My best friend's brother

He will die if there's nothing in his stomach but a liquor store

"Conrad!" I screamed grabbing his shoulders.
I shaked him hard. He was not responding.
His eyes were looking at the back of his head, he was completely lost under alcohol.

I could not leave him like this, it was my fault.

I put his arm around my shoulders, and grabbed him by his waist.
People watched every move I made, they were just standing there, shocked, the most prestigious and wanted asshole in high school could not even stand up by himself.

Jimmy was between those people.

Our eyes met. He knew I needed his help, he was the person I could always count on when I had an emergency.
"Get a chair and some chips, he will die if there's nothing in his stomach but a liquor store".

I needed the chair fast, Conrad was getting heavier by second.

Jimmy didn't move. There was noise bouncing in my ears that could probably leave anyone def.

I cleared my throat.
"Get a ch-"

"Yeah I heard you" He said in a tone that I hadn't heard in him before.

Weird, if he had heard me why wasn't he doing anything?

Conrad was slipping through my shoulders.

"Well, can you get it?"
"No".

I stared at him confused, he had to be kidding.

"Jimmy it's not really the perfect time to be kidding around".
"I'm not".

My stomach sunk. Were we even on the same universe? Was he looking at the intoxicated guy I was carrying? Could he see his wounds bleeding?

"I need your help".

"You know that guy has tormented me since we were in first grade? He has made my life a living hell Carla." His voice trembled.
"The most help I can give you right now, is not beating the shit out of him in his state, and believe me I'm doing my best to hold myself back".

I looked at him, tried to understand him.
I couldn't.
"Are you hearing yourself right now?" My head began to heat up. "He could drop dead in your house anytime, and you're justifying your nonsense with some shit he did to you in elementary..."

From my words I expected a reaction, an answer, an action from James, something that would make him realize someone's life was in the middle of this.

His expression changed.

He removed Conrad's body from my back and passed it to his own. I began to walk towards the chips and drinks when I heard a loud thud. As I turned around my eyes went directly to the floor, meeting the already dirty body dirtier than before. Jimmy walked over the guy he had dropped and passed around me.

I made him realize it. He couldn't care less.

I wanted to scream at him and punch him so hard, by the end of the beating the word 'deformed' would have been a pretty description for his face. But Conrad was on the floor, covered in dirt that was slowly turning into mud thanks to the blood.

I rapidly walked inside the house and pulled out the first chair I saw. I raised up the chair an walked to the garden. Normally I wouldn't be able to carry or pull anything I did today, but there was a weird mixture between anger and panic that rushed through my body like blood and somehow gave me strength.

I set the chair next to Conrad. I put every bit of force I had into pulling and sitting him in the chair. Moving him was like moving a corpse. This was not a matter of barfed fingers, I needed to take him to the hospital as soon as possible.

"Carla, will you stop trying to play nurse and come have fun?"

Marianne was already drunk, and had a guy in each arm.

Her words detonated an atomic bomb inside me.

"Are you stupid or pretending?"

She gave me a pissed look.

"Dude chill, I'm just saying it's not your job to take care of Conrad. He left me for 4 years and he couldn't care less, he can handle this on his own. Let's go and have some fun" she pulled my ear next to her mouth. She whispered as the air was filled with her alcoholic breath "besides the guys and I have been wanting a foursome since we got here".

"If your idea of fun is joining the bundle of HIV, go ahead. The fact that you thought that I would join you in a foursome in which guys go through girls like underwear is insulting to me. If you're really planning on leaving your brother, who is bleeding to death by the way, for a two-minute fuck, well thank god you're now clarifying your priorities to me. I didn't realize the lack of presence from Conrad left a hole in your heart that only dicks can fill".

I regretted saying that the minute it came out.

Marianne's eyes began to swell up, I hit her where I knew it would hurt the most and I felt horrible.

Her green eyes gazed at me with profound hate

"Fuck you" she said and then took off.

I tried to get her to come back.

"Marianne!" She didn't even bother to look back, I knew nor an apology or a trip to Costco would make up for what I said.

Conrad began to grow pale, asking for help seemed like a waste of time since in the first half an hour it got me nowhere. I went to get his car and parked it next to the house's drive way. I lost strength, I couldn't carry him anymore. I grabbed his wrists and dragged him to the passenger seat.

The rest of the ride was a blur, I drove passed cars like a maniac trying to get to the nearest hospital. When we arrived to the hospital I was still dragging him, my outfit was covered in blood and dirt, I could see nurses trying to hide their horrified look when they su us at the entrance of the emergency room. I was used to think they wouldn't get scared of anything, "they've seen it all now" I thought, but after all it was a small town in which big accidents didn't happen quite often.

They put him in a stretcher and got him to another room I wasn't allowed on and was told to wait. 3 hours went by when a cotton haired doctor came out and called out Conrad's name. I went directly with him.

"Hello I'm Mr. White Conrad's doctor" he said giving me a firm handshake.

"How is he?"I asked as I shaked his hand.

He took a deep breath "Why don't you take a seat?"

Oh no.

"I'm good thanks" My hands began to tremble, it couldn't be good.

The doctor grabbed my hands and gave me a pity look.

"How is he?" I repeated.

"He's in a coma".