Page 27

Austin

There was nothing in the world worse than hospitals.

Okay, actually, there were a lot of really bad things out in the world, and hospitals were in the business of saving lives, so maybe that wasn’t entirely true.

But god, Austin just hated hospitals. The sterile white environments and the clinical smell of antiseptic that clung to everything, the uncomfortable chairs in the waiting rooms, the endless paperwork, the constant reminder of pain and death…

The fact that Austin’s dream of becoming a doctor had been dashed to pieces almost as soon as he’d started medical school, leaving him hospitalized for months and costing him so much money in medical debt that going back to college had immediately become impossible, only made it all a thousand times worse.

This wasn’t just a place of healing for him; it was a graveyard of what his life could have been, and every time he walked through those sterile doors, it felt like reopening a wound that had never really healed.

If the same thing happened to Jesse now, Austin would just have to turn full revolutionary. Punish the world for its cruelty, on the too-kind Jesse’s behalf. That was the only reason he was making himself stay here in this hellhole—for Jesse’s sake.

Two long, agonizing days had passed, and Jesse was still slipping in and out of semi-consciousness.

The heart monitor beeped steadily, painfully reminding Austin just how fragile the human body truly was.

That every second of someone’s life could be measured with a simple, quiet beep.

It was enough to drive Austin mad. But at least Jesse wasn’t flatlining…

Again.

Austin didn’t think he’d ever forget how close his best friend had got to death.

They were no stranger to it, the two of them; they’d had their close call before.

But this time, it had been Austin who got to wait by Jesse’s bedside in growing anxiety, as he wracked his brain to try and remember what their last words to each other had been—just in case they were their last.

He felt sick over it.

But he had to muscle through and stay strong, for Jesse’s sake.

And for Jamie’s sake, too. He might not have ended up in the hospital, but Jamie was just as devastated.

At first, he had refused to leave Jesse’s side, his guilt and worry etched into his face like permanent lines.

But with the upcoming dance competition only a few days away and with Jesse babbling nonsense every time he was half awake (he was on pretty strong anaesthetics, after all) Austin had finally convinced Jamie that going to his dance practices to clear his head was the best thing he could do right now.

Besides, he knew that Jamie considered the studio to be a ‘safe space.’ He needed something like that, to help him cope with the stress of what had happened.

Austin still couldn’t believe what the two had done.

Well, technically he could believe it; he knew they liked each other, and he’d known for a while now that Jesse really wanted to take that next step—Austin had been teasing him about it the whole time, after all—and of course Jamie had told him by now how it had all gone down.

But the point was, it had been business-as-usual only a few days ago, and now Jesse was in the hospital because he and Jamie had made love.

Something just didn’t add up. Not only had that night changed Jamie’s hair and eye color permanently, it had also almost killed Jesse.

Somehow.

And the doctors hadn’t found anything. Despite running every test imaginable, there was nothing physically wrong with Jesse.

No explanation for the excruciating pain in his chest. No explanation as to why he had been writhing in so much agony that he’d needed to be on enough pain medication to leave him barely coherent—and no medical reason for the cardiac arrest.

Maybe there was something Austin hated more than hospitals, and that was not knowing things.

He hated not knowing things. The sooner he got to the bottom of all this, the better.

And that was part of the reason he hadn’t left Jesse’s side.

He wasn’t just here out of concern. He was waiting; waiting for Jesse to wake up and explain what the hell had happened that night.

If he even could.

About half an hour later, Austin’s patience finally paid off.

Jesse stirred in the bed, his fingers twitching against the white hospital sheets.

Austin immediately closed his laptop, setting it aside as he sat up more alert in his chair at the movement.

Jesse’s eyes slowly fluttered open, and for the first time, there was a flicker of awareness in them.

“Welcome back, mortal,” Austin couldn’t resist. His attempt at humor was half-hearted, more an effort to mask the relief flooding through him.

Jesse’s tired face became etched with confusion as he blinked up at the hospital ceiling, like he was still a bit too dazed to realize where he was.

“It’s the hospital,” Austin said, his voice softer now, though he couldn’t help the sarcasm that followed. “If you can’t handle a ‘night in’ without giving yourself a heart attack, maybe resign yourself to lifelong bachelorhood.”

Jesse turned his gaze to Austin, his brows furring in confusion. “W-what?”

