Standing By

Laundromat

(Austin)

"Shit!" I yelled, slapping at Tim's face, then at Kirstie's face for good measure. Chance reached out before my hand could connect with her.

"No, no, I deserve it!" she yelled at him. "Let him slap me!"

"You heard her," I told him and slapped her across the cheek just as Scott came running inside.

"Aiight, I'mma slap you now!" he announced, pointing at me.

"No you won't!" Rob contradicted him.

"Stooop!" Adam yelled as the two middle-aged lades doing their laundry just stared at us.

"Scott, go get help. Tim's knocked himself out or passed out or something," Chance orchestrated.

He stood there dumbly, not seeming to understand. "Huh?"

"Tim is hurt!" I yelled at him as Kevin squeezed past the outside commotion into the laundromat. "Get help!"

"What? He ran towards us. "Elevate his feet! Get blood to his head! Get some water!"

"Here!" I grabbed a laundry basket and propped his feet on it as Adam ran to get water. Looking down at my friend's face, I felt scared. His eyes were closed, pale cheeks, hair every which way as most of his ponytail had fallen out by now. I hate seeing friends sick or injured... life is so fragile.

"Avi and Mitch are doing crowd control," Kevin told me. "Kirstie and Tim caused traffic to freak out— no accidents," he quickly assured her, as she looked panicked and genuinely remorseful. "Then Avi's falling over panicked people."

"Shit!" Kirstie shrieked, tears streaming down her face. "I hurt Tim—did I hurt Avi too?"

Kevin eyed her. "He said something about being kicked in the crotch."

"I'm so sorry!" she howled in Avi's direction. "I'm so sorry, Avi!"

Avi poked his head in. "Don't worry about me. I'll survive. Everyone OK in here? Oh shit," he gasped, his eyes falling on Tim. He shook a woman off of him. "No, I can't sign anything for you right now!" He grabbed Mitch and pulled him inside the laundromat, locking it behind him. "There." He rubbed his hands together. "That solves that problem. "

Mitch shrieked in a seemingly inhuman pitch. Good God. And I thought I could sing high. "Is he dead?"

"Passed out," Adam said, running back in with a bottle of water and a bored-looking manager.

"I am not dealing with the legalities of people dying in here," he was saying.

"No one is gone die!" I yelled at him, trying to battle down my own panic. He's just passed out... passed out... he's breathing and he wasn't bleeding... If nothing else, Kirstie was upset. If I did't know better, I'd say she might have had a little crush on him, the way she'd been flirting with him.

"Have you called 911?" Chance asked, pretty upset himself as Rob sponged his face with a wet T-shirt.

I leaned over him. "Wake up, Tim, please. Wake up, man."