Eyes Wide Open

thirteen

"Blake, take Max to my room. Now." Dash looked at me with an intensity in his eyes I'd never seen. "I said, now!" he hissed urgently.

"Is that...the guy?" I asked him in a panicked voice, looking warily at the door. My heart started racing.

Dash grabbed my wrists, forcing me to look at him. "I need you to do this for me, Blake. Take Max. Don't come out, no matter what. Okay?"

I swallowed and nodded. Max had gotten off of the couch and was standing behind Dash, a scared look on his face. I tried to force myself to act casual as I told him, "Let's go to your room." I gently pushed his back, leading him away. "Maybe you can explain to me what this Fortnite game is that you were talking about."

I glanced back at Dash one last time as Max and I rounded the corner down the hallway. Once we were in the bedroom, I shut the door and locked it. When I turned to look at Max, he was sitting in his bed with a wide-eyed look on his face, his bottom lip in a pout. He was about to start crying.

"Hey, it's okay," I told Max as I heard Dash opening up the front door in the other room. I hesitantly sat down on his bed next to him. "Everything will be okay, Max."

I didn't really know how to comfort him when I was freaking out myself. I thought about what I did to calm myself down, then I had an idea. I grabbed my backpack off of the floor and found my earbuds.

"Put these in," I instructed Max.

Max shook his head, looking at the door. "Dash..."

"Dash is fine. Put these in."

Max took my earbuds and put them in his ears. I pulled out my phone and opened Spotify. With shaking fingers, I started playing the song "Jenna" by Brye.

I watched as Max listened to the song, silently wishing I could also drown out the noise with music as I heard the man shouting at Dash. Max seemed to sense that I was upset because he looked at me, as I sat next to him, and wrapped his arms around me in a hug.

I didn't like this. I didn't like how vulnerable I felt, how I lacked any sense of control. As I heard what sounded like Dash grunting in pain, I shut my eyes tight and covered my ears with my hands, still with Max's arms wrapped around me.

I wanted to scream or cry or run out there and do something, but I didn't. I told myself it was because I needed to stay here with Max, to protect him, but really I was just scared. Petrified, actually.

Max took out an earbud and offered it to me. I shook my head and told him, "No," but he pushed it into my hand. Reluctantly, I put it into my ear. Then, I played the song "baseball" by Hippo Campus and covered Max's other ear with my hand, trying to lose myself in the music.

Before the song ended, the bedroom door burst open. I let out a scream, throwing my body in front of Max to protect him, expecting it to be the loan shark guy with a gun or something. Instead, Dash walked in.

I let out a gasp as I saw his face. One of his eyes was swollen shut and he had a split lip. His nose also dripped with blood.

I jumped up off of the bed and threw my arms around him, which made him wince.

"What happened?" I asked him, breathless.

Dash clutched his side, coughing. "I'm fine," he said weakly, looking at Max.

"Dash," Max said in the tiniest voice as he started crying.

"Don't cry, bud," Dash told him, still holding onto his side. "Seriously, I'm fine."

I grabbed the bottom of Dash's shirt and lifted it up. Dark blue and purple bruises blossomed around his ribcage. I quickly yanked his shirt back down. "You need to go to the hospital, Dash," I told him in a panicked voice. "You're hurt. You could be bleeding—"