To think, I thought that night I fucked my best friend’s crush was the worst night of my life. It was the night I realized just how fucked up in the head I was, how badly in love with Levi I’d fallen. But this? This took the cake. Mel might actually die, and I…I didn’t know if I could handle that.
Everything else, everything that had happened, felt like small, petty worries compared to this. This was life or death for Mel.
Chapter Eleven – Levi
If I’d been the me of two months ago, I wouldn’t have chased after her. I would’ve just let the pieces fall wherever they may and withdraw myself from the whole thing. It was a damned good thing I didn’t, though, because the moment I stepped into Kelsey’s room, I spotted her on the floor with Mel.
Everything happened so fast after that.
Kelsey gave me her phone, and I talked to the dispatcher, told him who I was, what was happening. I sounded almost too calm, but that was because I was a better faker than Kelsey. It wasn’t something I was proud of, but it came in handy in times like this.
It wasn’t too long before I saw flashing lights outside, and I told the man on the other line I saw the ambulance. I hung up as I hurried down the hall, taking the stairwell, two steps at a time. The ambulance was in the turnaround, and a man and a woman were in the back, unloading a stretcher.
I met the paramedics. “Come on,” I said. “I’ll take you to her.” Didn’t know whether either of these people had ever been in the dorm before, so it’d be quicker if they had someone leading the way.
“How long has she been out?” the man spoke to me as I held open the side door for them.
After they were inside, I led them to the main hall, past the laundry room and the lounge, leading them and their stretcher to the elevator. “I don’t know. I just got there.” Kelsey would have more details, but she didn’t look like she wanted to talk.
The kid working at the front desk was the same kid who I’d charmed to get Kelsey’s room number from. He stared at us all with wide eyes for a few moments before bending his head and jotting something down, probably some kind of incident report.
I hit the elevator’s up button, the silence almost overbearing as we waited. Felt like an eternity until those stainless-steel doors slid open and we got on, riding it up. Soon enough I was leading them down the third floor’s hall, towards the wing the girls lived on. I pushed into Kelsey’s room, letting them in first. It took a bit of maneuvering on their side to get the stretcher into the room, but they managed.
The man and woman jumped into action, allowing Kelsey some breathing room, although she still didn’t stray too far from Mel’s side.
“When did you find her like this?” the woman asked as she and her partner slowly rolled Mel to her back, lifting her up and setting her on the bed of the stretcher. They strapped her down, Mel’s head hanging loosely to the side.
“Uh,” Kelsey spoke, looking a bit green, like she wanted to throw up, “I don’t know. Maybe ten minutes ago. I was at the library, so I don’t know when she took the pills.”
“Pills?” The man glanced at Kelsey, and Kelsey went to the nightstand to pick up an empty orange bottle.
“These.” She handed them over.
The paramedic told her, “This will help. If we know what’s in her system, it’s easier to fight.”
“Can I ride with you?” Kelsey asked, blinking those wide, innocent eyes at the paramedics. “I don’t want to leave her—”
“I’ll drive you,” I told her. “We’ll ride separately.” That way, hopefully I’d be able to convince Kelsey to come home. She couldn’t sit in a hospital waiting room all night.
I mean, I guessed she could, but it wasn’t good for her.
“Grab your keys,” I told her, watching as she nodded, looking almost lost as she picked her keys up off the floor, where she’d dropped them with her bag. The paramedics were in the process of rolling the stretcher out, and I held the door open for her afterwards.
We rode down the elevator together, and the paramedics told us to head to the doors labeled ER once we got to the hospital.
Kelsey said nothing as we parted ways with the paramedics, continuing to say nothing as we headed across campus to the giant parking lot, where most of the cars were parked. I was a second-year here, so I could have my own parking permit that let me park in the big lot even during the week. Nothing too fancy, just a used black Ford Escape, but it was mine.
I hit the button on my keys, unlocking the doors, and went to hold open the passenger side door for her. Kelsey got in, biting her bottom lip, looking anxious. I was anxious too, but one of us had to hold it together. I could be the rock in the storm if I had to. Kelsey could lose herself if she wanted; I’d be there to keep her grounded.
As I drove us to the hospital—luckily it wasn’t that far away from campus—I couldn’t help but picture how Mel looked on the floor. Her body curled into itself, her skin so pallid she looked sickly. The dispatcher on the phone asked about her seizure, which meant this wasn’t just a slip. Whatever pills she’d taken had obviously already entered her system.
I felt awful. Of course I did. Last year, it was different. I didn’t see it firsthand, didn’t see
