Page 26

“Y-yes,” he stuttered. “Yes, I can do that. But please hurry!”

“I’ll try,” Austin said, and then the phone beeped as the call disconnected.

Jamie turned off his phone and anxiously bit his lip as he looked at Jesse’s still form. This couldn’t be happening. One night of love, and now his hair and eyes were wrong and Jesse was unconscious. Trembling heavily, Jamie reached out, putting his hand back to Jesse’s chest.

The heartbeat was even fainter than before. Tears built in Jamie’s eyes as his gaze darted around, trying to find something—anything—that could help.

Wait up.

Jesse was naked! He was naked and the floor was littered with the clothes they’d worn the night before!

If anyone came in here, they’d probably guess what had happened, and the secret would be out!

Jesse’s warnings of the danger they’d be in if that happened echoed through Jamie’s mind, and he hurriedly gathered all their clothes and tossed them into the basket in the closet, and then he went to the dresser and got some of Jesse’s things.

He needed to get Jesse dressed before the doctors got here, and if they asked what happened…

he’d say he didn’t know. That was mostly true.

After he struggled to get Jesse dressed, a loud noise began to sound outside; a high pitched wailing.

Jamie had heard it a few times before, but never thought too much of it.

It sounded urgent. Was that the ambulance?

The wailing got louder and louder, and Jamie rushed over to the window, watching as a large square truck with bright flashing red lights sped into the parking lot.

The letters written on it confirmed that this was the ambulance.

Thank goodness! The sound stopped and the doors opened as a couple of doctors jumped out.

Jamie pushed away from the window and ran outside.

“Over here,” he called at once, waving to get their attention and pulling the front door open more fully for them to enter. “He’s in the bedroom, he won’t wake up!”

The doctors followed Jamie into the bedroom, asking questions that he couldn’t really answer.

As they reached Jesse, they seemed serious, but calm—but almost as soon as they checked on him, their demeanor changed.

An urgency came upon them, and they started working fast over Jesse as they called hurried instructions to each other using a ton of words Jamie had never heard before.

He stood there in the doorway, feeling his panic rise inside of him as he watched the paramedics work.

They moved Jesse to the floor and cut his shirt off before Jamie could protest (if he’d known they would do that, he wouldn’t have worked so hard to put it on him) and started doing…

things, to his chest. Leaning over him and pressing their hands over his heart, over and over again, hard .

Jamie didn’t know what they were doing, but it seemed…

so violent. If he didn’t know they were doctors, he’d have thought they were trying to hurt Jesse.

He felt that protectiveness that Jesse had described; an overwhelming urge to jump in and stop the doctors, and keep Jesse safe from them.

But he couldn’t do that. He had to just stand here and watch, and hope that whatever was wrong with Jesse could be fixed.

One of the paramedics hurried out of the apartment and came back with a weird box.

They pulled some kind of machine out and grabbed a couple strange square pads with handles out of it, cords hanging from the ends attaching the pads to the machine.

They called out a few more instructions to each other, yelled out ‘CLEAR’ and then pressed the pads to Jesse’s chest. It made a strange sound, a loud thump, as Jesse’s body convulsed violently.

But he didn’t stir. His eyes remained closed, and his head rolled to the side as he fell back onto the floor.

“What’s happening?” Jamie screamed. “What’s wrong with him? You hurt him, what did you do to him!?”

“Stay back,” one of the paramedics told him, covering Jesse’s mouth and nose with a strange thing, as the other got back to pushing hard against Jesse’s chest. “His heart stopped right when we got in; we’re trying to get it beating again.”

What!?

His heart had stopped!?

Jamie felt like he was reeling. He sank to sit on the ground, unable to stand any longer, and covered his mouth with his hands as the paramedics continued doing things to Jesse.

After a few minutes, they seemed to get calmer.

Another paramedic came in with a complicated looking cot on wheels, and the first two started moving Jesse onto it.

“Wait,” Jamie pushed himself back to his feet. “Where are you taking him?”

“Uh, to the hospital,” one of them answered, as if that were obvious.

“The hospital?” Jamie repeated, as the paramedics secured Jesse on the cot and began to wheel him out. “Is he going to be alright? He’s not dying, is he?!”

“We’ll do everything we can for your friend, sir,” one of the paramedics said, as the others brought Jesse out of the house. “Are you coming with him?”

“I can do that?” Jamie asked in relief. “Thank you, yes, I want to come!”

He moved to follow Jesse’s cot as it was loaded into the ambulance, but the paramedic who’d offered the ride motioned him back. “You can’t ride in the back, you have to sit up front with the driver.”

Jamie stared, confusion joining the panic he felt. “Why can’t I ride with him in the back?”

“There’s just not enough space for you back there right now,” the paramedic told him .

But Jamie wanted to ride in the back with Jesse! What was the point of riding in the ambulance if he couldn’t ride in the ambulance?

As he tried to decide what to do, another car pulled up in the parking lot nearby—this one marked as a taxi. The back door opened and Austin climbed out, his eyes wide and his shoulders tense as he took in the scene.

“Thank goodness, I’m not too late,” he muttered as he reached Jamie, who frowned as he realized that Austin was limping a lot worse than usual. But then he remembered that he fell when they were talking on the phone earlier.

“What’s wrong with him?” Austin asked, his voice sounding concerned.

“I don’t know,” Jamie admitted. “They say his heart stopped!”

“ What?! ” Austin yelped. “Oh my god!”

“Sir, are you coming or not?” asked the paramedic.

“They won’t let me ride in the back,” Jamie complained to Austin.

“Yeah, that’s standard,” Austin sighed. “Come on; I told the cabbie to wait. We can take the taxi to the hospital together.”

Jamie nodded numbly, too anxious and confused about Jesse to argue about it anymore.

The last paramedic climbed up into the ambulance and pulled the door closed behind him—cutting Jesse off from view—and the sirens turned back on as the ambulance started driving away.

Jamie gritted his teeth and covered his ears, the noise twice as loud now that he was standing right next to it.

Austin gently took hold of his arm and led him over to the taxi, looking more serious than Jamie had ever seen him.

They got into the back together, and Austin told the driver to take them to the hospital.

Then he turned his attention to Jamie, lowering his voice to a whisper. “Did you tell the doctors about you-know-what?”

Jamie pursed his lips and shook his head. “No, of course not.”

“Well… this once, it might be a good idea to admit it to the doctors at least,” Austin muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. “Considering it might be what caused this. ”

Jamie turned to him in shock. “What do you mean? Are you saying this was my fault?”

“No!” Austin amended quickly. “No, I’m not saying that at all!

Just, it’s like I told you on the phone.

Sometimes, things can… trigger reactions.

” He bit his lip as his gaze flickered up to Jamie’s hair.

In all the panic, Jamie had almost forgotten, it was white all of a sudden.

“I think it’s better to tell the doctors.

I mean, not about your hair and stuff, but…

about what you did last night. To help them find out what’s wrong. ”

Jamie’s mind was spiraling as they drove along to the hospital.

Jesse’s heart had stopped, he had practically died.

Austin said it wasn’t Jamie’s fault, but he didn’t see how it could be anything else.

It must’ve been him who hurt Jesse so badly.

And on top of that, it had been him who’d asked Jesse to sleep with him.

If Jesse didn’t survive this, Jamie would never forgive himself.