Seeing Zach fucked up in the bathroom after I went in to get him for school made me panic, he was convulsing on the ground gasping for air and I just ran out to my mom who sat there waiting for us to come out and be ready to take on another day of middle school. Saying she can't believe how fast we all grew up and how she can't believe we will be in eighth grade next year, but that sappy shit wasn't happening today. Instead it was the panicked call of 911 and trying to keep Zach alive until they showed up at the door and took him away from me and my mom, then my mom really played me with making me go to SCHOOL instead of going to the hospital with her to make sure Zach was going to be ok. I went back inside his house, a heavy feeling in my heart when I grabbed my backpack and saw a messy stack of different papers, each labelled with different names on them with mine on top.
I shoved the papers Zach wrote in my bag. I was beyond pissed with my mom, begging her to just take me to the hospital with her, but she wouldn't budge so I walked into school with an empty space next to me. It was always Zach's spot, Billy always stood on my left and Zach on my right. I had to find all of these kids that he wrote to. I didn't like half of these people in the beginning, some gave me weird vibes and I just didn't fuck with them so whenever Zach was with them I would just lay low and be with Billy. I was greeted by Billy and Pat first, I handed them their paper after they questioned where the hell Zach was and the rest of them were just awkward. I didn't get to properly read mine because I was just more worried about everyone else getting theirs since that is probably what Zach wanted.
I wasn't going to read what he wrote to me anyways, reading it would mean that I gave up hope that he would be ok, maybe that this wasn't just some big very elaborate prank that he came up with, Zach was always one to go big on pranks anyways. I got each letter to the respected person before our lunch period even started, but by the time lunch rolled around my table was mobbed. Everyone that he wrote a letter two was at our table. They weren't talking to each other, more of an awkward silence and then a few whispers back and forth to the ones that were friends with each other and then I remember going over to the table and getting questions thrown at me left and right. "Is this some prank Lonnay?" "What the hell is going on junior?!" "This isn't fucking funny dude." Nobody wanted to believe what happened was real.
I had to see it with my own two eyes, why would I take time out of my morning just to sit down and write like 15+ letters to some people I don't even fucking talk to. I remember Mike thought he was all big for trying to fight me for making all this up, but this was before he was the thick meat patty he is today so it was a weak attempt on his part, A for effort though. They all just thought I was mental and using this as some grand scheme for whatever reason, I had no desire to talk to half of the people at the table originally so why would I make any of this up. I tried to tell them all what I saw, but most of them just continued yelling at me to stop lying to them, but Pat and Billy had stuck up for me. Zach was and still is my closest friend, we've been brothers since we were in the fucking WOMB, ok, I wouldn't make this serious shit up about him.
Once we clocked out of school my mom picked me and Billy up making our way straight to the hospital. We were both asking a million questions to my mom, but she didn't even try responding to any of them and I instantly took that as a bad sign. It was either I had waited to long to go into his house and find him or he just took so much that he completely fried himself. I didn't want to cry, but when we had got to the hospital and seeing Zach hooked up to so much shit hurt. Seeing my best friend completely wired up to these big machines made me feel sick to my stomach, I just wanted him to be ok. They said something about having to pump his stomach because this charcoal stuff they originally tried wasn't working, but I wasn't able to pay attention to anything.
They had called his parents and they would be here soon since they were probably going home, I don't know why Zach would try to do something like that, I thought he was one of the happiest guys in the world. He never told me about his parents giving him a hard time, but then again I would never ask about any of that and I felt so fucking stupid for it. I was a complete fucking asshole for not taking even a second out of my time to ask him how he was feeling and how things were at home since he never talked about it. I was such a shitty friend that I wasn't able to realize that he was acting way different than normal, he deserved so much better than me and maybe he got something better from his other friends. Maybe they gave him the release when I didn't and then I thought about it, why did we all hate each other?
When his parents arrived they were questioned for why he had easy access to these pills and then they started going over all that big adult talk. Time just dragged by and soon enough Zach had woken up from his nap, they wanted to keep him overnight just to make sure he would be ok and then they wanted to get him mentally evaluated, as well as his parents.
I stayed in the hospital all night with Zach. I saved his life.
