You Speak In Every Curling Wave (Cashby)

Chapter 12

AUSTIN'S POV

Yes, speeding is illegal. But I did it anyways. Alan wants someone who breaks the rules, so, great. It was almost like my foot couldn't push the pedal hard enough to get me there in time. Something was just so wrong with the way he spoke, I couldn't stand not knowing.
After parking, I jumped out and ran up like 3 flights of stairs to find the room that he'd told me. Frantically knocking on the door, I waited with impatience. Was I overreacting? Perhaps. But he was just too important to me to worry about that kind of stuff.
A blonde girl came to the door, looking at me questioningly.
"Can I help you?" She asked. I felt so confused.
"Are River and Alan here?" I asked, wringing my hands in nervousness.
"Uh, no. You've got the wrong room." She said.
"Do you know a River who goes here?" I asked desperately. She shook her head.
"Nope. Sorry." I felt my heart drop, and walked away. He told me the wrong room on purpose. Did he not want to be found? Did he think that I wouldn't come to find him? Was this whole thing just a waste of time? No, I need to find him. There was something off, and I'm going to help him.
Going door to door, I asked if anyone knew who River was, or where he lived. No one seemed to know who he was at all, until I got to the very end of the hall. After pounding on the door in a frantic desperation, a girl answered.
"Do you know someone named River who lives here?" I breathed, praying that she would have any information at all.
"Yeah, actually." She replied. "My boyfriend rooms with a guy named River." I about kissed her, I was so happy.
"Great! Where does he live?" I begged. "Please, it's urgent."
"You're not some kinda creep, are you?" She asked, eyeing me. I almost laughed.
"No, no, I need to see him, though." I said.
"Are you his boyfriend?" She continued the questioning, and I internally groaned. It was like she wanted this to take as long as possible.
"No, I'm just a friend." I lied.
"Okay, good. His boyfriend came around earlier today, and I was worried River was cheating for a second there." Oh my god, this girl can talk. "He was with the cutest little ginger." She mentioned. Alan. Was I going to explode? It felt like I was going to explode.
"Where does he live?" I asked again, trying to keep my cool.
"Okay, okay, he lives on Floor D, room 28. Jeez." She muttered.
"Thank you so much!" I called, running up two more flights of stairs. As soon as I got there, I could hear the loud party music pounding against the walls. I'd almost forgotten what college was like, but this was a throwback.
Running right up to room 28, I could feel the anxiety and fear build inside of me. No big deal, you'll just pick him up and take him home. Everything will be okay. That voice of reason was getting really annoying, making me feel like such a drama queen. I ignored it, and banged onto door. After a moment, the music turned down, and one bleary eyed River came to the door.
"Oh, thank god it's you." He said, dragging me into the room.
"What the hell? What's going o-" I stopped mid-sentence, staring at the sight on the floor. It was my angel, but he was curled up, shaking and muttering to himself. Dropping to the ground, I lightly touched his shoulder, but he flinched away.
"Don't touch me!" He shrieked, jumping up onto River's bed and hiding under a blanket. My heart dropped, and I stood. This wasn't like his normal episodes. He usually passed out, but this time, something was keeping him up.
"What did you do to him?" I asked through gritted teeth, my eyes falling on River. He looked scared, and I could tell he'd even cried a little.
"We were just having some fun and th-"
"What do you mean 'fun'? Did you let him drink?" I demanded. River shook his head, but I wasn't interested anymore. On the coffee table, there were the remnants of a few coke lines, and I gasped.
"Are you kidding me?!" I raged, looking over at him. He shrugged. "Do you even understand what something like that could do to him? Do you understand what's happening to him right as we speak?!" I yelled, looking over at Alan. He was shaking and crying, trying to drown out the noise by plugging his ears.
"N-no, I swear, I had no idea!" He flung his hands up in defense. "J-just fix him!" For the first time in my life, I wanted to hit another human being.
"I cannot fix him! He's having an episode, and thanks to your 'fun', he can't black out of it." I seethed. River looked at Alan, regret plain on his face. I shouldn't have been yelling at him; it wasn't his fault that Alan didn't tell him. For a moment, I took a step back.
Yelling at River wouldn't help me. Being jealous would never make Alan closer to me.
"I-I'm sorry that I yelled." I mumbled, and he stared with wide eyes at me.
"It's okay. How can we help him?" He asked. This person that I hated so much was ready to do whatever it would take to help the love of my life. It only made me guiltier about about everything.
