17. Lucas
Lucas
Vrrrrrrrrrr. Vrrrrrrrrrr.
Ugh. I rolled over to look at the clock. It was one in the morning.
Vrrrrrrrrrr. Vrrrrrrrrrr.
Who is calling me? It’s so late.
O and I had stayed out later than we planned, dancing. Responsible Alex left after the first bar. I ended up crawling into bed just before midnight.
I grabbed my phone to look at the screen. It was Ty.
“Ty, it’s late. This better be good.”
“He’s fine, Luke, but I wanted to call you first.”
I felt my heart rate speed up. I heard a tone in his voice.
“What do you mean? Who’s fine?”
“Cam’s in the hospital. There was a fire at the dorm. He-”
He kept talking, but I felt my heart drop under the bed.
Throwing off the covers, I flicked the light on and immediately started getting dressed.
I threw some stuff from my dresser and the bathroom into a bag and I was in the hallway before I realized I didn’t know where I was going. I put the phone back up to my ear.
“Luke? You still there?”
“I’m on my way. What hospital?”
“Saint Thomas.”
“Text me the floor and room number.”
I hung up, already in the elevator, and checked my phone for directions.
Fuck.
It was Wednesday night. The Tube wasn’t running this late. I’d have to find an Uber or a taxi. I pulled Uber up and, even though my hands were shaking, somehow typed in the data. Luckily, it looked like a busy night in the area. I didn’t question it, only waiting a few minutes for a pickup.
“Cheers!”
“Hi, can you drive as fast as legally possible? It’s an emergency. My friend is hurt.”
“Consider it done.”
Thankfully, he took my request to heart. We made it there in under fifteen minutes.
“Hope your mate’s alright,” he called out to me as I ran toward the entrance.
Somehow, I kept it together enough to ask the receptionist where to go.
I knew visiting hours were over, so I assumed she either recognized me or Ty let her know I was coming.
She didn’t hesitate to point me towards the bank of elevators I needed.
It felt like forever before one arrived, and I checked my phone for the fourth time to see if Ty had sent any updates.
He hadn’t, and no one else got on, so in under a minute, I was on the fifth floor.
“Hold on, sir. Can I see some ID?” A security guard was holding his hand to stop me from going further and a pair of guards blocked the exits.
Why the fuck is security here?
I pulled out my license, and he checked the clipboard he was holding. “Sorry, Mr. Rivera. You’re good to go.” He turned to his colleagues and said, “He’s clear.”
They relaxed, and one of them moved to the side. I assumed Cam was that way.
I saw the guys before I saw the room number. They greeted me, but I ignored them and plastered my face against the glass, looking where they had been looking. At Cam.
I felt the tears stream down my cheek once I saw him lying there. He looked pale.
“What’s wrong with him? Why’s he so pale? Why is he in that tube thing?” I asked, terrified, hearing the quiver in my voice.
Ty came up behind me, resting his chin on my shoulder, and wrapped his arms around me. I lost it and started sobbing.
“He’s going to be okay, Luke. They’ve sedated him and put him in that oxygen chamber for a few hours to help with the healing.”
“Is he burned? Can he still compete?” I asked, turning around to face Ty and everyone else.
Woodward spoke up. “He’s not burned. And we won’t know the answer to your second question until tomorrow at the earliest.”
“Fuck.”
It was then I noticed the others. Woodward, Ford, Ty, Alex, and O were at the window with me. Shane was sitting with Noah across the hall, consoling him.
“What happened? Where’s Colton?” I asked, worried.
Ty was about to answer when I heard his familiar drawl.
“Right here, cowboy.”
A wave of relief washed over me. I thought something had happened to him, too.
The relief didn’t last long as I turned to see him rolling up in a wheelchair, tubes hanging from his nose, wearing a baby blue johnny.
“Not you too!” I rushed over to him, knelt and put my hand on his leg. “Are you okay?”
“I’ll be fine. This is all just a precaution.” He gestured to the tubes hooked under his nose.
“You won’t be fine after I whoop your ass.”
“Coach?!” He never swore.
“Oh, ignore him, Luke.”
“Why’s he want to whoop your ass?”
Woodward answered for me. “Because Colton here thinks he’s a superhero. He ignored the alarms that told him to leave the building and instead, ran up seven flights of stairs and carried Cam down and out of the building.”
