of her heels brings a deep-rooted sense of dread, they make me internally sick.
I walk into the room and sit at the edge of his bed sighing deeply. The sinking feeling sets in the longer I look at his tired face and pale skin. I missed those lively emerald eyes, I was afraid I wouldn't ever see them again.
I rub his leg and wait for him to stir and peel his eyes open. I lay a hand over my mouth and close my eyes after watching his blank expression. I wasn't even sure if he was going to be able to comprehend what I was going to say.
"How are you feeling?" I ask him but he just grunts and stretches out. "Hey listen... umm we need to talk about something," I glance down because I am unable to look at him in the eyes while I lie.
"Harry, back when I found out about how you were running away from everyone and how you were wanted I should have looked back at the situation. I wasn't thinking straight and to be honest I used you. I used you to get out of the town. I knew we were never going to work, and I was selfish for stringing you along but it's time for me to leave," I say looking up with tears on my eyes to notice an expressionless Harry.
"It's my fault that I lead you on, but Harry I wish that I never ended up with you, to begin with," I refer back to what he had slurred to me in the car. Saying that sliced open my heart, I was barely breathing between my sobs but when I glanced at him again he gave me a look of confusion.
"Who are you again?" He asks.
N. Hey friends I am back! I know its been so long! BUUUUUT to make up for my absence I gave you a long ass chapter! Can you believe that there is maybe going to only 1 or 2 more chapters left? I feel like I need to prepare y'all for that! So pull out your tissue boxes if you haven't already! Also, what are your thoughts I do read your comments so let me know what you think and if you have any predictions!