“You flatlined,” Austin said. He stood up, groaning a bit at the dull shoot of pain going up through his leg, but not letting it deter him from approaching the bed to put a hand on Jesse’s shoulder.

The teasing edge in his voice shifted to a more serious tone.

“But at least you look a little better now.”

“How long… h-have I been here?” Jesse asked, his voice a bit breathless as if speaking was an effort. He glanced anxiously around the hospital room. “Where’s Jamie?”

“I told him to go to dance practice. You were so high on drugs that it scared him even more than he already was.” Austin pulled his phone from his pocket to check the time. “He should be here in an hour or so.”

Deep concern flickered across Jesse’s face.

“Don’t worry, Jamie’s fine so far. I’ve been… taking care of him.” Austin knew this sounded wrong; but it was clear how it was meant. “And just for the record, you’ve been out for a whole two days.”

“Two days?!” Jesse repeated in shock, trying to sit up—just to let out a sharp breath of pain, a grimace coming over his face as he laid back down. “Oh man, I… I missed my classes and I’m missing work!”

“That’s the first thing you think about when you wake up in the hospital?

” Austin scoffed. “That’s where your mind goes when you actually almost died?

! ” He hesitated, knowing he shouldn’t push too hard.

But he couldn’t hold back anymore. His curiosity—no, his need to understand—was too much.

He leaned in slightly, his tone more serious than before.

“Jesse, what the hell happened that night?”

Jesse winced a little, his cheeks turning red. “Nothing,” he muttered.

Austin rolled his eyes. “Right, ‘nothing.’ Okay, let’s try this again.” His voice grew firmer. “Do you maybe have some kind of illness you haven’t told me about?”

“What?” A frown pulled at Jesse’s brow. “I… I don’t, okay? If I had, you would know.” He groaned, rubbing at his eyes as he let his head rest on the pillow of the hospital bed. At least he seemed clear-headed enough to talk.

Austin lowered his voice again. “But if that’s ruled out, and everything else as well… Then the only option that’s left for explaining this—and don’t get mad at me, okay?—but the only explanation left is that Jamie caused it, somehow.”

Jesse blinked, his expression shifting to pure disbelief. “What are you talking about?”

“Jesse, we still have no clue who he is,” Austin said, pressing on despite Jesse’s obvious discomfort. “Or what.”

“Don’t say it like that.”

“No but seriously, isn’t it time we start questioning a few things? I mean, we just accepted that color change thing whenever he fell asleep, but that’s in fact not an entirely natural thing to happen, is it? Or have you ever met someone whose appearance just changes like that?”

“No, of course not…”

“Exactly! And it still hasn’t changed back!”

Jesse stared at him, obviously confused by the information. It took Austin a moment to realize Jesse probably hadn’t been lucid enough to remember everything from the past two days.

“Jamie woke up with his hair shock white and his eyes crystal blue that morning,” Austin explained.

“And it’s stayed that way ever since.” He hesitated before adding, “Look, you know how much I like him, but something must’ve happened.

You can’t expect me to believe you literally had a heart attack over sex. You’re not eighty!”

Jesse’s defences finally cracked. His shoulders slumped, and he let out a long sigh. “Jamie didn’t—it wasn’t even… that,” he admitted quietly. “It was some kind of… I don’t even know how to describe it. Jamie started… Well, it’s going to sound crazy…”

“Everything you tell me lately sounds crazy,” Austin said. “Try me.”

Jesse took a deep breath, struggling to find the words. “Jamie… transformed. Right in front of me. Or, more like… under me. When we were – when we… He was awake when it happened.”

Austin’s eyes widened. That was definitely a new piece of information. So, ‘making love’ had triggered something in Jamie!

“And then,” Jesse continued, “he started… it wasn’t ‘sparkling,’ but something like that. Not like lights, just—” He shook his head, frustrated. “It’s impossible to describe.”

“Apparently so, because I’m really lost there,” Austin said. “What do you mean, he was sparkling but he wasn’t sparkling?”

“Well, there were… something like tiny sparks appearing all over his skin,” Jesse said.

“They were floating up from him. Like he was creating… little particles of light. Or, no, not ‘light,’ it was more like there was light reflecting off whatever it was he made. Like glass or snowflakes or glitter. ”