I turned to stare at Colton.
“Technically,” he paused, dramatically, “I only carried him down three flights of stairs because a firefighter took him from me on the fourth flo-”
He didn’t finish his sentence because I had crushed him in a hug. I started crying into his neck and I didn’t care. I felt his arms circle around me, rubbing slowly up and down.
“He’s going to be okay, Luke.”
I held him for another minute, letting my sobs subside. I pulled back, wiping each side of my face with a sleeve. “I want to stay with him,” I whispered.
“What’d you say, Luke?” Woodward asked.
“I want to stay with him tonight,” I said, with more confidence, which got Noah and Shane’s attention. They both looked up, concerned. Alex looked confused.
“I don’t think a hospital is the best place to rest. You boys need to be heading back to...well, I’m guessing at least Colton will need somewhere to stay. Are the dorms cleared yet?”
Ford, one of the assistant coaches, spoke up. “They’re still doing a security sweep of the buildings, Coach.”
“Security sweep?” I asked.
“They’re making sure the fire was an accident,” Noah said, standing up, “and not a terrorist event. I’m sure you noticed the security at the elevator. They have guards at the stairwells, too. Only a few athletes were affected, but they’re all in this wing. Luckily, they seem to be doing well.”
I nodded, turning to Colton. “And you’re clear to leave?”
“I’m fixin’ to. I wasn’t exposed for long, but they want me to sleep with oxygen for a few days, anyway.”
Woodward cuffed him on the head. “I guess you, Orion and Alex are with us at the hotel where I can keep an eye on you. We’ll make room tonight and see what we can do tomorrow. We should go, gentlemen. It’s already almost three.” He turned to discuss something with Noah.
O came at me with his arms open, whispering in my ear, “Good luck, Luke, whatever your plan is,” and squeezed me a little harder before letting go.
I leaned in and said, “I’m making this up as I go.”
Alex yawned and came in for a hug as well.
Colton stood up despite my protests and ambled over, caught up in his oxygen tubes.
I met him halfway, so he didn’t have to drag the wheelchair any farther.
He pulled me into his chest, my nose practically crushed against his throat in his grasp.
He pulled back so he could look me in the eye. “You can’t break his heart again.”
I swallowed and nodded. He gave me a pat on the back and turned to walk back to his wheelchair. His ass was exposed, the back of his johnny wide open.
“Dude, where’s your underwear?” Alex took the words out of my mouth.
He sat back down in his wheelchair, a goofy grin plastered back on. “Some cute nurse made me take it all off.” He winked. “It was wet anyway.”
“Why was it wet?” I asked.
“The sprinklers,” he answered.
“I’m confused. Cam slept through sprinklers?”
“Uh...the sprinklers on the seventh floor didn’t go off. The alarms did, but he must’ve slept through those. I got wet in the stairwell. The smoke was bad on our floor, so I crawled to our room and then, well…you know the rest.”
“How was the smoke so bad in Cam’s room if the door was closed? Aren’t the rooms separated from each other?”
Colton shrugged, but Alex spoke up. “Coach says we should know more tomorrow or the day after. They’re still investigating. He thinks that some rooms may have had connected ventilation systems because they’ll be converted into three-bedroom apartments after the games. But, that’s just a theory.”
“Ugh.” I ran my fingers through my hair.
“Don’t worry, Luke.” O came back over to me. “Cam’s going to be okay, and we’ll know more when we know.”
I nodded. I just hoped he’d be okay enough to compete. Coach Woodward had finished talking to Noah because he walked up to see if they were ready to go. “See you tomorrow, Luke, and good luck.” He hugged me, and I waved goodbye to the guys, and turned to see Noah and Shane staring at me.
This wasn’t going to be easy.
I sat down next to them. “Do you guys need anything? Coffee? Water?”
“We’re fine,” Noah said. He was as upset as me. I was hoping, selfishly, it was because of Cam and not because of my presence.
“Thank you, Luke,” Shane said, clearing his throat. “Congrats on your gold medal. How have you been otherwise?”
Gracias mi amigo. “It was incredible to win yesterday, but right now, I’m not so great. And other things have been...okay.”
“That’s good to hear.”
Oh, forget it! “Well, that was a lie! To be honest, I’m miserable.
