33
Orion
"Hello?"
At first I'd been surprised to see Sable was calling. When he'd given me his number, all we did was text. If he was calling, especially after how upset he'd been at the police station, something had to be wrong.
There wasn't a response.
"Sable?" I called his name, hoping that he'd answer me. When nothing came, my heart thudded against my chest, making me break out in a sheen of sweat.
"Fuck," I shouted to the inside of my truck because I hadn't been able to bring myself to go home.
It wasn't like Whitney would be there. Though, there was a chance because she couldn't just leave with nothing.
She needed her space, and I would give it to her, just like I'd been trying to give space to Sable until my phone rang.
I disconnected the call, drumming my fingers on my steering wheel.
What the hell was I supposed to do? I couldn’t just do nothing.
Even if it was an accidental butt dial, something felt off.
Something inside my head screamed at me to drive over to his apartment to check on him.
If it were nothing, he'd be angrier, but I'd feel better knowing he was safe.
Even though the apartment wasn't very far, the usual ten-minute trip felt like it took an hour.
It was as if the universe knew that I was in a hurry, turning every traffic light red.
By the fourth red stoplight, I was half tempted to run it.
The last thing I needed was a cop to pull me over.
That would only add more time that I didn't know if I had or not.
When I pulled up in front of Sable's building, I cut the engine of the truck.
Climbing out, almost forgetting to lock the damn thing in my hurry.
I ran up the stairs, stopping in front of his door.
Was it stupid that I was nervous? It was logical.
He'd been so pissed at me, there I was running to his side the second I'd gotten a phone call that could have been an accident.
But it didn't feel like an accident.
With sweaty palms, I knocked on the door. When nothing happened, my heart raced even faster. There was a chance Sable wasn't home—that didn't seem likely either. He'd been so damn exhausted after everything.
"Sable?" I called out, pounding on the door one more time. When nothing happened, I pulled out my phone calling him. I could hear it ringing on the other side of the door.
Fuck, was he ignoring me? He had to know that I was going to worry when I got that call.
I knocked harder. "Come on, Sable. This isn't funny. You called me, now I'm here. Answer the damn door."
A neighbor opened their door looking outside because, holy fuck, I was making a shit ton of noise. In this type of neighborhood, though? I wouldn't be going outside to investigate.
Frustration was getting the better of me. Remembering how easy it had been to break into his apartment the last time, I was tempted to do it again. It was risky with the neighbor watching me, but I was at the point of no longer caring.
I ran back to my truck, pulling a screwdriver from my toolbox.
Knowing how to do this didn't feel good.
It was one of those shitty things my dad had taught me how to do at one point or another.
It never clicked why he was showing me how to do those things.
Motherfucker had been trying to set me up since day one.
"What are you doing?" The neighbor asked as I kneeled in front of Sable's door, starting to remove the screws around the door handle.
"He's not answering me."
The woman snorted. "Might be for a reason."
I turned to glare at her for only a moment before I had the first screw out. "There's something wrong. You just have to trust me on this."
The woman huffed her frustration. I had to give it to her that she was brave for even addressing me. Most people would have just called the police.
It took way too long to get the door handle off. I swore it had been easier the last time I had done this, but I also wasn't completely amped up on adrenaline at the time. Once the handle was off, I was able to trip the lock—the front door practically falling open.
Looking inside, my heart stopped.
Sable was on the floor with his phone next to him. Yeah, that call hadn't been an accident.
The woman from before was back on the walkway with her phone pressed to her ear. At least she was finally being smart by calling 911. I used it to my advantage.
"Tell them to send an ambulance," I called as I rushed inside.
"What?" she called after me, but froze in the doorway when she saw me leaning over Sable's limp body.
Fuck, why the hell was he so still? It didn't even look like he was breathing. When I leaned closer, he didn't look alive. His skin was sort of blue in color. I went into panic mode.
I rolled him onto his back, checking for his pulse. It was there, but super weak. "Shit. Come on. What the hell happened?"
My eyes burned because I was thankful I'd listened to my gut, driving all the way over to check on him. There was no telling what would have happened had I not. Would he have died? Fuck, after the last twenty-four hours, I wouldn't be able to handle that.
