Celo

Chapter 15

SO I DID END UP CHANGING WHAT I HAD BEFORE A BIT <3s

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KYLE

Dad had fallen asleep and me and Quinn were back in our room. It was 9:00. My head was killing me. I lay down on the bed and closed my eyes. I felt Quinn open my hand and drop two pills into it, I dry swallowed them like I had seen him do earlier. Then I heard him on the phone ordering pizza.

QUINN

I brought the pizza back into my room and almost tripped over the gun that was still laying on the floor. I put th pizza down, used the butt of the gun to bash the bullet hole in the wall so it was about the size of a hand and dropped the gun into the wall, better safe than sorry. I sat on the bed next to Kyle and shook him gently by the shoulder. He was really warm and damp from sweat. "Hey, pizza."

"I'm not really hungry man. Sorry."

"You didn't eat at lunch either. You've got to have something."

"I'm just not hugry alright! Give it a rest!" Kyle yelled at me, but he sounded more hurt than sad.

"Woah there!" I said surprised.

"You don't understand alright? You've had time to get used to this. This is like waking up from a dream but life is a nightmare."

"Listen to me. I understand Kyle! I understand completely but I'm your friend here okay?" I had looked up alcohol withdrawal sympoms on my laptop while he was yelling. Supposedly, this was "mild to moderate." Based on the websites description he felt just like me, like crap.

"How did this happen, huh? We weren't this family! We were just like everyone else! We were perfect!" His voice cracked and he had tears in his eyes.He had stood up and was pacing back and forth. I hugged him. Sure, it wasn't the most masculine thing but he was my little brother. It was my job to protect him and he was the only family I had left. "Sorry." Kyle said and sat down on the bed with his head in his hands.

"It's okay, I get it."

"I don't know if I can do this."

"Do what?"

"The withdrawal, and the school, and being around you, and having people worry about me. It's too much all at once."

"Let me and Casey take care of you, okay. Focus on school and other things, maybe you can get back into water polo."

"Are you still playing football?" Kyle asked. It was a fair question, but I didn't want to answer it. I hadn't played football this year. between mom's death and the drinking and the abuse I couldn't pull myself to gether enough. "You're not." Kyle answered the question for me. Not in an in-your-face-way, but in an empathetic way. "Anyways, season's over." He was right, it was the beginning of November, fall sports were ending.

"The Advil helping?" I asked. Trying to get of this nostalgic topic,

"A little I guess. I 'm gonna try and get some sleep"

CASEY

The week after I dropped the guys off at their house was one of the safest in a while. It seemed like now that Kyle was sober they were both going to be okay. Then Saturday came.

My phone screen lit up it was 3 o'clock in the morning but I couldn't sleep.

"You up?" saiad the text from Quinn.

"Ya."

"It's Kyle."

"Watsup?"

"I just went out to get some stuff from the store. Now I cant find Quinn, he left his phone in the room, there's blood on the floor. I think dad might've taken him to Mike's. idk y." I read the text from Kyle three times, then just stared at it. Then I drove to Mike's bar at three o'clock in the morning. I got out of my car and ran behind the building, it was dark and I was crazy. There was a flickering light over the back door. I could see Kyle in the corner of the dead end alley. He was crouched over Quinn. I ran over to them. Kyle looked at me surprised then serious and then back at Quinn. I looked at Quinn too. He was proped up on the wall and he has his legs layed out in front of him one knee was bent the other was staight. There was a huge rip and stain on that knee of his pants. The stain was blood, it was still wet. He had a giant gash in his knee. I looked up at his face. 

"Hey." he whispered. There was another cut on his cheek. A tear slipped down my face. It was cold and I could see all of our breath.

"Let's get him out of here." I said to Kyle. He looked down solemnly. I looked down to. His hand was completely swollen and he also had a cut on his leg, not nearly as bad but enough to keep him from supporting another human being. "I'll be right back." I drove my car into the alley and opened the trunk, it was an SUV. I grabbed some gauze pads and medical tape out of the glove compartment. I wrapped all of their cuts and helped Kyle stand up. "You okay?" I asked him. 

"Ya I'm fine." We each put an arm around Quinn and lay him down in the trunk. Kyle got in with him and we drove to my house. Once safely in my garage I turned the light on and went around to the trunk. Everything looks better with the lights off.