Old Fashioned

Chapter 4

Alex startled, sitting boltright up at the abrupt noise. He placed a hand on his chest to calm the racing of his heart before jumping to his feet and scrambling up the stairs. Once locating the bathroom, he knocked loudly.

"You okay in there?" he called out.

Alex could still hear the water pattering on the shower floor, but no other sounds..

"F... Fine..." Tai rasped from behind the door, attempting to mask his ragged breathing, but the pain was more than evident in his voice.

"You don't sound fine," Alex responded, deciding to push his limits a bit. "Are you sure you don't need my help?"

However, he only got a weak mumble in reply, which caused his concern to double. He'd been alone with Tai for two seconds, and the guy had already managed to hurt himself. Erin was going to kill him.

"Ok, umm..." he mumbled frantically, trying to decide between a bad decision and an even worse decision. "Ok, I'm coming in. But I'll keep my eyes covered, okay?"

Without waiting for a response, he cracked the door open, his eyes pinched shut and his hand positioned over them for an extra layer of protection. Tentatively moving forward, Alex waved his free arm around in front of him to fend off any unsuspected corners or other stumbling blocks. It didn't help that he had no idea what the layout of the bathroom looked like.

Running his hand along the wall, Alex first felt a towel, haphazardly hanging up on an otherwise bare rack. Then, as he followed the sound of the shower, his foot ran into something on the floor, to which Tai vaguely grunted beneath him upon impact.

"Shit, sorry!" he called, crouching down carefully.

He wanted to reach out and find Tai, but didn't want to accidentally stumble upon things he shouldn't. The last thing he needed was the embarrassment of feeling this guy up without his permission.

"Grab onto my arm," he instructed. "I'll help you up."

There were a few moments of nothing before he felt a hand weakly grasp at his sleeve, barely able to hold on, with the damp skin only making things worse.

Alex, keeping his eyes securely shut, latched onto Tai's arm and hefted it up over his shoulder, using himself as an anchor. His impeccable balance saved him from face-planting on the slick floor, and he managed to shift them both into a standing position.

"Lead me to your bedroom," he said, feeling like he was on one of those game shows where you work as a team to use your alternating senses in order to complete tasks. However, Tai was almost completely limp, and only managed to murmur something under his breath, of which was entirely unintelligible.

But, now that he was slumped against Alex's side, Alex could feel that there was a towel wrapped around Tai's waist. He let out a small sigh of relief, cracking one eye open, then the other, making sure to keep his gaze trained on the path ahead rather than on Tai, not wanting to make him feel uncomfortable.

However, Alex's relief was quickly washed away once he saw a thick red substance on the bathroom floor, swirling in the puddles of water.

The stab wound had reopened, with blood spilling down Tai's abdomen, staining the towel around his waist. He also had a large knot on his forehead, trickling blood down the side of his face. With a bit more investigation, Alex saw that there were some traces of red on the rim of the shower.

Tai's eyes were almost completely rolled back into his head while his feet dragged on the ground, barely hanging on to consciousness.

"Fuck," Alex cursed under his breath, smacking Tai's face lightly to keep him conscious. "Stay with me, man."