I’m happy to have made it to the Olympics again and won some medals, but seeing Cam this many days in a row, and to be back at the games where we...
you know...but not have him by my side, it’s complete and utter agony.
I made the wrong choice.” I took a breath and exhaled.
“I was a coward. I was a horrible, scared, little coward.”
I finally turned to look at them. They were both looking at me. Noah looked less pissed, and Shane was smiling. “And I’m so sorry to you, Shane. I still can’t believe my father did that to you. And I know-”
“It’s okay, Luke. It’s not your fault.”
“But-”
“Your dad’s an asshole. Still not your fault.”
Well, I had to agree with that. “Still, it must’ve been hard on the two of you. I...feel bad for that.”
“We made it work. We’re doing great,” Shane said, grabbing hold of Noah’s hand and interlacing their fingers together. “Well, until this evening.”
Noah’s eyebrows scrunched up in thought. “You going to tell him what you told us? It sounds like you might have a few things to say.”
“I’m going to talk to him. If tonight has proven anything to me, it’s that I can’t lose him. I won’t lose him.”
“And your parents?” Shane asked.
I paused. That was a good question, but I honestly didn’t care. They weren’t even here. They couldn’t take anything worth more to me than Cam, and I knew that now. “Cam’s all that matters to me.” I looked over at them, trying to gauge their reactions.
“That’s all I needed to hear,” Noah said, smiling, “though the apology was nice, too.”
“And if you need a coach after Cassandra and your parents lose their minds, I’m here for you, Luke,” Shane added.
I stood up, wanting a hug, and he followed suit, and I cried into the neck of someone taller than me for the second time that night.
Noah stood up as well, and my crying was mostly over when he took hold of my shoulders, looked me straight on and said, “I know you’re serious.
I can hear it in your voice, Luke. You’ve grown up.
But...he may need more convincing than me and Shane.
You pissed us off, but you hurt Cam...a lot.
Just thought I’d give you a heads up, though Cam would probably kill me for saying that. ”
“Do you think he can forgive me?”
“That depends on your silver tongue.”
“Well, my tongue’s never ha-”
“Don’t finish that sentence, Luke. I take it back. You’re not grown up. None of you are. You’re all just horny schoolboys.”
And for the first time that night, I laughed, and they joined me, and we sat back down to wait.
The nurses came and left a few times. I was falling in and out of sleep, when I sat up suddenly, remembering to ask, “Has someone called Heather?!”
“Yeah, Luke,” Noah said. “She didn’t answer, so I left a message.” He looked at his watch. “I was going to try again in an hour or so.”
“Have you tried calling her hotel?”
“I’m embarrassed to admit I don’t know which hotel she’s staying in. I just hope she hears my message before she sees something on the news. I don’t think they’ve caught wind of the story yet, but that will only last for so long. It’s an international incident at this point.”
It was getting light outside when they took Cam out of the oxygen chamber and moved him to another room.
This one looked more like a typical hospital room and less like a science lab.
He had the same tubes as Colton, and an IV drip I noticed for the first time.
Noah, Shane, and I were able to move from the hallway into the actual room.
It was the closest I had been to him and I felt my heart rate pick up.
My phone started vibrating. Cassandra was calling.
It was six o’clock, and I assumed she just discovered I wasn’t there.
I silenced my phone. I’d deal with that later.
“What’s the IV for?” I asked Noah.
“I think it’s an antibiotic. Just a precaution.”
“Do you think he’ll be able to compete?”
“That depends on how he feels. I know they’ve done a chest x-ray and a bronchoscopy to-”
“A what?”
“They looked down his trachea with a tiny scope for damage,” Shane explained.
“They recommended the oxygen therapy chamber, but didn’t find enough damage for anything more invasive,” Noah added.
“A tiny microscope down the throat sounds invasive to me.”
“He wasn’t conscious, Luke, when they did that.”
“Has he been awake at all, Noah? Does he even know what happened?”
“No, he hasn’t. He doesn’t know,” Shane said solemnly.
I heard him talk to Noah for a bit quietly, then he said, “I’m heading back to the hotel, Luke. I’m gonna shower, grab a quick nap and get some things for us. Do you need anything?”
I shook my head. “Thank you, though.”
Watching them kiss goodbye made my heart ache a little. I had a lot to say. I hoped it would be enough.