30. Tattered, bloodied, and bruised.

THIRTY

TATTERED, BLOODIED, AND brUISED.

HARLOW

I don’t wait on Lennon before pulling my heels off and rushing into the house. Pushing my way through the crowd that’s started to form inside the main hall, I make out a blur of movement until I finally get up close and take in the sight before me.

Shep is knocked out on the ground, with blood coming from his mouth and his forehead. Wes is trying to keep Beckett pinned down but is taking a beating of his own.

“Someone do something!” I yell, running towards the commotion.

“Harlow, don’t!” Wes shouts back at me and when he does, Beckett gets the upperhand and shoves him off.

Wes tries to scramble to his feet, but Beckett turns and kicks him in the ribs and then starts towards me.

“You!” At this point, most of the crowd has moved out of the way, but there are countless phones out, I assume recording everything.

“Beckett, please.” I raise my hands in defense. “There’s no need for all this. Why don’t you and I just go talk somewhere.”

Beckett draws his hand back and smacks me across the face. I buckle forward onto the floor, holding my cheek and hear Lennon scream in horror. He starts yelling down at me, “You did this! You lying, conniving?—”

Wham!

Beckett staggers to the side and I realize, at some point in the last minute, Wes has gotten back up and managed to sucker punch Beckett to the ground. Why is nobody else helping? I start to crawl towards Shep, when finally someone from the crowd pushes forward, grabbing Beckett by the arms and dragging him away.

Wes sinks back down and out of the corner of my eye I catch Lennon running over to him. I make it to Shep, kneeling beside him and picking up his head to pull it into my lap.

“Shep, come on. Wake up. It’s Harlow,” I stammer, fresh tears rolling down my cheeks. At this point, most of the crowd is clinging to the walls observing with shock and horror. I can hear sirens starting to approach and realize the multiple people on their phones are not just holding them and recording. Some must have called for help too.

Abandoning any walls or defenses I had, I do what I wanted so desperately to do earlier and run my hands through Shep’s hair. “It’s going to be okay. I’m here,” I whisper out as I meet Lennon’s gaze.

Her and Wes are sitting in the middle of the floor together, with her hand clutching his cheek. How did this happen?

The sound of shoes hitting the floor becomes loud and overwhelming as the police arrive and run into the building. The next few minutes are a blur, but thankfully the one memory that’s clear is the multiple hands pointing at Beckett and him being handcuffed before taken out of the room.

“Harlow, you need to let the EMTs step in,” a voice appears, hazy but familiar. “Harlow, it’s okay.”

I blink a few times and when my vision clears, I see Sheriff Fords squatting down in front of me. I glance down and realize I’ve been holding Shep against my chest. I look at Will again and he gives me a soft smile before touching the side of my hand. I nod and let my arms fall to my sides. Two medics kneel down to move and start to treat him.

“Can you come with me?” Will says again and offers his hand to me. I look at it, feeling like a caged animal in the moment. Most of the people have been cleared from the house, unbeknownst to me. I glance past Will and see Wes is also being treated by a medic, Lennon still by his side.

“O-okay,” I mumble. Placing my hand in Will’s, he gently pulls me to my feet and then grabs a blanket from another officer, wrapping it around me.

We take a few steps towards the stairs and he helps me sit down. The officer from earlier walks over and Will says something to him, before leaving me and walking back over to check on his son. I think I’m in shock. Nothing feels real.

I gaze down at my soft yellow dress that’s now stained with splotches of red. I don’t know how much time passes before Will walks back over to me, looking distressed and upset. I meet his gaze and notice he also looks like he’s been crying.

“Is he going to be okay?”

The worry that consumes me in the short amount of time during the drive from the Chi Kappa house to Everson Memorial Hospital is likely record-breaking.

Once the EMTs finished their evaluation of me and realized all I had was a small bruise, they let me go. Lennon and I rode together to the hospital and in that brief period, many earth shattering things occurred.

The first being, my parents were called and would be meeting us there. This resulted in a string of texts from not just them, but Margot as well, asking me questions that I didn’t have answers for.

Then, Coach Bradford sent me an unofficial email that he was aware of the circumstances surrounding my injury and while he still wanted to speak with me in person, I was no longer required to do my practices at the rec center.

Shortly after his email, came a text from Pierce. It was at that moment, life as I knew it ceased to exist. “I saw that Beckett is the reason you’re injured. I’m sorry.”

Two words: I saw .

It didn’t take long after arriving at the hospital and speaking to Shep’s dad again to figure out there was a recording that had been made of the footage from the night of my injury. The realization that said recording was made by Shep came as no surprise, but how he came to find it? That’s still unanswered.

Lennon and I are both sitting in the waiting room with the Fords, enveloped by an uncomfortable silence while we wait to hear more. Wes is about to be released from triage, but Shep was admitted because he clearly suffered some sort of head trauma during the fight with Beckett. The EMTs informed us Shep did regain consciousness in the ambulance and I wish I could’ve been there when he did.

I know I didn’t do anything wrong, but I can’t help feeling like this is all my fault. Whatever caused the fight to break out between Shep and Beckett, I’ve no doubt I was the reason.

“Harlow, you have to see this,” Lennon whispers quietly, before nestling up against me. She opens her phone up and starts to play a video of the fight. It’s clear that Shep tried to diffuse the situation and then Beckett blindsided him.

“Put it away, please. I can’t. I caused all of this.” I bury my face in my palms and Lennon rubs a hand on my back.

“No you didn’t. Don’t say that. Harlow, nobody could’ve known Beckett would react that way,” Lennon offers.

“But I knew! I’ve known!” I choke out. “He has anger issues and I’ve just let it slide and kept my mouth shut about it this entire time because I was too weak to tell anyone.” The words come out broken as I start to sob again.

“Okay, Lennon. I think I’ll take it from here. Harlow, sweet girl, let’s go for a walk?” I peer up and Laura Fords, the woman and angel herself, holds a tissue out for me.

“Do we have to?” I huff.

“Yes, we have to. Let’s go before your parents get here,” she whispers.

My stomach drops and I want to collapse onto the floor when a doctor appears and interrupts us.

“Shepherd is settled, and he’s asking for Harlow? Is she family?”

My heart thrums with hope and I clammer up to stand next to Laura who laughs.

“Not yet,” is all she says before looking at me again. “Let’s go check on him, but then we really need to talk to you before your parents arrive, okay?”

“Okay,” I rush out before following her and the doctor. Will joins us and we make our way to the room.

My hands begin to sweat and I realize I don’t know if I can face Shep. I’m still in my dress from formal and I’m worried about what he’s going to say when he sees me, tattered, bloodied, and bruised.

We turn the corner and the doctor opens the door to Shep’s room. All my worries melt away when he looks past his parents at me and weakly says, “There’s my girl.”