A short story

Chinyere had never seen herself falling for a man like Yemi. He was full of himself, arrogant and to top it off the son of the Governor, the very man she loathed. Governor Olusegun, the man who single handedly wants to stop a nation-wide revolution, who wants to silence the youth and amass power for himself.
Finally the day had approached and she was set on having a peaceful protest to get their point across, she knew the implications in such a corrupt government but she persisted nevertheless. Her huge social media following had given her a loud voice along with her infectious confidence and persistence. Though scared of the unknown she couldn’t back down now.
She looked around her, a quiet smile crossed her lips, they had all come out for this one cause, eight hundred youth in total, all bold enough to face the unknown. She couldn’t have been prouder to have been part of it, hell it wouldn’t be far fetched if one said she had started the revolution herself. Her moment of pride had immediately been disrupted with the first gunshot that sent a ripple down her spine
“What the fuck!” She shook as she exclaimed, eyes wide in horror “what was that?” She turned to Steven, her videographer and close friend who had been more invested in the protest then she has. His mouth slipped open to reply when someone yelled “Everybody run!” And instantly the large crowd began to randomly disperse, throwing their banners and signs on the floor, trampling on them in a haste to take cover and protect themselves from the unforseen attack.
She looked around her, still frozen in horror as everyone around her frantically ran.
“What’s wrong with you?! Let’s go!” Steven yelled behind her but she remained unshaken
“Yere!” He yelled before yanking her right arm and pulling her towards the opposite direction.
Like she had just woken up from a trance she forced her legs to wake up from their slumber and raced with Steven down the road to where they had parked their Toyota van. Just as they were approaching the van, three men carrying a bleeding man passed them
“He’s hurt” one of the men reported “shot on his upper left thigh” they gently laid him on the foam present in the back of the van for emergencies like this. “He needs to be taken to the hospital”
She moved closer and could see he had lost a lot of blood, his jean soaked she knew there wasn’t enough time to get him there something needed to be done right away
“There’s no time for that. We have what we need here to get him stable before moving to a hospital” she proclaimed with the confidence of a student doctor knowing she had learned this in her third year second semester.
Quickly she climbed onto the van, got out the first aid from where they had placed it underneath the bed. Good thing she had packed everything they might need in an emergency like this. She took out a syringe, a band-aid, anaesthetics and looked inside the box for morphine. She needed to concentrate but her hands were still shaking from the terror and the screams and roars of fleeing protesters around her made it difficult to. But she had to, this man would bleed to death if she couldn’t do something now. She breathed deeply and injected him with the first dose of morphine, wrapped his leg tightly with a clothe, adding pressure on his wound to prevent further bleeding and began to nurse his almost infected injury
When she was done she breathed deeply, he was still alive and she had done a moderately good job in stopping his bleeding and preventing him from being infected. The van began to move towards the hospital, the crowd had dispersed and it was just her, Steven in the driver’s seat, Chy in the passengers seat, Daniel and Ebube in the back with her. They sat opposite the unconscious man, their hearts still heaving, their breath still heavy, their fears still soaring she closed her eyes and a rush of guilt surged through her.
Inside University of Port Harcourt teaching hospital it was her and Steven seated with the unconscious man at his hospital bed. The nurses and doctors had come and gone, they had thanked them for their efforts to stop the bleeding and assured him he was stable and would make a speedy recovery.
Yere laid her head back on the plastic chair she sat on and watched the injured man like she had known him her entire life
“He’ll be fine Yere. Why do you look like you’re the one who shot him?” Steven asked, pivoting to look at Yere. He sat next to her leaning his head toward her, his hazel brown eyes fixed on Yere
She shrugged “I don’t like seeing someone bleeding”
He scoffed “Says the med student”
She rolled her eyes “it’s just, he could have died today, and I can’t shake the feeling of guilt. Like I did this to him”
Steven almost gaggled “and how is any of this your fault?” He raised an eyebrow but Yere was too focused on the injured man to notice
“Oh common Steve, I’ve been very loud about this, I’ve tweeted and posted about the protest every single day and I assured everyone it was going to be a peaceful protest”
“Yere the police shot at us. This isn’t on you, it’s not your fault, you didn’t plan for any of this to happen” his voice was somber
She turned to look at him, his eyes full of something she couldn’t quite tell. Worry? Anxiety? Attraction? Weird but the way he looked at her said more than the words he spoke ” I know that. But half these people came out because I told them to”
“You don’t know that. Just because you have two hundred thousand followers on Instagram doesn’t mean you’re the reason they came out” he rolled his eyes and turned back to the man in front of them “Get outta yourself Yere. None of this is about you. This man could’ve been out because he’s been at the brunt of police brutality, he couldn’t been out there because he lost a loved one to the police” he turned back to her, his eyes soft and easy “You of all people should be able to relate to that”
She looked down, unable to hold his gaze. The grief of losing a loved one still haunted her, the pain and sorrow never really goes away, it’s something you have to carry on living with. And her pain was feuled by the Police who had killed her innocent brother, she still remembers the traumatic event and every single detail about it remained crystal clear in her head
Her raging thoughts was immediately disrupted by the loud ring of Stevens phone
“I’ll have to take this. Be right back” he stood up and disappeared into the hallway
She got on her feet and slowly walked towards the man laying helpless on the bed. He has his own story, his reason for coming out today, and it had nothing to do with her. She looked intently at him and then, like she had performed a miracle, his eyelids began to shake and his eyes flung open. Still fluttering, his eyelids were weak but their eyes met. Dark brown eyes protected by long flowing eyelashes. His eyes were beautiful, and now, looking at him, she could see how handsome he was, even in his wounded state
“How.. how are you?” She stuttered for some reason, trying to grasp herself
He blinked at her twice but remained silent. Maybe he couldn’t talk. Or he hadn’t heard her.
“What happened to me?” He asked her and she took a step back
She straightened her stance “You were shot during the Stopbrutality protest”
He remained unfazed, his expression emotionless and she wondered if he had heard her
When he didn’t speak for a long minute she proceeded to ask “Are you in any pain?”
He looked around the room and then his eyes landed on her, and stayed there. He shook his head and she felt a wash of relief run through her. Good, at least he isn’t currently hurting.
“I’ll let the nurses know you’re awake” she said and turned to leave when he spoke again. This time his deep baritone voice reverberated through her and sent a wave down her body. Maybe it was the manner in which he said it, or his helpless condition but  she stood still at his words
“Don’t go. Stay” short, firm, affirmative and simple yet it seemed to have an astounding effect on her like she couldn’t leave even if she wanted to. She turned around to him and could see his eyes were firmly on her, scrutinizing her every move, daring to suck her into the gaping hole of his gaze
She walked slowly over to him
“I’m Yemi Balogun” he said, a mild smile spread across his full lips
“Yere Chidubem” she replied softly