Thirty-four
Javier
T he ride to the hospital was surreal. They let me ride in the ambulance with him so that he wouldn’t be alone while the others drove behind us. In the frenzy of my panic, I kept asking the paramedics questions. I barely gave them a chance to respond to the first ones before hitting them with more.
They were very calm, slightly unbothered. They were completely used to my worriedness as they saw situations like the one, we were in probably every day. One of them spoke in a careful tone as she had me buckle up while the other focused on Eli.
They needed to focus on Eli and make sure that he was okay, so I shut my mouth.
I watched as the rather unbothered paramedic wrapped the blood pressure cuff around his arm.
She spoke to the male paramedic in medical terms, so I had no clue what they were saying.
Surprisingly, their carefree attitude helped ease my nerves.
If they were not worried, then I shouldn’t be either. Right?
The woman carefully stuck an IV into his arm and I flinched at the sight.
Needles made me squeamish. The man began talking to Eli as if he was not barely keeping his eyes open.
He asked him basic questions, what his name was, where he lived, where he was at.
Elias was able to give incoherent mumbles as responses, and the medics let me know that was a good thing.
When he suddenly hunched over and vomited they barely caught it in the hazard bag in time. Puking was a good thing, it meant that his body was trying to get rid of the toxins.
The paramedic faced me. “Vitals are stable for now.”
I felt my chest tighten. "For now?"
"We're monitoring him closely, but don’t worry. He’s in good hands.”
They told me I could try talking to him too, that it could be good for him to know I was right there with him. It felt awkward at first, but I spoke to him as comfortingly as I could. I told him that everything would be okay and that I wouldn't leave his side.
I thought he wasn't listening to me at first and it was discouraging.
I leaned back and sighed, tired of talking to myself and him not hearing me, but then I saw his head twitch.
His head faced me in a slow, strained motion as his hand fiddled around his neck.
Eli was trying to reach for the necklace around his neck—the one I bought him for Christmas.
Eli was saying he knew I was there with him.
When we finally arrived at the hospital, they rushed him out and took me into the waiting area. Ricky and Kailey got there five minutes after I did and wasted no time before bombarding me with questions. I felt useless for my vague answers that I did not know the details behind.
The hospital was incredibly busy, so I knew that would play a factor in how long we had to wait. The way time was blending made me uneasy. I kept wiping my palms against my pants to get the sweat off of them, but they became wet again in an instant.
My mind felt like it was spinning, and I could not sit still any longer or I would lose it.
I spotted a water dispenser down the hallway and my legs stood me up and walked toward it.
My throat had been dry as a desert for the past few hours thanks to the stress of the situation.
I took the complimentary paper cup and filled it before shakily bringing it to my lips.
I jumped when I noticed someone standing behind me. Ricky gave a weak smile before he reached for the cups and filled one up for himself. We stood there simultaneously sipping from our cups of water.
Ricky let out a shaky breath. "You know he's gonna be just fine, right? We can't get immediate updates because we aren't his family, but I think he’s just super-duper drunk. Like, a bad level, but not detrimental. Y’know?”
I nodded even though the little voice in the back of my head was thinking the worst.
Ricky downed the rest of the water in one humongous gulp and then filled it up again like he hadn't drunk anything in days. Seems like I wasn’t the only one who was dying of thirst.
"You have no idea how thankful I am for you, dude." He let out a strained chuckle as his grip on his cup tightened. "Seriously, you have no idea how much good you do for him. You genuinely care about him and everyone can see it. Everyone including Eli, even though he acts oblivious sometimes."
My nostrils flared. "I'll do anything for him."
"I know, me too." He tossed the cup into the trash can next to him. "I’m glad you had the guts to actually confront Eli about his drinking. If I would’ve been less of a pussy and talked to him about it earlier, maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess."
"Don't blame yourself for that. Elias is a master of deflecting and downplaying things. You've been there for him since the beginning and you haven't left, that’s saying something."
"Thank you," Ricky mumbled before his mouth opened to yawn. His head turned to Kailey down the hallway taking a nap in a chair. The girl was exhausted, and I could not blame her.
