Her Only Chance

Chapter Eight

A/N: CHAPTER EIGHTTT!

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Chapter Eight:

"Carter." I shook at his shoulders desperately. "Carter!"

I continued to shake him frantically. Fear began consuming my body as my heartbeat picked up in pure terror. "Carter, please wake up!"

Placing a hand on his sweaty forehead, I cursed colourfully at the searing heat radiating off of him. Grabbing the canteen from his hands, I poured the water over his head in desperation.

Carter's eyes flung open causing me to flinch with fear as he jumped upwards so suddenly with a loud heaving breath.

"Oh my God," a breath of relief left my lips.

His frantic eyes met mine but I wasted no time unsure on how much longer he would stay conscious for. "Come on," I began pulling him out of bed as his feet landed awkwardly on the ground. "I need you to work with me here."

I bent, flinging one of his arms around my shoulder, and wrapped an arm around his waist, hauling him upwards, grunting with the effort. The urge to vomit throbbed through me, my stomach stinging with the stabbing pain. Tears welled in my eyes from the excruciating pain of my guts knotting together, churning.

Ashamedly, I froze for a moment under the ripple of muscles on his hot skin as my palm flattened against him. Shaking my head, clearing the thoughts that crept into my mind causing a faint blush to rise on my face, I took a step forward just after snagging his shirt that sat on his bed, and my locker key.

It was more of a struggle than I originally thought it would be as Carter barely moved beside me. At the moment he was barely conscious and I felt his head lolling above mine as it swayed from side to side, occasionally knocking into my head causing me to groan in even more pain.

"Carter," I hissed through my teeth as he wobbled when we stepped over the door and into the hallway. "I know you feel sick, I do too, but you need to help me." I felt him nod his head above me that was currently laid on my left shoulder, nuzzling into the curve of my neck.

I assumed that in the moments I figured out that dinner was laced with Bremeliar, he had eaten much more, much quicker, which was why he was feeling the effects of the poisonous plant more than me.

We walked down the deathly, quiet, eerie hallway, at an extremely slow pace barely moving a step every few seconds. I could hardly see with no light offering to help aswe staggered forwards. I worried we would crash into the walls or any other loose objects.

I struggled to keep my balance as Carter leaned his entire weight on me. I could tell he tried to help by distributing his weight, but in the end he could hardly stand to keep himself straight without fully leaning on me. His head fell back into the crook of my neck, his hot shallow breaths dancing on my skin, almost causing me to topple over with him.

Beside him, I felt him shivering against me and the hot searing skin of his radiated onto me where we made contact. But all I could focus on was the feel of his head in the crook of my neck, his hair tickling me and his warm breath tingling the skin beneath every time he breathed.

"We-," I breathed a little breathless. "We are almost there."

I fought off a shiver as we continued our slow trek towards the end of the hallway where the bathroom was. Carter continued to wobble and my strength was quickly exerting but I continued supporting his complete body weight.

After what seemed like forever of us struggling, we finally made it. I weaved my way through the long skinny hallway of the girls bathroom and headed straight for the nearest shower. It was a struggle navigating through the slippery floor, but eventually, I got us in the nearest stall and sat Carter on the bench inside. I didn't bother with closing the door behind us considering the bathroom was empty. Reaching into the shower and I turned the cold water on before turning to Carter.

He sat, barely conscious as he leaned back against the tiled wall, his head lolling to the side before jolting upright as he fought with consciousness to stay awake. Sweat gleamed on his bare chest as his brown hair was plastered to his forehand. Trailing my eyes down his body, I debated on whether or not I should take his pants off.

When my eyes lingered on his hard chest far longer than I should have, I decided against it. Helping him up, I pushed him into the shower and heard a yelp leave his lips from the cold water.

He struggled for a moment trying to get out, but with a little bit more of a push from me, he sat on the floor of the cold shower giving up as he let the water pour all over him. I turned the warm water up just a smidge just to break the ice cold water but not enough that the water was not cold and refreshing.

Slowly, I sat on the wet floor not caring anymore and watched him lean back, head tilted upwards shivering.

"I'm sorry," I whispered quietly as my stomach continued to gurgle in pain and sweat dribbled down my forehead.

His head glanced down ever so slightly, his eyes slowly drawing to mine. "No," he rasped. "Thank you."

I could not help but smile. As he laid there shivering for a few minutes, I gathered some water in my palm and draped it across my forehead and soaked my hair to try and help cool down my own fever.

As another minute passed, I turned the pressure of the water down just so it would splash the tiles in front of Carter instead of pouring on him and grabbed Carter's shirt. With the water running lightly, trickling from the head of the shower, I stepped in and kneeled before Carter.

Placing his shirt under the cold water, soaking it, I leaned back to where Carter sat with his head resting against the wall. His arms encircled his legs, holding himself together closely trying to keep warm.

I stared at the white square tiles of the shower around us, squinting my eyes when I peered in the dark. The little night lights that sprawled around the bathroom made me partially see Carter and how pale his face was.

Using his shirt as a cloth, I placed it on his forehead softly and left it in place. Gently applying pressure, a whisper of air left his chest. Glancing down, I saw his eyes closed but a small smile danced on his lips. A sigh of relief left his mouth. He still continued to chatter his teeth but he had stopped sweating which was good.

"C-cold," he shattered.

I could not help but feel bad, but I knew what I was doing was what was going to help him. "I know. I know, I'm sorry."

His face relaxed softly and I dragged the cloth around his forehead soothingly. Through his hair. He stayed like that for a few minutes, with me continuing to soak the cloth and drag it over his forehead. Concentrating on dragging the cloth, I did not notice when his eyes had opened and their emerald green gaze settled on me, following me every moment.

By now, his light brown hair was almost black sticking plastered to his head, soaked from both sweat but mostly water at this point. Taking the cloth off of his forehead, the small specks of brown and hazel were more obvious, glistening around the iris of his green eyes.

His long hair that stuck plastered to his head suddenly fell, flopping and he jumped, wincing when it flopped into his eyes. I could not help but let a small laugh leave my throat. Subconsciously, I reached out and brushed my hand through his soft hair, removing the hair from his eyes.

His eyes held a misery of pain as he stared at me, but still a small, grateful smile danced on his lips when I continued to smooth his long hair out of his face. His soft hair ran easily through my fingers, clearly leaving a defined streak behind from where my fingers ran through it. I certainly took my time with his eyes locked with an intense gaze on me.

My hand eventually brushed through the entirety of his hair, my fingers brushing lightly against the back of his neck. A shiver shuddered through his body. 

Whether from the cold or for maybe some other reason.

It was one I did not let myself linger on.