The neighbor ran inside, crouching next to me. "Is he okay?"
Instead of answering her question, I asked one of my own. "Is there an ambulance coming?"
She nodded. "Not going to lie that I was calling the police, but I'm glad I already had the dispatcher on the phone."
Sirens blared in the distance. I stared at Sable lying there on the floor. What the hell was I supposed to do? He was breathing, though not by much. His chest barely lifted and fell. I knew enough that you couldn't do CPR if the person was alive like that.
The woman got up, leaving the apartment. I almost wished she would have stayed because it gave me something else to focus on besides my own feelings of inadequacy. I should know how to handle situations like this, and I didn't.
Paramedics rushed into the room. I watched in horror as they pushed me out of the way, instantly hooking Sable up to all sorts of devices that started beeping, buzzing, and making all sorts of crazy sounds. Something hit the ground. I looked just in time to see one of Sable's lamps fall over.
"Get the nebulizer ready. His O2 is too low," one paramedic said. Another one ran out of the apartment down the stairs to the ambulance.
The whole thing was hard to watch. All I wanted to do was step in and hold Sable's hand. To make sure that he was okay, because none of this felt okay. Something was seriously going on with him. I was powerless to do anything.
My throat constricted because all I could think about was what would have happened had I ignored the call? Would he have died? Was this something he would have eventually snapped out of? With the way the paramedics were reacting, the second option didn't seem likely.
Fuck, I'd just found him. I could have lost him just as quickly.
"Sir?" the same paramedic that knocked over the lamp was trying to talk to me.
"Yeah?" Fuck, my voice sounded so damn shaky.
You could tell he was used to trying to give people reassuring smiles, but this one didn't make me feel any more at ease. It was like he was about to deliver the biggest blow of my life. That I'd been too late, there was nothing they could do to save Sable.
"We're going to need to take him to the hospital. There won't be any extra room in the ambulance, but you're more than welcome to follow."
My eyes were burning again. I hadn't cried in what felt like forever. All that bullshit macho shit my dad raised me on. Real men don't cry. Fuck that. I'd almost lost the one person who had snuck his way into my life, making me crave things I shouldn't. I couldn't lose him now.
I wiped at a stray tear, nodding.
The emergency room was packed. What was it about the middle of the night that told people they needed to be seen by a doctor?
With what was going on with Sable, I could understand some of it.
It was the knowledge that there wasn't someone readily available that tended to make people panic.
What if you put something off and it was too late?
Was I too late?
The woman sitting at the front counter looked severe. She typed away at her computer, seeming completely unimpressed when I approached.
"I'm looking for," I swallowed thickly because it felt like such a betrayal to use his name again. "I'm looking for Kevin Spencer? He would have come in via ambulance."
The woman sighed, typed a few more things before leveling me with a glare.
"Relation to the patient?"
It was a logical question. They couldn't just allow anyone to know that people were in the hospital. There were privacy laws for a reason, but fuck, my skin itched with the need to see him, making sure that everything was okay. I wouldn't be able to relax until I knew he was fine.
"I'm his boyfriend." It was pushing my luck. Normally, they only let family members in after a certain point, but maybe they'd see reason.
I ran my hands through the hair at the top of my head, blowing out a breath as the woman looked me over. My guess is that they'd probably ask the patient if the visitor was authorized. If Sable wasn't awake yet, that wouldn't be possible.
My shoulders relaxed when the woman started typing again. At first she didn't say anything, then looked up at me. "He's been transferred to the fourth floor. You can find him in room four hundred and eleven."
"Thank you," I said as I turned, rushing off in the direction of the elevators. The ride to the fourth floor felt like it took a small eternity. It was silent in the halls as I disembarked, not that I expected anything different with it now being the middle of the damn night.
I found Sable's room without any problem. My lungs seized seeing him lying there in that hospital bed. He looked small and pale with an oxygen mask over his face, an intravenous catheter in his arm.
The machine next to him beeped loudly in time with his heart—while it was obnoxious, it told me something important. Sable was alive. My entire body still vibrated with worry, because what the hell had caused all of this? He'd seemed healthy. It felt like this had come out of nowhere.
As much as I'd gotten to know him over the last few months, it only proved that there was still so much to learn about my tiny little dancer.