Page 52 of Waste of Worth

Panic surrounded him.

Not his own, no … someone else’s.

He could hear her crying in the background of the blackness starting to seep into his consciousness.

It wouldn’t be long now and the abyss would be there, waiting.

It almost felt like an old friend considering how much time he’d spent with it over the course of his life.

“Dino! Oh, my God, Dino!”

That voice …

He knew that voice.

He liked that voice.

Dino thought he might have been smiling, but he quickly realized he wasn’t seeing blue tinged with black any longer, but rather, a grueling streak of red oozing down to the pavement.

Blood from his mouth, he thought.

He hated blood in his mouth.

“Dino … Here, let me get you on your back.”

Soft hands roved over his most tender spots.

He barely felt the pain at all.

Somehow, his vision cleared just enough for him to put the familiar face to that sweet voice.

Karen.

Fear stared back at him.

Confusion and pain.

This was exactly why she didn’t need to be mixed up with him.

This was exactly why she was so much better than him.

This was exactly what he didn’t want her knowing.

He should have told her he was sorry.

Instead, he said, “Don’t call the cops.”

That was more important.

For now.

“HOLY shit—he needs a hospital!”

“I’m well aware of that,” Karen snapped, her patience running thin.

Dino, drifting in and out of consciousness as he was shuffled from the ground to something else, had only caught bits and pieces of the conversation.

He didn’t think he could bring back a time from his memories when he had ever heard Karen as irritated and upset as she was in that moment. And God knew he’d pissed her off a couple of times.