Perspective

24- There's no such thing as too calm

"Ma'am, are you family?" The nurse asks me.

"No, I'm his...girlfriend," I lie.

"Sorry, only family's allowed to visit him," The nurse tells me.

"Oh! Did I say girlfriend? I meant wife, we just recently got married and I keep forgetting."

"Dumbass," Sawyer mutters under his breath.

"You guys are too young to get married, aren't you?" The nurse asks, raising an eyebrow.

I sigh, frustrated. "Okay, hon. Here's the deal. He's someone very important to us and he got alcohol poisoning even though he doesn't drink. Someone forced him to drink at the party and now we're worried and I swear to god, if you don't let one of us see him we're all going to call your director."

She just stares at me.

"He has a 2 year old son at home with his mom and we don't want all of them to panic this late at night," I reason, trying to get on her soft side. "Wouldn't it be a shame if his son found out that his role model couldn't even keep himself safe."

"Shut up," Carter mumbles.

I kick him.

"Fine. But not all of you. I'll let you go because you're kind of annoying," the nurse says to me.

I break into a huge smile. "Thank you! Thank you!"

"Hurry. You have two minutes," She opens the door.

As soon as I'm inside, she closes it so that Asher and I are enclosed in the room.

Asher pulls off his oxygen mask.

"Hi, Chase," He greets me, his voice raspy.

I stand beside him and really look at him.

His blonde hair is messy. His blue eyes are drooping, his lips are pulled into his usual smile. There's two thin tubes connected to his arms.

"How do you feel?" I ask, playing with my fingers.

"Really hazy and off."

I pull on my fingers. "So...um...why did you drink so much?"

I know that Carter cane to a reasonable conclusion, but I'm not ready to accept that just yet.

"I didn't. I don't drink at all. I don't know what happened and why I'm in here," Asher admits.

I search his face and continue to twist my fingers. "You don't remember anything?"

"Well, you left to get a drink and then Carmella asked if I wanted this drink that she was holding. I told her that I don't drink alcoholic stuff. Then, she got me a can of Coke and now I'm here."

"Was it a closed can?"

Asher closes his eyes and pops them back open. "Yeah. It was definitely closed. I even spilled a bit when I opened it."

Did Carmella actually put something in the can of Coke? If she did, how did she do it?

I feel Asher's hand on my own.

"Stop doing that, Chase. Why are you so scared?" He asks, taking one of my hands.

"I'm not scared," I reply, my voice wavering. I swallow. "I'm just worried about you."

That was true. Seeing him lying on the hospital bed with no recollection of anything, broke me. He didn't deserve any of this.

"Hey, 2 minutes is long over," The nurse tells me, opening the door.