He had those kind of eyes that shone with the light of 'everything will be okay'.

-Atticus.

-Luke-

After I had lashed out on Parker, two other cops had hauled me outside. Officer Gronkowski scowled at me as he stepped outside and shook his head. "You did the one thing I asked you not to do." I sighed and rubbed my jaw in irritation. "He had it coming. I wasn't going to let him get away with it." Officer Gronkowski rolled his eyes.

"That's my job, to take care of things, not yours. All you had to do was identify whoever you knew. Do you want to know why you lashing out was bad? Because that usually makes suspects irritated, and then they're stubborn by the time it comes to the questioning. You need to learn how to keep your calm."

"He tried to kill Maggie! How in the world do you expect me to stay calm when a guy I thought was my friend tried to kill someone I care about?" Officer Gronkowski shook his head and lifted his hand slowly. "Just let me try to get answers from him. I'll let you know the answers to everything, but you have to stay calm." I nodded my head tensely and walked back on the building with him. "Wait here and I'll come get you later." I sat down on a chair in the lobby and fished out my phone to text Sarah.

Any news on Maggie?

about two minutes later I received a message from her.

****************

-Luke-

The next day I found myself zoning out on the lesson Ms. Avercill was giving. Yesterday all the cops did was ask questions, and apparently Parker is innocent. They had checked the surveillance camera in the halls outside of Maggie's hospital room but whoever went in had their face covered. I wanted to skive school and visit Maggie instead, but Sarah had warned me not to, telling me that Maggie would get angry, which of course I knew would be true.

"Mr. Banfield, I asked you a question." I blinked and stopped staring at my wooden desk to look at Ms. Avercill. She had her eyes narrowed at me and one of her eyebrows were raised expectantly. I glanced at the erase board to see if there was something that could help me out, but the only words written down was 'Edgar Allen Poe'.

"I'm sorry, what?" Ms. Avercill sighed and scratched her forehead. "What was the name of one of the poems Edgar Allan Poe wrote and what year was it?" I glanced down at my notes from the book she had given us to study and answered her. "Uh, one of them were A Dream within a Dream, published in 1849."

"Good job. Can anyone name another one?" Once again I zoned out as some girl in the back started speaking. Eventually the bell went off and everyone got up to head to their next period which would be the last. "Mr. Banfield, please come see me after class. I believe we need to have a word." I nodded at Ms. Avercill as I walked out of the classroom, making my way to P.E after shoving my things in my locker.

************

"Alright! Whoever got a jersey will be playing offense. Shirts are defense. Captains in the middle, let's begin!" I walked in the middle of the field, coming face to face with none other than Parker. "Luke, I swear to you it wasn't me. I'm not exactly friends with Maggie but I still wouldn't do anything like that." I clenched my jaw and called heads as coach flipped the coin in the air. He had decided we used our P.E time for extra soccer practice. The coin landed on tails and I took my offense position as the game started. About halfway into the game coach gave us a water break, and as I chugged down my water Aiden walked up to me with a smirk.

I rolled my eyes, still not fond of him after that time he made that snarky comment towards Maggie at the cafeteria. "Banfield, you aren't so bad out there. Why'd you stop playing in the first place?" I ignored him and wiped my neck with the mini towel I had brought with me as I watched some of the guys doing drills on the field. "What do you want Aiden?" He chuckled and nudged my shoulder.

"Nothing much, just wondering how little Maggie is doing." I tensed and turned to face him. "What did you just say?" Aiden smirked and tilted his chin up. "You know, Maggie. Did she make it alive? Or is her family planning the funeral? If my friend did the work right then it's the latter."

*************

"You punched him?!" I flinched at my mum's tone of voice and sighed. "I also sacked him where the sun doesn't shine, and kicked him in the stomach." She guffawed and placed her hands on her hips. "Oh, is there something else?" I nodded my head slowly and spoke up. "I might have accident,y fractured his hand." My mum widened her eyes looked at my dad in shock. He shrugged and smiled. "Babe, he was defending his girlfriend. The dude tried to kill her."

"She's not my girlfriend yet."

"It's still wrong to hurt someone else!"

I looked at my mum and shook my head. "Alright, what I did was wrong, but how did you expect me to react? He literally confessed that he was behind the whole thing. He tried to kill Maggie!"

Mum was about to speak again but then my phone started ringing. I answered it quickly when I saw that it was Sarah. "Hello?"

"Get to the hospital as soon as you can, it's Maggie." Panic instantly flooded through me as I stood up and grabbed my car keys. "What's going on?"

"She's awake."

************

I ran through the seemingly endless halls of the hospitals, my heart pounding in my ears. Sarah was waiting outside the room by the time I reached it, looking up when she heard me coming towards her. "Is she okay? Can I see her?" Sarah nodded her head. "She's okay so far, but right now Dr. Henceforth is asking her a few questions. He said it wouldn't take long so you should be able to go in soon." I sighed and leaned against the wall with my eyes closed.

"So apparently there were two people behind the scheme that happened." I opened my eyes and looked at Sarah. "I know one of them was Aiden." She nodded and filled me in on the rest. "The head cheerleader at your school, Chelsey, which happens to be Aiden's fling, was supposed to find dirt on Maggie. Chelsey's dad so happens to work at this hospital and she asked for Maggie's room information using the excuse as

a 'worried friend' when she heard all about it. So they decided to kill her because they found her disgusting." Sarah's voice cracked at the end and she cleared her throat, blinking away the tears forming in her eyes.

"Anyways, Maggie being the little angel she is decided not to press charges." I widened my eyes and stood straight. "Why in the world would she not press charges? They tried killing her!"

"Exactly, and the fact that she didn't press charges against them made Dr. Henceforth think that she actually did wanna try to suicide and since Chelsey and Aiden tried killing her she shows gratitude. So it's up to him if they put her on watch, and if they do she has to stay here and everything in the room has to be taken out."

"Please tell me you're lying." I said. Sarah shook her head and wiped her eyes. "I Googled it, and Google never lies." I clenched my jaw and we waited in silence for a few more minutes before the door opened and Dr. Henceforth walked out. He looked at Sarah and gave her a small smile. "You can go see her now."

I wasted no time and followed Sarah inside the room, smiling when I saw Maggie sitting up on her bed and holding Graham on her lap. She looked up as she heard the door shut behind us and smiled, tears already filling her eyes as Sarah walked up to her. "It's so nice to see you awake!" Sarah exclaim, pulling her into a hug. I stayed back and let them have a moment together and letting relief and happiness flow through me.

She's awake and that's all that matters now, don't yell her no matter what the circumstances.

*****************