Celo

Chapter 12

CASEY 

I walked to my car with Kyle and Quinn. While we were driving I asked, "Kyle, what happened to your arm?"

Quinn answered first, "He was shot." 

I had no idea guns were involved in this situation. This was starting to feel a little too out of my control.

"I'm fine though," Kyle spoke up.

"How long ago?" I asked.

"Yesterday." Quinn answered.

"Who?" I asked although I knew the answer.

"Guess." said Quinn.

"Where is he now?" I saw them exchange a nervous glance.

"I shot him," Kyle said, "I don't know what happened after that. I drove away."

"Quinn how bad is he?" Quinn knew I was referring to Kyle.

"You should take a look." he answered which wasn't much help because there was no way I was letting them go home without making sure both of them were taken care of. 

We got to my house and I had Kyle lay down on the couch. He did not look healthy at all but I would have to gage how much of that was from alcohol withdrawal and how much was actually a result of something I could fix.

"You want me to take this off?" Kyle asked.

"Quinn will help you." I said as I went to go get supplies. On my way back I checked the fridge for food. Someone had left three peices of pizza, they couldn't have been more than two days old so I grabbed them and went back to the guys. Kyle was now laying on the couch without a shirt on and there were bloody crumpled gauze pads filling both of Quinn's hands.

"Where should I put these?" he asked.

"Garbage bin outside." Quinn left. I sat on the coffee table and surveyed Kyle. obviously they had not cleaned anything because there was still dry blood all over his chest. I grabbed a wet washcloth and cleaned both his front and back trying to participate in small talk to distract him from the pain. Once I had removed all the blood everything seemed much more manageable. Surprisingly the wound didn't look infected yet.

"You're good at this." Kyle said sheepishly.

"Mostly from expeience." I answered. I couldn't help being a little angry with him.

"Quinn wont tell me how bad things were and I can't remember what I did but it was bad wasn't it?"

"Ya, it was pretty bad but Quinn doesn't blame you." What could I say? It was awful.

"I know! Why! Its my fault, why does he blame himself!" Kyle seemed so upset so I decided to stop talking and give him some time to rant uninterrupted. While I poured antiseptic onto the wound. Quinn returned and began eating pizza silently while Kyle cried and I bandaged. "Better?" I asked when I'd finished.

"Ya, much, thanks." he replied. I wondered what they were going to do about their dad.

Quinn spoke up, "We should get home before your parents come Case." 

"You can't go home! Your dad could be there."

"My dad could always be there but we can't just live at your house. Anyways, Kyle's sober now, we can take my dad."

"Quinn, your dad has a gun." There was a full minute of scilence.

"I know he does," Quin said, "gun or not and drunk or not and home or not he's our dad and we're gonna have to face him at some point alright? You've helped us alot today Case but we know this situation better than you do."

"Fine I'll give you a ride."

"No that would be putting you in danger. We'll walk."

"Quinn, I won't get out of the car. I'm driving you."

"Casey I really don't think--"

"Did it sound like I was asking you? Come on." I grabbed my keys and got in the car and turned it on. I drove them to there house. I thought about insisting that I go in with them but they were right, that was a stupid idea, and I was also terrified of drunk men with guns, for obvious reasons. When I got back home my mom and dad were outside swimming, I went to my room and finished my homework. I texted Quinn and no one answered. I cried a little and went to bed.