The Chaotic Interim (boyxboy)

Chapter 6

“Ayd, I’m going to go shower,” Josiah called when the blonde took her headphones off and rested them on top of her laptop’s keyboard.

“Okay,” she said, saving her paper one final time.

Ayden scrolled through the ten pages, and couldn’t help but feel proud of herself. It had literally taken her a whole day to write it, but she finished it. And she thought it was perfect. The blonde was sure that when she handed it in on Monday she would get at least a high B--and this was her professor who was the toughest grader.

She let her green eyes slide over to the time on the microwave. It was just after nine. She sighed. Some Saturday night this was. Ayden felt kind of bad because she hadn’t even noticed when Carson left. She knew that she had been quite a bore that day, but to her, school came first. Especially annoying, ten page papers.

Ayden pushed back from the kitchen table and stretched her muscles, realizing just how sore she was from sitting in the wooden chair almost the whole day. She brushed her hair up and tied it into a haphazard ponytail before she dug through the cupboard. The water running from the shower in Josiah’s bathroom could easily be heard from where Ayden was.

Ayden yawned, feeling mentally exhausted after doing all that academic writing, and pulled out an applesauce container. Just as she reached into the drawer for a spoon, her phone started vibrating violently on the kitchen table where it sat next to her light-blue laptop.

The leggy blonde jumped from the sudden noise and scraped her knuckle on the lip of the counter. She hissed as the slight pain ebbed through the wound before it melted away into a steady throb. Ayden dropped the applesauce on the counter and abandoned the spoon that was now laying in the wrong section of the drawer.

Crossing the room quickly, she saw Carson’s name flash across the screen. Curious and unsure about what he had to say, the blonde snatched up her phone and answered with a cheery, “Hey, Car!”

Ayden didn’t get a response right away. She heard a mixture between heavy and shallow breathing, before a quiet sob. Ayden’s eyes narrowed unseeingly at the space in front of her as worry shot through her. “Carson? What’s going on?”

This time, the boy on the other end did answer, but it was so strained, mumbled, and hoarse, that she wasn’t sure if she was hearing everything correctly. What it sounded like, though, was, “Ayd?”

“Yeah,” she said firmly. “Carson, what--”

“I ca-can’t,” the deep voice choked. “Ayd--hurts--”

Ayden’s heart clenched as fear gripped her. Her voice rose as she asked, “What hurts? Carson, where are you?”

The blonde heard another sob and knew her best friend was crying. Just the thought that something bad had happened to him, tore her up, making her want to cry as well. But she held herself together, because she needed to figure out where he was.

“Outs-side. Everything, Ayd. All hurts,” Carson gasped quietly. He whimpered loudly into the phone and Ayden had to pull it back a few inches before he went quiet again--much quieter than before. She barely even heard him say, “Can’t move. Please, Ayd, help.”

Ayden was nearly in panic mode already. She had never heard Carson sound like that in all the years they had been friends. The blonde was throwing on her jacket and grabbing Josiah’s car keys off of the counter as she hurried over to put her shoes on.

“Carson,” she said clearly and slowly so he could keep up with her. “I need you to tell--” There was a loud thud on the other end that was instantly followed by a deafening silence. “Carson?” Nothing. She couldn’t even hear his breathing or faint crying anymore. “Carson! Where are you?”