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14. Attention

14. Attention

"Well this is downright adorable," Mitch's voice said, followed by a bunch of whispered cursing and hushing. Scott kept his eyes shut, pretending to stay asleep.

The arm around him tightened a bit, and he felt the chest below his cheek shake as Harry chuckled. "Piss off," Harry whispered, running a hand through Scott's hair, a ghost of a touch.

"We're gonna be driving overnight. They say that we should all get back to the buses we plan to sleep in," Matt whispered. Scott found it odd that he had worded it this way, instead of, "our own buses".

The arm tightened around him again and he wanted to beg it not to let him go.

"Mind if I stay? I'm afraid that if I wake him, he won't get back to sleep," Harry whispered, and Scott hoped that he couldn't feel his pulse quicken.

There were hushed words of agreement, before Mitch's voice cut through it all. "If you two do anything gross in the bunk above mine, I'm cutting both of your parts off."

"Wow. Noted," Harry replied. "Can someone text Louis and tell him I won't be back? I can't reach my phone."

Scott listened as everyone shuffled away, getting ready for bed, before retreating to the back of the bus, not ready to sleep yet.

He had no idea what time it was. He felt bad that Harry was probably bored out of his mind, unable to sleep this much.

So once it sounded like the bus was moving again, and once the commotion of his friends had finished, he pretended that he had just begun to wake. The arm wrapped around him tightened again, rubbing his back, lightly.

"Shit, I'm sorry," Scott whispered, and moved to shift out of his grasp. His back protested, and he hissed in pain, clenching his eyes shut.

"First of all, please don't paralyze yourself trying to get away from me. That's rude and it hurts my feelings," Harry teased, though his concerned tone made it lose its humor. Harry shifted to his left side, hovering on one elbow as he stared at him for a moment. "And second of all, do you have plans yet to get this looked at?"

Scott opened his eyes to find another unreadable look on Harry's face. He shook his head. "It's nothing to have looked at. I have scoliosis."

"You were pushed off of a boat and landed on your back, then pulled further below the surface by an obnoxious sea creature named Louis."

"Which was only an issue because I have scoliosis," Scott reasoned, and shifted to lay entirely on his stomach, groaning as he buried his face in his pillow. "How long was I asleep?" He asked, his voice muffled.

"Well, I fell asleep, too. But It's 9:30. So we've been out for like... five hours."

Scott's hand formed a thumbs up, as his head remained buried in the pillow.

"Seriously, you alright?" Harry asked. Scott didn't miss the joking tone being dropped with the question.

"Mhm," he replied, almost inaudibly. Was he okay? His spine screamed in a manner that suggested otherwise. Spending hours being cramped on a bunk in a tour bus with someone almost equally as tall as he was probably wasn't the greatest idea.

And somehow, he was still very tired.

"May I?" Harry asked, leaning forward to speak softly into his ear as his hand rested lightly on Scott's back, right between his shoulder blades.

"May you what? Rip out my spinal column? Go for it," Scott replied, trying to ignore the goosebumps that had formed when Harry's breath hit his ear.