Dusk (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 9 - Reality

***

I woke up a few hours later. The sun was still up, but the light in the air made me guess that it was around five. I was still laying on the ground in the alleyway. My ribs ached and I wondered if any were broken. It made breathing tough and I closed my eye again, trying to move as little as possible.

After a few minutes, I heard my phone buzzing and painfully crawled towards it. My fingers feebly grabbed it and I held it against my chest for a minute, thinking of who to call. All my close friends were out of state and could do absolutely nothing to help me. Mom and dad would lose their shit, and I didn't want them to see me like this. Rowan... I didn't have his number and my life had just been threatened on the account I told him... Erik.

I fumbled to unlock my phone, trying to stay conscious. I scrolled through my recents and found his name, tapping the screen and putting it on speakerphone. Erik picked up a few seconds later, sounding cheerful.

"Finally came to your senses then, huh? You joining us for video games? We're about to start drinking." I took a while to respond, trying to muster up the energy to speak. "Evan?"

"Can you..." I gasped out, trying to catch my breath.

"Evan, what's wrong?" His tone changed and I heard him shushing the guys in the background.

"Can you... Come get me please..." I whispered, hoping he'd be able to hear me, because I couldn't speak any louder.

"Yeah, of course Evan, just let me know where you are."

"An alleyway... Car garage..." I said, holding in a whimper as tears started to leak from my eyes in pain.

"Don't talk if that helps, just send me your location, can you do that?" I lifted my phone and went to messages slowly, before sending it to him. "Okay, I got it, stay on the line."

I closed my eyes again and heard him yelling at one of his friends, telling him he needed to drive him over, and that it was an emergency.

"Ten minutes, Evan..." his voice was fading out and I welcomed the darkness again.

***

"Holy shit..." I felt hands on my shoulders and more than one voice.

"Evan, wake up," I groaned and my eye opened, showing me Erik's worried face up close and somebody standing behind him. My vision started to blur again so I closed it. "Call an ambulance." Erik said to his friend urgently.

"No..." I mumbled, peeling my eye back open.

"Evan, you need to go to the hospital."

"No... Can't afford it..." Neither of my parents jobs gave them good health insurance and I didn't want them spending thousands on hospital bills right now.

"Evan..." Erik's voice sounded hopeless.

"Please... don't..." I heard him exhale stressfully and pick up my keys from the ground before speaking again.

"Okay, you're coming to my house. Help me get him up." He said to his friend.

I felt them get on either side of me and I clenched my jaw as they lifted me up. I kept my arm around Erik but clutched my right side with the other one, feeling a sharp pain. My nausea from earlier came back and I heaved, unable to stop myself from throwing up all over the pavement. When I was done, I spit out the blood that'd been coming from my mouth and Erik and his friend helped me over to the car.

"Shit... Evan is that your car?" I looked over at it, the windows were all shattered along with the head and tail lights, and the tires looked like they'd been flattened.