Page 143 of When Ben Loved Jace

I shrug. “I think card games are more popular. You know, the kind with obscene answers that you have to pair with a subject or… Are you okay?”

Jace is grimacing again. “Yeah. Maybe I slept wrong.” He rolls his neck back and forth. “Except it’s more like a headache at the base of my skull.”

“That’s weird. Maybe you should take an aspirin.”

“Good idea.” He stands and braces himself on the table. “Dizzy.”

“Let’s get some food in your belly. How about some eggs?”

He nods. I get up and start taking things out of the refrigerator. “We could order pizza while Jason is here,” I suggest. “That’ll never go out of style. Or we could cook together, but I’d rather him think that we’re fun.”

“We don’t want him to realize the boring truth until it’s too late,” Jace replies. “How many of these can I take? What’s the maximum?”

“That bad?” I ask, setting a carton of eggs down while assessing him.

“Yeah. I think…” The bottle slips from his hand, a shower of pills bouncing off the counter, little ping-pong balls that scatter across the floor. Jace turns toward me, his eyes widening in fear. “Something’s wrong."

“What?”

He doesn’t answer. Jace’s legs crumple beneath him, one hand grabbing the edge of the counter, his fingers slipping off as he falls to his side. I go rigid in panic before some instinct kicks into gear. I rush over to him, skidding on my knees, so I can place his head on my lap. Jace’s breaths are short and irregular, his eyelids fluttering shut and open again, like he’s fighting against losing consciousness.

“Ben!” he manages to gasp, his body twitching.

What is this? A seizure? I don’t know what to do! My phone is on the table, which feels like a million miles away. “Hold on,” I say, scooting out from under him.

He doesn’t respond.

“Can you hear me?”

Nothing.

I scramble toward the table, my hands shaking so much when I grab my phone that I can’t type the stupid number in. Isn’t there some sort of shortcut to call emergency services? I can’t remember. I hurry back to him as he convulses again. I hear a woman’s distant voice and press the phone to my ear.

“We need help!” I blubber. “My husband is having a seizure.” I rattle off our address, twice in a row, just in case. “Send an ambulance! Hurry!”

“I’ll have one dispatched to your location immediately—”

I set down the phone so I can place his head on my lap again, unsure what else to do. What if he stops breathing? What if—

The thought is unthinkable.

“Help is on the way,” I tell him.

His eyelids flutter again, like he’s trying to find his way back to me.

“You’re going to be okay,” I croak while choking back my tears. “I promise! Just hold on.”

Samson creeps across the floor toward us, his body low to the ground, so he can sniff one of Jace’s hands.

“Samson is here too,” I say. “You’re going to be okay.”

Jace tries to say something, but I can’t understand him.

“I love you,” I splutter, my tears dotting his face. “Just hang in there.”

Jace tries to move, a hand pawing at the air before his arm flops to the floor again. This sends Samson scurrying away. I keep whispering assurances to him, insisting that everything is going to be all right, even though I don’t know if that’s true. But it has to be, because I can’t live without him.

After what feels like eternity. I finally hear sirens.