Having A Great Time With Sage

Chapter 3: Ezekiel

"Tony, Tony wh-what the hell man?!" I stumbled as he pushed me out into the hallway.

"Shut up!" Tony's voice was hushed, "You just need to calm down and quit freaking out on me."

"He had a knife! Did you know he would have a switch on him? Oh God we're in so much trouble, Tony what if he kills them?!"

His hand suddenly smacked me hard across the face, he spoke quietly, through clenched teeth, "I said, shut up and get a hold of yourself. These are not questions you can worry yourself over."

Why was he so calm? There's no way he could be this calm if he didn't know about Chase's true intentions. Why did Chase not tell me about his plan, does he not trust me?

"Y-you knew?"

He was ignoring me, looking around to make sure nobody heard me yelling, which luckily, nobody did.

"Tony?"

"Listen, you're gonna go calm down, you're going to act like nothing happened, and you're not gonna draw any attention to yourself, got it?"

Before I even had time to respond, he pushed me off once more, aiming me down the hall, towards a bathroom. My feet carried me in there without my brain telling them to.

I turned on the faucet to splash some water on my face, this felt like a nightmare, I just wanted to wake up. My hands gripped the porcelain rim of the sink, my knuckles turning white. Why can't I stop shaking? Suddenly my knees buckled and I hit the ground kneeling. I was called back to the horrible sound of Josh hitting the lockers and my head shot up, I was still holding onto the sink, the water was still running.

A wave of nausea swept over me as I stood. I quickly cupped my hands and splashed the cold water on my face, trying to shock myself back to reality. I grabbed a paper towel and quickly dried off, remembering that I had to get back to class before they got suspicious.

I stumbled into my history class, having no perception of how late I was. Mr. Maloney was standing at the board, writing something about the War of 1812. He didn't turn around as I slipped into my seat, somewhat clumsily.

"Ah, Mr. Young, how nice of you to finally join us." Of course he spotted me, but he never turned to face me. Typical.

I set my bookbag down beside me, which I had apparently grabbed on my way out. I don't really remember doing that, but here it was. A hand lightly grabbed my shoulder and I nearly jumped out of my skin.

"Are you okay?" It was Ashley. Sage's girl. Looking her in the eyes made my stomach churn violently.

"I-I'm gonna be sick" I said without thinking and bolted out of the room without getting permission.

I wasn't lying either. I found the nearest trashcan outside and absolutely tossed my lunch. I couldn't stop thinking about what Chase had done– what we had done.

Again, I couldn't stop my feet from going, but this time they were leading me in a dead sprint towards the gym, towards the locker room.

I stopped, a few feet from the door, hearing a voice screaming something. The second I burst through the door, it registered that Josh was shouting for help.

Had I not just thrown up, the scene laid before me would have done it. Josh was sitting in a pool of vibrant red blood, desperately clutching a deathly pale Sage in his arms.

Josh's despairing pleas for help stopped short as he spotted me. Furious tears brimmed in his eyes as he nearly shouted, "You! You were here with Chase and you did this to him!" His voice shook with emotion, scratchy, his throat raw from screaming.

I couldn't speak, but I dumbly shook my head. I advanced towards them slowly, Josh didn't move, but there was something about him that nearly paralyzed me with fear.

For one terrible moment, I thought I was too late, and that Josh was merely cradling a lifeless corpse. Then I faintly saw the slight rise and fall of Sage's chest.

The scene was gruesome, abhorrent, and something I had never signed up for. As far as I knew, this was never part of the plan. I tried to gather my thoughts to make even a sentence come out.

"N-no!" I cleared my throat, Josh never took his eyes off me, "Chase did this to Sage! Tony and me, we just roughed him up some and we high tailed it out of there when he pulled out that switch!"

This time, he yelled, "Do you honestly think that makes this any better?! He's dying and you think it matters that you didn't personally stab him?!"

I hadn't thought of it that way. I didn't have anything to say to him, so I just stood in a stunned silence.

"I asked you a question. Answer me!" He demanded.

"No I don't! Nothin's makin' any of this better!" I was shouting, the words leaving my mouth before I could think about them, "I never wanted this to happen, and I never signed up for anythin' like this!" I instinctively backpedaled a few steps, expecting an immediate retaliation. He just glared at me.

I took the moment of silence to really look at him, seeing the blood trailing from the deep gash hidden in his honey blonde hair. "A-are you okay?"

"I'll be fine," Josh practically spat venom in his statement. "What are you waiting for? Go get help!"

Immediately, I took off, running out of the locker room and sprinting across the gym. I slid into the hallway and collided with none other than Ashley.

"Hey, watch it!" She exclaimed and then with her voice full of concern, "Zeke? What's going on?"

I meant to say something, but instead I just grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back towards the locker room.

"Seriously, what is going on?!" She stopped before we went in. I could tell by the way she was looking at me, I probably looked insane.

I pushed the door open and just hoped she followed me.

"Zeke?" Josh's shaky voice called out from the showers. His tone was no longer one of just rage, but also of sadness and fear.

"I-I got some help!" I called back, shooting a glance over my shoulder to make sure Ashley actually came inside.

"Josh? Why—" She started before turning the corner and stifling a scream, seeing the bloody scene.

He locked eyes with her in a moment of bewilderment, "Ash?"

Ashley stuttered out a few fragments of a sentence, stepping closer to the two boys, "Wh– how did–?!"

Josh skipped some major details, but he understood what she was trying to ask him, "Chase jumped us after gym. I tried to fight him off, but he knocked me out and pulled a switch on Sage."

She finished making her way over to them, kneeling down beside Josh's legs on the opposite side of Sage. "I-is he," Ashley swallowed hard, trying to compose herself, "is he still alive?"

Josh nodded, taking her hand and pressing it to Sage's chest, where his hand had been resting just before. I could see it in her face that she wanted to draw back in disgust, but she held fast.

Josh diverted his attention to me, "Zeke, when I told you to get help, I meant the nurse or a teacher or someone who could actually help!"

"Listen, she was the first person I ran into and– wait a minute, why were you out here?"

Ashley looked up at me, "You walk in late to class looking like you had just seen a ghost and go 'I'm gonna puke' and then you just run out, what else was I supposed to do?"

"Whatever! We're kinda on a time crunch here, so what are we gonna do?"

"We've obviously gotta get him to the hospital, but I'm not in any shape to drive." Josh sighed.

It looked like a light bulb went off in Ashley's head. "Zeke, you drove to school this morning, right?"

Of course! I took my dad's Firebird to school this morning. How did I forget about that? "Yeah, yeah I did! We can take my car, c'mon!"