I'm With You

23

TW's:
-Eating disorder behaviour
-Ambulance (CW)

George's POV

I knew this was different to Clay passing out the last few times. He didn't wake up after a few seconds and his whole body was numb along with an ashen face. I didn't know what to do, I couldn't leave him to look for help, but I also needed to seek help for him right away.

'HELP!' I decided to scream loudly.

I was shaking Clay's body, but he didn't wake up. I felt myself get more and more panicky, causing me to have more tics and start shaking.

'Clay, wake up,' I whispered with a high pitched voice. My voice cracked in the end and I felt tears coming up in my eyes as I noticed Clay wasn't going to wake up.

'HELP,' I screamed again, kissing Clay's face after that. 'Don't leave me, stay with me.'

I bursted into tears and heard a boy walk my way. He looked at me with big eyes. 'Are you okay? Do you need help?'

'Please, get the principal. Clay passed out and he's not waking up.'

'I'm getting him,' the boy said as he started running off.

'Clay, wake up,' I whispered again, shaking his body. 'Don't die, I was just so happy to be your boyfriend, I love you so much.'

It stayed awfully quiet and I lifted him up on my lap, letting his head rest there instead of the cold and dirty ground we were sitting on. I kept sitting like this with constant tics until the principal ran my way.

'George, what's wrong?'

'Clay passed out and he's not waking up. He has been unconscious for a few minutes now.'

The principal nodded and grabbed his phone. 'Turn him to his side,' he said as he started calling an ambulance.

I did what he told me to and kissed Clay's cheek. 'I love you, Clay. Please, come back to me. I miss your smile.'

It was quiet next to the principal talking to the ambulance and I started clicking my tongue as I blinked with my eyes a lot. The tics always got worse when I was stressed and this was one of those moments. Luckily I had changed my old keychain to my bunny and I grabbed it as I started rubbing his soft wool. It calmed me down a little and I ran my other hand through Clay's hair.

I sat like this for another five minutes and then the ambulance arrived. The paramedics immediately knelt down next to Clay and lifted him up on a stretcher as they drove him inside of the ambulance. I was allowed to come with them and looked at how they inserted an IV in Clay's arm.

'Does he pass out often?' a woman asked me.

I nodded. 'I haven't known him for extremely long, but I think I've seen him pass out six times.'

'Do you know why?'

'He eats really poorly and exercises way too much.'

'Anorexia?'

I shrugged. 'I'm not sure. He does eat, but only pure, organic, no carbs, no gluten and no dairy and vegan. He basically only eats vegetables and fruits. Next to that, he exercises for four hours a day.'

'Sounds like orthorexia to me,' the woman said as she grabbed a small kit. 'I'm going to give him glucagon.'

'What's orthorexia?' I asked.

'It's where a person eats extremely healthy because they are scared to get sick. It's often not about losing weight like patients with anorexia nervosa are obsessed with. Is he obsessed with getting muscular?'

I shrugged. 'He's just needs to exercise or he gets restless.'

The paramedic nodded and looked at me when I had a bad tic and hit myself.

'I'm sorry, I have Tourette's.'

'No worries,' she said with a smile. 'What are you to him?'

'He's my boyfriend since this morning,' I said with a shy smile.

She nodded. 'Congrats,' she said as she injected some of the glucagon into Clay's IV.

'What's wrong with him? Is he going to be okay?'

'He needs to draw blood since I think he's missing a lot of crucial things in his blood and at this moment I think his blood sugar dropped dramatically, causing him to pass out. Did he eat this morning?'

I shrugged. 'I don't know, he often lies about it. He was very early at school today, so I don't think he ate.'

The paramedic nodded and then smiled. 'He's waking up.'

I looked at Clay and grabbed his hand with a big smile on my face. 'Clay!'

He slowly opened his eyes. 'H-hello.'

'How are you feeling?' the woman asked him as he squeezed my hand weakly.

'I feel weak,' he whispered. 'What happened?'

'You passed out and now we are taking you to the hospital.'

'Can I go home again?'

'You're not in the hospital yet. We have to draw some blood, because we suspect that you miss important things. Your boyfriend told us you have been eating really poorly lately.'

'That's a lie, I eat healthy.'

'What did you eat this morning and yesterday?'

'I ate nothing today,' Clay muttered. 'And yesterday I had two apples, one banana and beans with a potato.'

'That's way too little and you barely have any carbs and dairy, something you really need.'

'I'm not going to eat that. I eat fine.'

'Then we will have to connect you to a feeding tube until your blood values are back to normal.'

'No,' Clay muttered with panic in his eyes. 'I'm healthy.'

'You passed out, because your blood sugar is too low,' the woman said.

Clay gave up the fight and opened his arms to cuddle with me while I was having a lot of tics. He ran his hand through my hair and kissed my cheek.

'Are you okay, George?'

I smiled shortly, not answering his question.

'George, can you answer me?'

I sniffed softly and felt a tear rolling down my face. 'I was just very scared,' I whispered. 'I thought I lost you.'

Clay smiled comfortingly and kissed my forehead. 'I'm okay again. I'm sorry that I made you this scared, but you know that I love you, right?'

I nodded slowly and Clay hugged me tightly. 'I'm here, I'm with you.'

1043 words