The ambulances yelling around them, the lights in the neighbors' houses being turned on, thou it wasn't the first time. Just the first one this month. The cops talking with some lady in the street, and finally, the dogs barking at her. Her, Hayden. She, who is lying face down on Ash's floor. Her hands are tied on the top of her hair and she doesn't see a thing anymore. She only sees blurred lines, blurred dogs, blurred cops, Ash. Ash must be near. She can hear his breathing getting slower. So she yells for help, she yells while facing the ground, she yells that he's about to die. She yells that he's got some heart issue probably. Her eyes close shut and she doesn't hear anything anymore, no barking, no ambulance, no breathing. She tries to remember before falling asleep, the last sound that she'd heart. Whether it was someone running towards Ash to help him or just another cop walking in the flat citch coke in his hands. She yells in her sleep, in her head. She yells so loudly she is hoping someone gets there in time. There's so much to be saved right now. Please make someone hear her.
"Look Dee, please. She was there, yes. But she didn't do anything wrong. She got knocked out and they didn't hold anything against her."
The first ambulance had just arrived so she ran downstairs and showed them the way. She ran as fast as she could to get to the flat, the nurse started asking her questions. "How old is she? What did she take? What amount?" And while Hayden didn't answer anything she asked herself the same questions. Running towards the apartment with blood stains on her cheeks and on her shirt, it wasn't hers thou. She kept on running until they got to Ash's door and then she let herself fall onto the floor next to Cara. Ash was till holding her, as Hayden had left him minutes ago, Cara's head on his knee, trying to wipe off the blood from her nose. He's the one who had remained calm. "She's eighteen." He said.
"You knew the girl?"
"I still do."
The cops arrived in the hour and they let the dogs off their leash, go find whatever Ash had managed to keep in there. Hayden just knew there were drugs to be found anywhere in that apartment, so they'd have to remain there a long time if they had to find them all. She'd heard the ambulance leave with Cara in it, she could hear the cops had called her parents. But them, the four of them who'd remained, the cops told them to remain face down. Ash, Hayden, Vinny and his brother. Lou had left the place an hour before Cara had had the overdose. The cops searched the two guys first and only found weed. A woman searched Hayden and didn't find anything. But then another cop searched Ash and found coke again. He asked who the flat belonged to and they made him sit against a wall, hands cuffed in his back.
"They released you the same night, didn't they? They took my brother, God knows they were right, but they took him alone and they released you fools."
Next thing Hayden knew was that she'd slept in her bed thanks to Avery. He sat in a corner, watching over her when she woke up. He explained to her that the cops had called their father's phone but he was the one to answer it. She got lucky that one time so he brought her home, cleaned her face and threw away her clothes.
"It is late Hayden, you should go home."
"Dee-" protests Ash, turning to his sister, his hand firmly linked to Hayden's. Diane turns away, a weak smile covering her lips.
"It's alright Ash," the girl says, pulling Ashton to her for a final kiss as she gets closer to the door. He smiles a painful smile, hiding her hair under the hood of her sweater, repeating that it's so freaking cold are you crazy? Hayden stops his hands from moving and closes the space between their lips once more. "You can't expect her to love me, you know? I came into your life, fucked everything up and hoped for the best. I can't keep doing that."
Ashton's eyes are locked on hers and he doesn't feel like moving anymore. She gets it, she seems okay with it, and she doesn't want to fight anymore. Tonight he's sleeping at her place, he doesn't want to leave her.
YOU ARE READING
Settle Down
Romance"She came and it was two in the morning. She'd been crying. She started screaming in my backyard. She was yelling for me to let her in while I had never met her before. Mate, she was nuts. She wore that fucking purple dress. You know, the dark one...
