Too Far Gone?

wounded

Chapter 9

Daniel's POV

"Call Axel," is the last thing she says before her eyes close shut. I shake her gently, calling her name. Jane walks back over and says Cameron is on his way with the van. I tell her to grab Temp's phone, call Axel, and tell him to bring supplies. She walks away again to call Axel and I hear the van pull up.

Cameron jogs over and starts questioning what happened. "She got shot Cam. We just have to stay calm and get her home so we can fix her up. I'll do what I can in the van, but we have to hurry," I state too stressed to feed into his worry. "Now help me carry her to the van."

We get her to the van as safely as possible and Cam speeds his way to her apartment. On the way there, I stop the bleeding and focus on staying positive. Jane mentions Axel meeting us there and saying he'll get what we need to fix Tempest up. After what feels like forever, we make it to Temp's apartment and rush her inside. Soon enough Axel arrives with a bunch of the other boys and finds the apartment. When Axel walks in he instantly looks at Temp's unconscious body.

"What the hell happened to her?!" Axel shouts. I briefly look at him and see him with a bag of stuff.

I shake my head and sigh. "There's no time for an explanation," I state. "Did you bring the supplies we asked for?" Axel nods and hands me the bag he's holding. Luckily the bullet in Temp isn't deep or in any critical spot. After taking everything out of the bag, I start working on fixing up Temp. While I work Cam, Axel, and Ashton stand and watch. Everyone else went to another room.

As I finish up the stitches, Cam asks, "Is she going to be ok?"

I stand up and look at everyone. "She should be just fine. She's just lost a lot of blood and needs to rest up," I answer, releasing a breath of pent of stress. We all move to the kitchen, where everyone else is, and leave Temp in the living room. I grab myself a coffee and we all stand in silence.

"How the hell did she even get shot in the first place?" Ashton finally speaks up. I look at him and see him glaring at me. I don't think he really likes me.

"Let's just say we got mixed up in some trouble," I reply.

Axel furrows his eyebrows and wonders, "What kind of trouble would get you shot?"

My body finally relaxes and I sigh. "I don't think Temp would like it if we told you what we know. She seems pretty determined to tell you on her own," I say. Silence consumes us and it appears everyone is stuck in their own minds, shrouded in their thoughts. I don't even know when Tempest will wake up, but I know she will. She has to. All these people, including me, depend on her even if she doesn't realize it. If that wasn't true, I don't think we'd all be here. Looking at Axel, I ask, "How did you all even meet Temp?"

"Her name is Emmaline," one of the stranger boys, I think his name is Jaden, states gruffly.

Cam laughs, leaning on a countertop, speaking up, "We know her real name."

"There's not much we don't know about Tempest," Jane explains. "We call her Tempest because that's what she prefers, but we're her best friends. We know her."

"We used to be her best friends," the guy named Mason says from the corner. From what I noticed, he isn't comfortable around anyone here honestly.

"Temp told me all about you guys. She wasn't open about who you guys were, but she told me she had friends back home whom she left behind without fixing what had been broken," I open up, looking at Axel, who was looking at me quizzically.

"Em -- Tempest, was never open about anything," Axel states, staring at me. "She was always a big mystery. She never told us about what she was doing. If we knew anything, it was because we paid attention and sometimes we got lucky when information would fall into our laps. Honestly, that's how we got tangled up with her. We wanted to figure out who the hell she was. No one ever knew at our school. We were determined to be the ones who did."