Page 61 of A Totally Platonic Thing
“Sorry, I’m fine,” I muttered. “I know it sucks to be here helping me and have me keep fucking up.”
“You’re not fucking up.”
“No?” I grabbed a paper towel off the stack and dried off, dabbing at water I’d splashed on the counter and starting to mutter another string of curses under my breath. I couldn’t seem to stop. How had I gotten so much water on the goddamn counter?
“No, you’re not. You’re just tired.” She grinned at me. “You look like shit on the road.”
“Thanks a million, great comparison.”
Amanda shrugged. “It sounds better in Russian. Come on, let’s get back to work.”
So we did, and I forced thoughts of Chris out of my head and ignored my phone, because distractions led to solder burns and not getting a job after I graduated.
“Lucas!” I jumped and looked up, blinking away gray spots. The fluorescent lab lighting was murder, especially late at night and when you were looking at tiny details.
“Yeah?”
Amanda frowned at me and gestured wildly in the direction of…my phone, plugged in and sitting on a windowsill, and ringing like crazy.
“Damn it,” I said, and dropped the wiring I had in my hands. “I never called Chris. Fuck.”
I crossed to my phone and picked it up right as it stopped. I noticed two things immediately. First, that it was already one twenty. Jesus fucking Christ, I hadn’t stopped working for twelve hours.
And second, that it hadn’t been Chris calling me. It’d been Aidan.
The screen lit up again, Aidan’s name flashing in time with the throbbing in my temples.
I wished I hadn’t eaten that greasy burger earlier, because my stomach felt like it’d congealed into a lump.
“Hey,” I said as I put the phone to my ear.
“Hey, man,” Aidan—shouted, because the background noise sounded deafening even through the phone. “Sorry to wake you.” He didn’t sound sorry, but I couldn’t blame him. He sounded mostly harassed and extremely rushed. “You need to come get Chris.”
Reflex had me reaching in my pocket to make sure I had my keys, even through the flash of rage that blinded me for a second.
But no. Fuck, no. I had to present a half-finished project in a little over eight hours. I hadn’t slept. I’d barely stopped to take a piss. I couldn’t, and I wouldn’t, and I—couldn’t even think about it.
“I can’t. He’ll have to Uber. I wasn’t asleep, I’m in the lab trying to finish this shit before the morning. Long story, but I seriously can’t leave tonight.”
“Hey, don’t—yeah, get down from there! Sorry, not you. Look, I’m really fucking sorry, that sucks, but you gotta come get him. He’s not just drunk. He’s totally wasted, he’s begging me not to let you leave him, he’s freaking out and says he needs you. I can’t fucking handle him right now. He’s going to end up getting tossed out on his ass if you can’t come and get him. Sebastian’s in bed, he had a panic attack earlier and took a Xanax, so I can’t call him instead since he shouldn’t be driving. It’s out of my hands at this point, Jason’s fed up with him. Everyone’s been rowdy tonight and he’s out of patience. And I can’t find any of Chris’s friends who were here. Shit. I’ve got to go. Seriously, dude, sorry.”
The line went dead.
I stared down at the phone in disbelief.
And then the anger hit. And the betrayal, so deep and dark I couldn’t even fathom it. He’dpromisedme. If he’d gone out and gotten drunk and screwed up his own life, missed a class or an assignment, I’d have been upset for other reasons. I hated seeing Chris being his own worst enemy—it hurt like hell.
But this? This was as bad as it could possibly be. This was Chris dragging me into it, in the worst possible way, and at the worst possible time.
He knew I’d been too busy to even come home and eat a meal or sleep in my own bed. That included spending any time with him, sure. But it was a couple of days. Not months. And I didn’t have any choice. Had he gotten pissed at me, or worse, wanted to force me to pay attention to him? My fingers clenched so tight around my phone that my knuckles went white. I forced myself to set it down carefully rather than throwing it at the wall.
First Dr. Park and now Chris, backing me into a corner that I couldn’t claw my way out of. I felt like I might suffocate, my chest all tight and raw.
I couldn’t deal with this right now. But I couldn’tnotdeal with it, either.
Someone had to take care of Chris tonight, and it had to be me. I couldn’t let him go wandering off into downtown to pass out in a gutter, or be assaulted, or get picked up by the cops for being drunk and disorderly. And realistically I knew Aidan probably wouldn’t actually let that happen. He’d cut out of work early, get Chris home, and deal with him if I didn’t show up.
And then he might lose his job. The job he loved, the job he’d had to struggle to get with his criminal record. Aidan didn’t deserve that. Chris wasn’t his problem.
