Falling

09

Carson Hughes

Time spent at Logan's was a lot better when his extended family wasn't around. The six of us sat downstairs in the living room watching a series on Netflix that I didn't even know the name of. It was hard for me to even pay attention to it, but Dana swore it was good as she turned it on.

"I really don't get this," Logan said, looking at his girlfriend with furrowed eyebrows.

"If you just paid attention you would," Dana said in an overly sweet tone, like she was trying her hardest not to seem annoyed at her boyfriend.

Logan was never one to pay attention to something when he had to read subtitles and while I tried to follow along at first, I ended up zoning out while Hadley, Dana, and Isaac were entrenched in the show. Archie hadn't even been paying attention from the start, texting on his phone the entire time.

"Are you talking to Crystal?" I asked him, causing Archie to look up for the first time in a while.

He shook his head. "Nah."

"What, did she stop answering you?" Logan joked, leaning back in his seat.

"Can you guys be quiet?" Hadley asked, not taking her eyes off the screen.

Logan and I shared strange looks while Archie flipped Logan off and turned back to his phone.

"You don't even need to hear it, you're reading subtitles," I pointed out.

"You guys talking makes it hard to concentrate," Hadley replied, still staring straight ahead.

It wasn't worth arguing over and I didn't want to bother her anyway, so I stayed quiet and took out my phone to scroll through Instagram. I mindlessly liked pictures posted by my peers and we all sat in silence for a while with only the TV making noise.

Only the television was heard until Luna started barking like crazy from upstairs, startling all of us. For a few moments we ignored her, thinking she would eventually stop or Vinny would take care of her, but she kept going.

"Luna!" Logan yelled from his spot on the couch. "Stop it!"

Luna came running down the stairs and over to the couch, nudging Logan with her nose, before running back upstairs and continuing her barking. I turned to see her at the top of the stairs as she barked, then she ran down the hallway and back to the top of the stairs.

"Vinny!" Logan yelled. "Can you get Luna?"

There was no answer and Luna continued her barking.

"Maybe he's still asleep?" I wondered, glancing back to Logan who just shook his head.

"There's no way," he said, standing up from the couch and heading to the bottom of the stairs. "Luna, come here. Do you need to go out?"

She didn't listen to him and just ran down the hallway. The situation was strange and I had an uncomfortable pit in my stomach. Luna was a very obedient dog, trained from a young age. It wasn't normal for her to defy Logan or anyone in the household.

"What's she doing?" I asked him, standing from the couch to go over to Logan.

He just shrugged and started going up the stairs. Luna met him at the top and I saw him follow her down the hallway until they were both out of my sight. A few moments later, Logan called down the stairs.

"One of you call an ambulance!" he shouted, causing my eyes to widen. The rest of our friends all stood up from where they sat, completely forgetting about the show on the TV.

Dana rushed past me and climbed the stairs. I followed her as I dialed 911, holding the phone up to my ear. When I got to the top of the stairs, Dana was standing in the doorway of the bathroom with her hand over her mouth. I stood beside her just as an operator picked up the phone and my mouth hung open as I took in the sight in front of me.