I was just as tired as she was, but my body was not going to let me rest until we knew Eli was alright. I hoped that the doctors would give us some updates eventually. Just because we were not biologically related to him did not mean we were not his family.
"I couldn't ask for a better boyfriend for my best friend—or whatever you guys are," he snorted. "But just know that if you do something stupid, I'm gonna have to turn on you."
I chuckled. "Don’t worry. I love Eli, so you don't have to worry about that."
Ricky’s lips formed into a closed smile, and it took me a minute to realize what it was that made him so amused. When I realized what I had just said my eyes went big and Ricky threw a hand over his mouth.
"Have you said that to him yet?" he asked in a hushed tone.
I shook my head, still shocked at myself. “Not yet…”
Ricky slapped my shoulder encouragingly. "You’ll get the chance."
A hand was placed on Ricky’s shoulder and he flinched.
It was Paxton’s hand, he and Bella had arrived when Ricky and I were too deep in conversation to notice.
Foregoing the part where we greet each other, Bella pointed a sharp finger in the opposite direction.
We all turned to see what she was looking at with such malice.
Standing right beside the door of Eli’s hospital room were the twins.
Emerson had a cloudy look in her eyes as she tried to follow the doctor's words. Easton showed no emotion whatsoever, and I could not tell if it was because he was in shock or simply did not give a shit. His state was very similar to Elias’ just a few hours prior.
“Who called them?” Bella whispered in disgust. “They’re the reason for this mess. Who the fuck watches their brother drink himself to sleep every night and doesn’t do anything about it?”
Kailey showed up beside us having just woken up with her power nap. She was already in tune with the conversation. “Yeah, and the only reason the drinking started in the first place is because they’ve convinced him he killed their parents. Assholes.”
Ricky ran a hand through his hair. “Macy is the real problem, guys. The twins are shitty, but they wouldn’t be like that if it wasn’t for their aunt's corruption.”
He was right. Everyone wanted to put all of the blame on Easton and Emerson, but they were victims in the situation too.
Did that make me dislike them any less? No, I still wanted to fight them every time I saw them.
Though, I could recognize that they had been hurt just as much as their brother had.
I let out a sigh of relief as the twins began walking toward us. I half expected them to ignore us, to leave all of Eli’s friends without an update because that was the kind of people I had made them out to be. They proved me wrong.
"Hi," Emerson greeted sheepishly. "I'm guessing you all want to know how he is."
Bella pursed her lips. “Who even called you?”
Emerson's nose scrunched at the disgust in Bella’s voice, but Ricky stepped forward to stop unnecessary drama. "Is he okay?"
Her glare lingered on Bella before she sighed. "He's alright, but he’s sleeping. The doctor said if his blood alcohol levels drop quick enough then he can be discharged today. They aren’t sure, though."
"Okay, what did they say about afterward?" Kailey asked impatiently. "Are they going to force him into something like AA? Will he need to go into special therapy?"
"I don't know," Emerson whispered.
Kailey had more questions. "Is your aunt going to be the bitch she is and try and force him back with you to make his life even worse? Gosh, I can already see the alcoholic insults she’s going to make to him."
Emerson’s head hung low. "She said–"
"Is there damage to his liver?" Kailey was tearing up again. "Or anywhere else? He's young so there's consequences, right?"
“They don’t think there’s any lasting damage yet." Easton's voice caught everyone off guard. He had been so quiet that I had forgotten he was there. "Luckily."
"How could you guys sit back and let this happen?" Bella took a harsh step forward right in Emerson’s face "He was hurting himself and you guys thought it was funny."
"I never thought it was funny," Emerson defended herself weakly.
"Well, he certainly did!" Bella pointed an accusatory finger at Easton. "Where's all the jokes now, Easton? Where's your bad humor and witty remarks?"
"My little brother could've died," Easton grumbled.
Bella laughed incredulously. "You’ve never seemed to care."
"I've always cared."
“You have a funny way of showing it,” I quipped.
The others in the hospital were now staring at us because we were causing a scene. Bella was seething with anger, so much that Paxton forced her to go on a walk with him to cool off.
Easton’s gaze was locked on the ground as he mumbled something to Emerson and then stormed off. His sister watched him leave with sad eyes but made no attempt to go after him.