Chapter 23 #2
My eyes flicked up to Nash and Vicky, who had been highly entertaining ever since she arrived. I hadn’t seen much of Nash until now, but Vicky was letting him have it and kept pointing at me. I had no idea how I was supposed to live in the same room with her anymore.
“Get the fuck out of my face,” Nash growled a moment later, and Vicky took off, pushing her way through the crowd that was only half interested in the lover’s quarrel. “Fuck,” Nash snarled, and the next thing I knew, he was flopping down beside me.
I looked at him as he practically sat on my lap. “Do you mind?”
“Nope,” he said, crossing his arms as he glared back at me.
“You could date her again, you know,” I said, and his face twisted in a mix of confusion and, what the fuck. “Hear me out. She obviously wants you, and you’ve gotten me attacked three times now. The least you could do is date the bitch until the end of the school year.”
“Are you joking?”
“No, I’m not. As of right now, I don’t have a place to live because she is going to make my life hell from here on out.
You were the only thing keeping the crazy in check, and that’s saying something.
I still don’t know what you saw in her, but that's not the point. Point is you dating her a few more weeks would make my life easier.”
His head tilted. “You want me to date her, so she leaves you alone?”
“Seems fair to me. If you hadn’t been all…
well…you, then she wouldn’t have attacked me to begin with.
But then you just had to add the underwear cutting, the pool, beating up Axel, and kissing me while you dumped her.
I’m public enemy number one. According to her, I’m the entire reason the two of you are no longer together.
” I shook my head as I tried to picture what the hell it would be like until summer.
I looked up at the strange cat image hanging on the wall and hated that it looked like it was staring at me.
“And what do I get for putting myself through that torture?” He leaned in closer and looked at my chest. “I know what I’d take as payment.”
“Forget it, not in this lifetime.”
Nash leaned his elbow on the back of the couch and turned, giving me his full attention. “What did I tell you about saying never to me?”
“I think you’re full of yourself and not as good as you think you are. That’s what I think,” I said, and his lip curled up.
“How about I take you upstairs and prove to you how wrong you are? I promise you’ll scream my name for everyone to hear,” he said, and I detested that he always said something that made me want to punch him and stand in an ice-cold shower. Nash was impossible.
“How about no? There are a dozen girls all drooling over you right over there.” I nodded in the direction of the blatant staring and licking of lips. “Take your pick, but I have no interest.”
Nash smiled and bit out another sarcastic, sexual comment, but I wasn’t focused on him anymore. Blake walked into the room, but something was definitely wrong. He was looking at his feet while using the wall for support. His movements were slow, like he was having trouble figuring out how to walk.
“What’s wrong,” Nash asked, his tone serious. Myles, Theo, and Liam went quiet and looked at me, but it was Nash who followed my line of sight.
Blake’s eyes lifted for a moment and met mine. I was running before he crumpled to the floor. I’d taken CPR every year from the moment my mother had collapsed. Knowing what I knew, it was clear that he’d overdosed before I reached him.
“Shit, Blake, don’t you fucking dare die,” I growled as I skidded to my knees beside him on the tile floor.
“Back the fuck up,” I yelled at the people looking on and doing nothing but getting in the way of my light.
“Someone shut the fucking music off.” I pulled open his eyelids to be sure he had indeed overdosed.
His pupils were pinpoint, and my heart hammered hard with terror.
His skin was clammy, and his lips were turning blue. “I need Narcan.”
“I have some,” Theo said from across Blake’s body. I’d been so focused that I didn’t see him kneel down. He unzipped a small black bag, and I looked at Myles right beside me.
“Myles, call 911.”
I placed my cheek close to his nose and closed my eyes, but there was nothing.
I tried to calm my racing heart as I pressed my fingers into the side of his neck, trying to find the carotid artery.
Nothing. The terror notched up, and my adrenaline spiked, making me shake.
Memories of my mother dying and not being able to help clawed at my mind, but if they took over, I couldn’t help Blake.
I needed to remain focused. I could freak out when he was okay.
“Does anyone know what he took?” No one spoke.
“Shit, shit, shit. Okay, I can do this.” Pulling out my phone I laid it beside me open to the timer. I got into position and found the place on his chest for compressions. Thirty and two. I looked down at him and took a steadying breath as my heart hammered like a drum in my ears.
“You’re not dying, Blake. Do you hear me? You’re not fucking dying on me,” I growled. The dummies couldn’t have prepared me for what this felt like in real life.
“One, two, three, four, five, six.” Sweat trickled down my back, and each press was harder than the one before, like trying to push on concrete.
“Okay, it’s ready,” Theo said, holding up the nasal spray.
“Give it to him.” I paused, panting hard as he gave Blake the Narcan. I hit the timer on my phone. It wasn’t like on television. It took two to three minutes to work. Theo moved away, and I continued my compressions.
“Twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty.”
Leaning over, I tilted his head and blew two breaths into him before starting the compressions again.
“The ambulance is on its way,” Myles said. “How can I help?” I shook my head, continuing to count, my eyes never leaving my phone.
“When he wakes up, he may try to take a swing at us or be really confused,” I said before leaning over and blowing another two breaths.
“You need to keep him still and calm. Come on, Blake,” I said, tears stinging the back of my eyes, but I refused to cry.
I looked up at Theo, who looked as panicked as I felt, his eyes focused on his brother’s face. “Do you have a second one?”
“Yeah.”
“Get it ready, just in case.”
Theo was reaching into his bag when Blake’s eyes snapped open, and he gasped.
Relief flooded my body as I stared down into his confused green eyes.
“Roll him onto his side in a…recovery position.” I sucked in a deep breath, my heart pounding out of control.
“Don’t let him get up,” I said and fell back on my ass.
My pulse was too fast, and I could feel the thump of it in my head.
“Liam, help us hold him still. Blake, fuckin’ knock it off. Just be still, man,” Myles ordered.
“Get the fuck off me,” Blake growled, but he couldn’t fight off three of them.
“Naw, man. Ya almost croaked it! Just fuckin’ lay there, or I’ll knock ya out myself, ya stupid fucker.” It wasn’t what I would say, but I let Myles deal with Blake.
I looked at my hands, and they were shaking so badly that they were blurry or was it my eyes that were fuzzy? I looked up at everyone standing around and tried to get someone’s attention that I needed water, but my lips didn’t want to work. I licked them and grabbed the wall to stand.
“Hey, where do you think you’re going? You need to sit down.”
Leaning against the wall I turned and looked at Nash. The room was spinning, and I became more lightheaded with each passing second. Stumbling in his direction, Nash wrapped his arms around me, I opened my mouth to tell him I was about to pass out. Then everything went black.