Page 97 of Hot Ice, Tennessee

“Ah, no,” I admitted. “Jesse drove me here.”

Kane nodded, a hint of a question in his eyes that there was no time for us to dwell on.

“Go ahead,” Kane said. “I’ve got this fucking asshole taken care of.”

Miraculously, with a little help, Jesse was able to get back onto his feet. I let him lean on me completely, taking him to the passenger seat of his car and guiding him in. He seemed to be regaining consciousness slowly but surely, and when I got in the driver’s seat, I gunned it down Second Street toward the local hospital.

Luckily, we were close. I talked to Jesse the whole ride there, asking him questions that he was able to answer: what year it was, what season, and simple math. Within three minutes, I was pulling up outside the ER and throwing the car into park.

“These things are expensive,” Jesse said, peering at the emergency room.

“Jesse, I’ll pay every dime. Don’t think about that right now.”

The waiting room was mercifully mostly empty. We only had to wait ten minutes before Jesse was seen, and with each passing minute he was more and more himself.

“I was so dumb to ever be with that person,” he was saying as he sat on the edge of a hospital bed, waiting for a doctor to show up. “God, I don’t want to live with regrets, Mason, but when it comes to him…”

“I understand,” I said. “But don’t worry about him right now. You’re the only thing that matters.”

The doctor was in soon after. She asked Jesse even more questions than I had, checked his reflexes, and shined a light in his eyes.

“It doesn’t seem like we’ll need a CT scan or an MRI,” she said. “Pay attention to how you feel over the next few weeks, but I don’t think there are any signs of concussion.”

“Thank the Lord above,” I murmured.

The doctor gave me a polite smile. “You did the right thing getting him here fast. You’re a good friend.”

My heart ached.

A good friend. Is that what I am?

She was out a moment later.

“Mason,” Jesse murmured as soon as we were alone together in the room.

“Yeah?”

“I don’t want to sleep alone tonight,” he said, looking at me and giving me a sad, sweet smile.

And I’d never felt the tug as strongly as I did in that moment.

I nodded at him quickly, pulling in a breath. “That’s why you’re going to come over and sleep next to me.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I’d really like that.”

We were at my house less than an hour later. Kane had called and said that Elliot had left, and that Jesse was in his rights to press charges if he decided to. But tonight, all Jesse wanted was peace. He didn’t want to think about Elliot, and I couldn’t blame him.

Every other time Jesse had come over, it had felt heated, like I didn’t know what either of us might do next.

This time was entirely different.

As we got out of his car and walked to the front door, it was as if Jesse had never been socked in the face at all. He was walking and talking as normal, and aside from a couple places that were red or bruised on the side of his face, he was… himself.

Just calmer.

More at peace than I’d ever seen him.

I let us in the front door and we walked over to the living room. I turned on a few lamps, and Jesse breathed deep.

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