Static crackled on the line. Had I lost him?
“On a back road,” Ollie rasped, “I can’t see shit, it rained, and I can’t be here.”
Headlights. Mud. Middle of the night. Jack’s eyes held mine, both of us clearly on the same page. His mouth pressed into a grim line before he disappeared into the dorm, returning quickly with his car keys. We took off towards the parking garage.
“We’re coming, don’t go anywhere,” I demanded, jogging to keep up as Jack raced down the stairs.
Through a bout of wet coughs, “I can get to Oakville.”
We reached the third floor and sprinted to Jack’s yellow Hummer.
“It’s thirty minutes away,” he said as we dove into our seats.
“Hurry,” I hissed.
Tires squealed on the smooth concrete as he floored it out of the parking garage into the quiet, damp night.
“I can get there in twenty-five,” he promised.
On the line, Ollie let out a pained moan. We rocketed down a series of black back roads; each mile the thread in my chest wound us closer. I tried to keep Ollie talking, but most of his responses were mutterings or grunts.
“Can you drive?” Jack asked. I nodded. “Good, you take him in the Hummer, I’ll follow in his car.” I nodded again, unsure of what else to do. Familiar headlights beamed at us right beside a rusted sign,Welcome to Oakville.
I flew out of the truck before Jack shut off the engine.
My slippers slapped the mud as I stumbled to the driver’s side of the black BMW. I tore open the door and swallowed a cry. My worries had been justified.
Blood stained his cheeks, his lashes, his sweater. Tremors wracked his body, a sheen of sweat on his skin. He looked likehell.
“Angel,” Ollie whispered.
My voice was stolen, replaced by jagged stone. I flung my arms around him, tucking his head to my chest. His skin was so hot.Too hot. A fever. How he managed to drive without crashing was a miracle. He clung to me, shaken by hitching gasps.
“I need- I need a pill. Anything, I’ll takeanything.”
Standing in mom’s bathroom, I watched her rip chunks of her hair from her scalp, screaming. Naked and sweating and shitting and crying. “I need another dose! Anything!”
He was going through withdrawal.
I shot a furious glare at Jack. “What’s he been taking?”
Jack attempted to help me drag Ollie from the car, tripping through mud as Ollie twisted to grab his best friend by the shirt.
“You have something, right?”
“No, brother,” Jack murmured.
Ollie screamed- a scream that sent sleeping birds in the neighboring woods fleeing. Jack slapped a hand over his mouth and wrangled him into the Hummer.
“The fuck did you get into? You can’t do this shit, man,” Jack scolded, eyes shimmering with a mixture of rage and fear.
Ollie cursed and fought as Jack strapped him in. I hugged myself. Seeing him this way hurt. Every gasp, shiver, plea hit with the force of a machine gun bullet.
I climbed behind the wheel and started the truck. Jack jumped down with Ollie’s keys, casting a frown at his best friend before slamming the door. I reached across the console to brush sweat-dampened hair from Ollie’s bloodshot eyes. He calmed enough to look at me, but quickly dissolved in broken pleas.
“You- you don’t know what I’ve done- I had to do it- I had to or they- You don’t know.”
I swallowed against the noose of emotion around my throat.
