song for the chapter: lost track of time (mtns)
About an hour after Troye has finished slipping off into a deep coma like sleep, his breathing becoming even and his eyes fluttering shut, I hear the clinking of metal to the left of me. Joe is waking up. He reaches up to rub his eyes and in the semi-darkness I see them widen in shock. He’s just realised he’s bound to the wall. “T-Tyler?” He stutters as he meets my eyes across the room, “What the f-fuck is going o-on?” The wavering note in his voice suddenly makes me extremely tired. I sigh exhaustedly, “Ask your sister.” The drugs in Zoe wore off fifteen minutes ago and she has been sat limply staring at the wall ever since. It seems like her mind is trying to reject what’s happening and she’s began gnawing at her nails, a strange thing for Zoe.
At the sound of her name her head jerks around and tears begin to drip down her face once she sees Joe. “Joe, oh my god Joe, I don’t know, oh my god, it’s-it’s all like some giant nightmare…” Suddenly Joes face becomes emotionless and his posture slightly more relaxed. I know what I’m witnessing, him being strong for Zoe. “Hey Zo, calm down, it’ll be fine. I mean this place is in better condition than your flat eh?” He kids, his face quirking into its signature grin as he motions to the sterile room around us. I’m not fooled for a second but Zoe’s crying falls to an abrupt end and she slides closer to her brother and he puts his arm around her shoulders. His dirty blond hair is a tousled mess but at least, unlike Troye, it seems sleep has had the desired effect on him. He’s rested. I focus my attention back to the Australian nestled in my lap as Zoe begins explaining to her sibling what’s going on.
He looks strangely angelic right now. His face is soft and carefree with a slight flush of rose on his pale cheeks. The way he’s led is like you’d expect to see a feline, with a lazy grace about his posture. It’s okay to admire him whilst he’s asleep, when he can’t see me, I assure myself. Someone taps my shoulder and I almost jump a mile, whirring around to see who it is. “Tyler?” Joe is eyeing something on the floor next to me, “What is that?” Zoe chimes in after him, “And how are you free?” Oh shit, yeah. I follow their gazes to the floor where the rusty brown key is sat tauntingly. After a quick recap of what’s happened they encourage me to go and pick up the key and see if I can unlock them too. I tell them about Troyes theory of a trap and we agree not to try and escape, simply to make ourselves more comfortable.
I crawl over to the key and slowly reach out to it, grasping it in my hand delicately as if it could crumble at any second along with our hopes of salvation. I turn firstly to Zoe and with a trembling movement I attempt to unlock her chains. They fall free silently as they land on her lap. She reaches her thin wrists up and stretches out on her back, wincing slightly at the major cramps I’m sure she’s having right now. I then turn to Joe and free him too. His chains collapse to the ground with an unexpected clattering sound and I’m surprised to see that it didn’t wake our friends. Well, it didn’t wake all but one of them.
Troyes head shoots up and he attempts to move in a way the ropes binding him don’t allow. His weak whimper fades as his face drains of colour. Tears well in his electric blue eyes and before I can figure out why his eyes roll back into his head and he thumps to the floor. Zoe emits a strangled cry and rushes over to cradle him in her arms. I just sit, frozen in shock, not realising what just happened until now. As Troye had come upright so quickly he had wrenched his arm awkwardly with a sickening crunching sound and the pain must've caused him to pass out. Fuck. Joes façade of calm shatters in a second. For some reason everyone has a soft spot for Troye, I mean it’s hard not to, but still. He jumps to his feet and begins violently yelling at the cameras and making some rather rude gestures too.
“Excuse me you giant pricks! Someone needs medical attention down here! Anyone? Cause if not I will be straight out of this door to beat your asses!” Joe knows that what he just described is literally impossible, maybe not if he was a foot taller, but it still warms me to see how hard he’s trying.
“Joe! Come and sit down.” His older sister scolds. “If you want to be any real help then give me your top I’m going to turn it into a makeshift sling.” Joe slips it off and hands it to a stern looking Zoe without hesitation and she begins work on Troyes arm. He starts regaining consciousness after a few tense minutes and his eyes open within a fraction of a second. His howls of pain raise goose bumps on all of our arms. I watch with tears in my eyes as he struggles not to writhe but ends up twisting his whole body away from Zoe anyway. The petite girl motions for me and Joe to hold him still as she’s clearly struggling. We both reluctantly do as we’re told. Troyes normally calm demeanour is unrecognisable in him now. His forehead is slick with sweat and the panic in his swirling eyes is the kind you would see with a caged animal, confusion is dancing over his features taking hold of his sanity. I can see the fight slowly dissipating as his fists unclench and his kicking quietens down to a steady twitching as Zoe prods at his injured arm.
With a final knot she steps back and gives us a thumbs up signalling we can let go. Instead of sitting up when he’s released the tortured Aussie simply curls into a ball, his slim body taking up a miniscule amount of space. “Troyeboy? Are you okay?” A worried voice whispers from a few meters away. We all jerk around to stare at Connor who is fixated on Troyes shaking form. “How long have you been awake?” I shout incredulously. “Since one of my friends started shrieking in torment?” He replies dryly, unimpressed by me raising my voice. Joe does what he does best and diffuses the tension, “Connor, don’t be a dick, you know Tyler can’t help his laugh.” We all giggle at that even me, knowing the joke was at my expense. Joe never means any harm and Connor’s one of the most genuinely nice people I’ve ever met. “Sorry, kind of stressed right now.” I apologise and begin work on Connors chains.
As soon as he’s free he crawls over to Troye and starts stroking his wavy chocolate hair slowly. I try to contain the rumble of jealousy I feel by reminding myself that Connor’s straight. Oh, and also Troye isn’t mine, and it would be a bad thing if he ever was. Too many problems. Okay Tyler you keep telling yourself that. “So? Anyone want to tell me what’s going on?” The Sugg siblings cast there innocent blue eyes over to me and I run a hand through my probably collapsed lilac quiff. Here we go again.
Just as I finish another recollection of tonights traumatising events the door slams open, the metallic ringing causing us to place our hands over our ears. “My boss is goanna kill me!” Levi pants charging across the room, “You were all supposed to be in perfect condition when you got to him!” I realise now that he’s holding a first aid kit in his hand and he’s being trailed by what looks to be two middle aged nurses carrying a stretcher. “Oh good, you’ve fixed him up for now.” He mumbles glancing at Troyes t-shirt sling. The nurses run over to Troye and haul him onto the stretcher with minimal effort. Levi throws the first aid bag onto the ground carelessly and quickly begins hurrying their group back out of the room. Just before he closes the door he turns back to glance at who is awake only to see us mortified he’s taking our best friend away. “Troye will be back soon,” He laughs maniacally. “don’t worry your pretty little heads about it.”
Moments after he’s gone Zoe whispers into the darkness. “That’s the first time I’ve ever been disgusted to be called pretty.” Before recoiling into the corner and staring at the wall again.
