Empty Bargains ~Jason McCann~

~10.25...2~

    I threw out my arm to catch Jason but staggered under his weight.  My head hit the wall as we tumbled against it and I winced with the ache spreading through my skull.  Jason’s body was limp in my hold, and I strained to see if he was breathing.  Heart pounding heavily, my mind was moving too fast to stop and watch his chest.

    “Don’t just stand there!” I shouted across the room, pointing a glare at Leah.  Her expression was shocked, but I couldn’t tell whether she was genuinely concerned or not.  “Go get Xander, or Carter, or someone!”

    “Did he just–“

    “Fucking move!” I bellowed, sounding loud even with the noise of the music blaring downstairs.

    She gave me an icy look before going out the door as fast as she could on her high heels.  I quickly discarded any hatred stemming in me.  All I could have time for was worrying about Jason, whose arm I slung over my shoulder and slowly lowered to the ground.  My hand felt around his left peck, searching for a heartbeat.  When I found one a small part of my anxiety vanished.  I was able to calm down enough to notice the rise and fall of his chest, short and shallow but present.

    What had done this to him?  I recounted the whole night in a few seconds — he hadn’t gone downstairs until just before I did, and even then he hadn’t been there long enough to get stoned or hammered.  The smoke wasn’t quite potent enough to get him high in that amount of time, most of which we’d spent outside, even.  Uriah couldn’t have done anything to him with all those people in the room, but even then it didn’t seem right that he was acting so odd that shortly after going into a party.  All I could remember seeing him drink was the scotch–

    I could feel the color drain from my face.  When he’d swiped the bottle from the counter I hadn’t thought twice of it, even when he’d informed me about someone spiking it.  The kick — whatever the hell it was — must’ve been the cause of this.

    “Where’s Jason?” I heard Xander call through the hallway.  He spun into the room a second later, eyes searching wildly until he found us hunched about ten feet from him.  “What the hell happened?”

    “I think he drank something,” I told Xander as I glanced down at Jason’s face.  Xander kneeled next to us, feeling for a pulse and watching for breathing the same way I had.

    “He’s alive,” he said, and I struggled to find patience.  I knew he was alive, I just didn’t know by how much.

    “We need to get him to a hospital,” I said hurriedly, shooting my gaze over to the doorframe as Leah came back into view.

    “Do you want me to call an ambulance?” she asked, digging around in the part of her dress covering her chest.  She pulled out a phone a second later and I wrinkled my nose.

    “If you’re going to say something, make it helpful,” I spat.  “An ambulance would draw in cops, too, and I’m pretty sure this whole party could get thrown in jail for at least two years.”

    “I can take him,” Xander said harshly, cutting Leah off from whatever she’d opened her mouth to say.  He reached for Jason’s arm and pulled his limp body into a bridal-style hold.  Jason’s head lolled to the side, his nose pressed into Xander’s shoulder.