Losing All Control

Chapter 18

For whatever reason the emergency room was the place to be that day, Taylor and I had been sitting in the waiting room for what felt like an eternity.

“You know you don’t actually have to wait with me, I am a big boy,” he said to me.

“If I leave, will you actually stay or will you wait till I’m gone and then just leave?” I asked. He didn’t reply. “Exactly, so I’ll stay.”

He rolled his eyes, “It’s not even that bad, everyone’s just overreacting.”

“Taylor, I can literally see the bone sticking out of your arm. How thick is your skull that you think you’re okay right now?” I asked honestly concerned.

He sighed and looked at me for a moment before speaking “Look, I can’t get any treatment because I don’t have a way to pay for it, okay? Are you happy now?”

“What about your parents?” I hesitantly asked. He had thrown a curve ball at me, and I really didn’t know what to say.

He laughed bitterly. “I haven’t talked to them since the day I turned 18.” He looked down at his shoes and with a shaky voice said, “and trust me I’m not the one screening their calls. I have no idea where they are, I have no way to contact them… I got an eviction notice the other day, I have to be out my house in 30 days. They fucking sold the house without telling me. Such bullshit.” He quickly jerked his head up and bore his eyes into mine. “Don’t you dare tell anyone.” I gulped and nodded, his stare was so intense I felt like it was burning holes in my retina. “Not anyone. Especially Cam. He can’t know, ok? He just can’t. And don’t think just because I told you this we’re suddenly best friends and shit, you’re my best friend’s girlfriend and that’s it.”

"But you and your mom were both over at my house a few weeks ago?" I asked, very confused by the whole situation. 

"Yeah, that was one of the last times I saw her. She packed up the next day and said she was going on a business trip. I haven’t' heard from her since." He kept shifting around nervously in his seat; I could tell he was extremely uncomfortable being this open and vulnerable.

I started putting things together and realized that his birthday must have been very recently. “So when was your birthday then?” I asked.

“Two weeks ago,” he replied dryly.

“Why didn’t you say anything? Why didn’t Cam say anything or make a big deal of it? Your 18th birthday is a big one you should have celebrated!” I couldn't believe he jsut let the day slip away, Taylor really wasn't the type to pass up an opprtunity to be in the spotlight.

“There was nothing to celebrate. And I told Cameron that if he said or did anything I would murder him in his sleep, so…”

 

I dropped the whole birthday thing and focused back on the more pressing issue at hand, obviously there was something more going on and I had to remind myself that didn't view me as someone more than a hook up. “Taylor, I get that you can’t pay for this right now, but we will figure something out. They have payment plans or something or I don’t know. But you have to get that arm fixed or you’ll literally never be able to use it again.” I put my hand right above his knee, “Okay? I’ll help you and no one has to know, I promise.”

“Taylor Caniff?” A nurse called off to our right.

He looked and me and groaned, “Fuck. Fine.”

We stood up and followed the nurse back to a room. Taylor hopped up on the bed and I sat down in a chair next to him. The nurse closed the curtain and then turned around to face us. “So what’s wrong?” she asked.

“My arms broken,” Taylor replied shortly. He held it up and showed it to her.

She nodded, “Yeah I would have to say so. Let me go check and see if one of our x-ray machines is available right now. I’ll be right back.” She got up and let the room.

“You don’t have to be such an asshole,” I said.

“Suck my dick,” he replied.

The rest of the evening went relatively quickly, considering. They were able to pop his bone back into place and put a few pins in it without putting him under, but they sure doped him up and he was out of it. He had a soft cast on and had to come back next week for more extensive surgery, but the break really wasn’t as bad as it could have been so he got off lucky.

I couldn’t let him go back to his house alone high as a kite, so I brought him back to my house. When we got back I found a note from my mom saying she was going to be gone for a few days for “work”. Which really meant she had run off with some guy for a few days. Whatever.

I took Taylor up to my room and dug out one of our blow up mattresses and set him up a make-shift bed on the floor. As soon as he lay down he was gone.

 

I pulled out my phone and texted Cameron quickly saying that Taylor was ok before falling asleep myself.