It Started With The Cereal

What Really Happened

I decided to just straight up say "fuck it" and bring Lannan the whole bottle of vodka. I of course won't let him drink all of it, but I also don't want him to have to ask for more.
As I get upstairs, I realize that he hasn't noticed me yet.
He's in so much pain.
He's just trying to hide it from me.
He can't even stay still.
I softly say, "hey."
He looks up at me, with the most sorrowful look.
He's opening and closing his fists like they hurt.
"Let me see." I say, taking his hands.
His knuckles are bruised and swollen. He defended himself.
That's good to know.
I hand him the bottle, hoping that maybe once he's drunk, he'll tell me what happened.
1 hour later
Lannan is so drunk it's not even funny.
I mean... it kinda is cuz he's generally hilarious but, he's getting bad.
He's starting to tell me what happened.
"The second I left the house... I knew I was f-fucked," he starts. "Cars were pulling beside in f-front and b-behind me. They were w-waiting. So when I got to the s-store, they boxed me in, so I s-stayed in my ute. Then, once I decided not to be a pathetic little bitch, I got out, and they all came at me at once. Francisco hit me the most. He's the one that hit me with th-that crowbar."
Crowbar?! No no no.
He was probably so scared and helpless.
"So I tried to swing at them, and I think I hit them a couple times." He laughs (since he's drunk). "But then, one of them pinned me down with his hand on my throat, and he whispered to me, 'if you tell anyone who we are, I'll come for your girl, and I'll do unspeakable things to her.' And he was talking about every explicit thing he would do to you, then me. S-so I told him I would do what he wanted me to. He just wanted to beat the hell out of me. That's all. Francisco, that fucker, he pulled a knife on me."
I literally wanna scream. It's so much worse.
Lannan bites his lip, then laughs.
He pushes my hair behind my ear, blinking slowly like he's really tired.
"I passed the fuck out once I was hit in the back of the head with a crowbar." He says, reaching to feel behind his head for the bump.
"Feel it." He says, aggressively taking my hand, forcing me to feel the bump on the back of his head.
I honestly have no words. I feel so bad.
This is all my fault.
I kiss his cheek. So he holds my head in place so I don't move away from him.
"Let me finish bandaging you up." I say.
He nods, so I go into his bathroom, grab some stuff, then come back out to him.
I gently wrap his hands in gauze, that way they won't split open and bleed everywhere.
Since he's shirtless, he's cold now. Which is weird to me but that's just how he is I guess.
I can't get over the way his neck looks though. The people that attacked him really overdid it.
They literally strangled him.
Yeah, not okay!
I gently stroke along his jaw and neck.
He looks so defenseless right now.
I go in to kiss his forehead, but he moves so our lips touch.
"Please ignore that I just got the hell beaten out of me. I wanna be with you. And I need to just feel you right now." He says quickly.
He leans in to kiss me again, so I set my hand on his chest, carefully making him lay down.
He whimpers softly, so I take his hand.
"It's okay." I whisper.
I lay beside him, pulling his head to my chest.
"Just try and go to sleep okay?"
He shakes his head.
"I won't sleep, thinking about all that they could have done to you." He rambles.
"Don't worry about that. You're drunk, you're tired. Let's just go to sleep." I say.
With his words muffled against my chest, he laughs, "fuck me first."
I continue to run my hands through his hair, waiting for him to fall asleep.
"Mmmmm." He grumbles in an almost pouty way.
He only gets like this when he's drunk and tired. It's cute but can be annoying at times. I'll let it slide this time since he's hurt.
"Fuck. Me." He says sternly.
I can't take him seriously since his hands are all pushed up to his face as he's all cuddled up to me. He looks way too cute and fragile.
"No." I chuckle.
He sits up the best he can, then falls back to his stomach, landing on me.
He's laughing though so I'm assuming he's fine.
I'd ask him what he's doing, but there's really no point.
He then sits back up, grabs my face, and starts kissing me.
He smells like alcohol and that's all I'm picking up on at this point.
He carefully starts kissing down my neck. And it's not your average little kiss. It's the most perfect thing ever. His lips cling to my skin, and there's something about the way he releases. It's just so perfect.
I try to pull him away, but, like usual, he holds me tighter.
"No no no, it's time to go to sleep." I say.
He shakes his head, so I keep trying to push him off.
Since he's drunk of course, it's making matters worse.
"Lannan stop." I push him again.
He finally sits up, hurting himself of course.
I go over to the head of the bed so I can turn the lamp off and such.
He lays beside me, and sets his head on my lap.
"I'm sorry."
"Shhh."
And then, he's painfully quiet. Quiet enough for me to just fall asleep.
3:19 AM
I wake up to something I've woken up to many times before.
My eyes open, and Lannan lies there, on his side, shaking.
Now alarmed, I sit up, and get a better look at him.
He's not seizing, thank God.
He must just be having convulsions from his pain.
I don't know if he's on his side to make it feel better, or if it's so bad that at this point, he can't even move.
Not really knowing what to do, I lay him on his back.
He instantly starts to moan in pain.
But so loud that he wakes himself up.
He starts to sweat hard, then his breathing gets all weird.
No one else is here at this point. Tannar and her friends all left earlier to go who knows where!
I take his hand, trying to get him to steady his breathing.
It's not helping. He's just breathing faster and becoming more anxious.
I realize he's shivering. Something clicks in my head.
I've dealt with this before.
I quickly grab my phone, calling an ambulance.
A woman answers, I explain the situation to her.
"He's going into shock." I say frantically.
"Lay him down, keep him warm," she starts. "Monitor his breathing at all times we'll be there in around 10 minutes. Just keep him breathing. If he looks like he's gonna vomit, lay him on his side."
I nod, even though she can't see me.
"Got it. I finally say, putting her on speaker just in case I need to say something to her again.
Lannan's hand starts to squeeze mine so tight that it's hurting really bad.
He looks sick. In so much pain.
I pull his eyelids open to check his pupils. They're exactly as the lady on the phone described how they were gonna be.
His head falls limp to the side.
I quickly check his pulse, to find it going very fast. Okay. He just passed out. He's not dead. It's okay.
I don't understand. He was fine earlier.