A Piece of Me (Tracob)

Stay With Me

My phone rings during the casting call, but I don't hear is because it's on silent.

It rings again as I gather my stuff and leave the building, but I still don't hear it.

It's not until I'm standing on the curb waiting to hail down a taxi, that I check my phone and see the missed calls. I don't recognize the number, so I'm debating whether or not I should call back, when an incoming call from the same number lights up my screen. I push answer.

"Hello?"

"Jacob Bixenman?" A polite female voice sounds through the speaker against my ear.

"Yes, may I ask who's calling?"

"I'm with California Hospital Medical Center, you seem be listed as the emergency contact for young man named Troye Mellet, is that correct?"

My breath hitches and my throat constricts.

"Uh-um, yeah that's correct." I reply, flustered.Why would they be calling me?

"I'm sorry to inform you that he was involved in a very serious crash this afternoon. We're working to have him stabilized at the moment but it's hard to anticipate the condition he'll be in when he wakes up."

All the air leaves my lungs. What she's saying doesn't make sense. Troye...in a car crash? Things like that happen in books and movies. To other people, never us. Never him. It doesn't make any sense to me.

"Sir? Are you there?"

I don't reply for a second, still so shocked. "Yes, I'm here. Is he okay? Is Troye okay?" I don't care how forwards I sound I need to hear that he's okay. I have to hear that he's okay. 

"We'll need you to come into the hospital, sir, as he is incapacitated and that puts you as his primary caregiver. Should anything happen, you will be the one in charge of making decisions for him."

"If-if anything happens?" I repeat. "You said you had him stabilized."

"We're working to have him stabilized." The nurse corrects me. "He's in a coma, sir. He is stabilized at the moment but anything is subject to change at anytime until he wakes up and we can further assess his health."

I don't remember much of the call after that. All I remember is her telling me that the chances of him having a fatal seizure were high, unless he woke up soon. I remember hanging up and calling Sage because she should have been with him and I didn't understand how this could happen. I remember Sage telling me that she was there, and she had been in the car with him, and she was fine except for her ribs. And she was "so sorry, Jacob. So so sorry."

And I cried with her and made sure she was really okay, and she told me to come back to LA and I told her I was already on my way.

I booked a flight back from New York. It was long. Too long. I had no way to contact anyone while I was in the air. No way to know if anything had changed. Ruthie was waiting at the airport to pick me up. I had called her before I boarded the plane, and explained everything.

When she sees me, she runs up to me, cupping my face. "Jacob, Jacob, are you okay?"

I nod, barely giving her a hug before pulling away. "I need to pick up my bag, and then I need to get to the hospital. And I need to be fast."

"Jacob, my sweet friend, I know Troye is your priority in every way, and I understand, but you need to make sure you're okay too. You've been in full drive mode since you found out, I'm sure." She grips me shoulders. "Breathe for a second. Let yourself feel whatever you're feeling."