"I'm going to try and take him home. He needs familiar surroundings and medication." I sighed, thinking about the CCs of sedative that I kept in the bathroom cabinet for this very situation. That would've been helpful.
"Can you help me calm him down a little so we can get him in the car?" I asked. River nodded quickly, and bit his lip.
"I'm so sorry, Austin. I'm just so fucking sorry." He hung his head, and I rubbed his shoulder.
"It wasn't your fault." I said, wishing that it wasn't true. But it was true. Alan shouldn't have done it, and he should've told River about his condition.
I walked over to Alan, who cowered under a comforter.
"Hey, sweetie." I used my soft, nice voice that Alan liked to listen to me tell stories with sometimes. He looked up, whimpering and muttering to himself. I couldn't hear what was coming out of his mouth, but it was the same thing over and over again.
"You wanna go home?" I laid my hand on his knee, and he jerked away.
"Don't touch me, please!" He begged. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" He kept yelling, apologizing. There wasn't an inkling of clue in my mind as to what he was talking about.
"Sh, it's okay." I murmured, trying to wrap my arms around him. For a few minutes, he struggled, trying to push me away. Then, though, he calmed down a little bit. He watched me through huge eyes, like he was absolutely terrified of me. It felt horrible, but I pulled him onto his feet. As soon as I did, he ran back to the bed.
"Alan, baby," I tried again, watching River cringe for God knows what reason, "we need to get you home."
After a long time of trying to coax him, I just picked him up and tossed his light body over my shoulder.
"Let me go!" He demanded, pounding his fists against my back.
"River, grab his hands. He's going to break one of my ribs." I sighed, and he complied, latching his hands around Alan's. We carried him, kicking and protesting, down to my car, where River helped me strap him in. At that point, he'd given up, and curled into a little ball on the seat.
"Thanks for the help." I muttered. River nodded.
"I feel so bad." He began apologizing all over again, but I stopped him.
"It's okay. These things happen." I allowed.
"You probably hate me." He muttered.
"No, I don't." I said honestly. "Everything will be okay from here. It's okay." I assured. He nodded slowly, then walked away.
"Bye." He called sadly. "Tell Alan to call me when he's ready."
"Okay." I complied.
After the most painful car ride of my entire life, I managed to get him home. The coke was wearing off, and he was slipping closer to a black out, I could tell. So I had no other choice but to let him hide under our bed until he passed out. It was... heart breaking, and I wanted to bang my head against the wall. Can I deal with this for the rest of my life? I had no idea, and only felt terribly. A half hour later, I pulled his body up and laid him on the bed. Crawling onto the mattress with him, I cried softly. My life was such a nightmare when this happened. Were the good times worth the horrible, emotionally wrecking ones?
*•*•*•
An hour later, he woke up. I'd watched him the entire time, sitting awake and ready with his meds, a hot drink (which I'd reheated 7 times) and something to eat. As soon as he was coherent, I shoved the medicine at him, along with a mug of tea. He shamefully avoided my eyes, and swallowed the pills, then chugged the tea. Just watching him, I noticed the purple rings beneath his eyes. They made me so sad that, once he was done, I just wrapped my whole body around him as best as I could. We said nothing, and the air felt heavy.
"I'm sorry." He croaked after a while. Nodding, I kissed the top of his head. His hair was so soft and sweet, it made me wonder if I could ever go a day without him. A week? A month? It's worth it, isn't it? I asked myself dryly. I knew he was worth it, now. Of course he was.
"I love you so much, you have to promise to never do that again." I breathed, holding his body against mine as tightly as possibly.
"I'm sorry." He repeated. "I have no idea what I was thinking. To be honest, I really only remember the first hour." He mumbled.
"Everything's okay, now." I kissed him so softly, thinking that maybe it would relieve some of his troubles. "I'm sorry I was so jealous." I apologized.
"It's okay." He smiled, kissing me back.
"I know River's not a bad guy." I said. "He helped me get you home, actually." Alan blushed, looking away.
"I really screwed up, huh?" He laughed humorlessly.
"These things happen." And we kissed, mouths searching inside one another for any sort of answer.

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Guys 4 effing updates today. Can I get a holla, please? I required a holla.
Btw, it's almost over, I think. This will be a short fic :,) you're all amazeballs