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“Does it look like the fucking good shit? Jesus, Laurie, call the fucking ambulance, he’s not breathing.”
“W-what?”
“Call an ambulance!”
Hands grab me roughly, and I’m rolled onto my side. The light dims, and I’m pulled under.
ROBBIE - TWENTY-THREE YEARS OLD
“H-hello?” I mumble into my phone, barely awake.
“Rob? Rob, fuck, I’m sorry but Isla’s away. Dad rang, he said Noah’s been taken to hospital.”
I shoot upright and rip the duvet off myself, my blood turning to ice as my brain jumps to the worst-case scenario. “Is he okay? What happened?”
There’s silence on the other end of the line. I switch the phone to loudspeaker and throw it on the bed, dressing quickly.
“I can’t,” Richard chokes out. “Fuck, Rob, can you just come get me please? I tried to drive but my hands won’t stop shaking.”
“Where are you?”
I’m already out of the door and starting my engine when he replies, “Still on my drive.”
“Stay on the phone for me, alright? I’m on my way.”
“Y-yeah. Yeah, I can do that.”
I have no clue what time it is, only that I was woken from a deep sleep when my phone rang. I check the dashboard clock. Two-thirty in the morning. “I’m ten minutes away,” I say, just to fill the silence.
My hand shakes as I change gear. I haven’t seen Noah in three years, but the fear and pain in Richard’s voice is mirrored in me. “Is he … he’s alive, right?”
“Barely.”
My heart hammers in my chest. I don’t know how I’m going to deal with this—I already feel sick at the thought of having to go into the hospital. “Five minutes away,” I say, swallowing down bile.
“He passed out at a party, and someone called an ambulance. He was lucky, Rob. That’s what Dad told me. What the hell was he thinking?”
I don’t know what the hell he was thinking, because I have no fucking clue what kind of man Noah has turned into. As soon as I finished uni, I moved back to Skye and never left again.
I turn down Isla’s road and pull up in front of Richard’s car. He jumps out and quickly gets into mine.
“You okay?” I ask.
“No. Please just go.”
I put my foot down for the eight-hour journey to Cumbria.
By the time I park at the hospital, my head is pounding with an unforgiving headache and my jaw is aching from clenching my teeth. I can’t even look at the building.
Richard is halfway out of the car when he stops, looking back at me. “Rob?”
“I—I’ll wait here for you.” I glance over at him and wish I hadn’t. He looks terrified. Red-rimmed eyes, wide and pleading.
“I can’t go in there alone. Please, Rob.”
My grip tightens on the steering wheel. Fuck Isla. Fuck her for not being here, and fuck Rich for staring at me with those grey doe eyes.
I release the wheel, rubbing my clammy hands on my jeans before opening my door with more force than necessary. “Alright, let’s go.” I slam the door shut and follow Richard through the main doors of the hospital.
