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Can I talk?
Whisper. Throat’s too dry, and chest is tight.
Where’s my phone?
The light of the little screen hurts as much as the sunlight, but I squint my eyes and suffer through it.
Who do I call?
I want Holly. I want her soft body pressed against mine, her soothing touch wiping away all this pain. She’s always in control. She’ll know what to do.
She’ll come here and … see how weak I am. How pathetic and sick.
She won’t want me anymore.
Can’t call Holly. Who do I call?
Jasper should be here.
The phone rings twice before he answers.
“Why are you calling me? Aren’t you upstairs?” The sound of his video game plays in the background.
Good, he’s in the house.
“Yeah.” I cough, trying to force noise out of my throat. “I need”—more coughing—“hospital.”
“Shit.”
The phone line goes dead, and I let my arm fall to my lap. I want to lie back on the bed, find some way to sink into oblivion, but my barely functioning brain knows I’m going to need to stand up soon.
“Ben?” Jasper rushes into my bedroom, looks me over, and then presses his hand to my forehead. “You’re on fire. Can you walk?”
Again, I try to stand but fall back after rising maybe an inch off the bed.
“Sammy!” Jasper yells over his shoulder as he kneels on the floor in front of me.
I don’t understand what he’s doing until I feel him slipping a sneaker onto my foot.
Sammy appears in the door, watching us with his eyebrow quirked. “What’s going on?”
“Get the car. Ben needs to go to the hospital.”
He doesn’t hesitate. “Got it.”
I try to lean over, put my shoes on myself, but the floor tilts at a weird angle, and Jasper’s arm braced against my chest is the only thing keeping me from crumpling to the floor.
“Just let me do it.”
My brain has trouble with the concept of time, so I don’t know if Jasper struggles to get me dressed or if he’s done in a matter of minutes. At some point, he lifts my arms to slide them into a coat.
I make a weak protest. “Hot. Too hot.”
“Too fucking bad, buddy. It’s below freezing outside.”
“Let’s get him to the car.” Sammy is back, and between the two of them, I hang.
Even though I try to put weight on my legs, the muscles just don’t seem to be working right.
