Page 28 of Addicted to You
Unlocking my car, I opened the glove compartment and pulled out the small bag I’d purchased after sound check. The entire day had been a mess, full of fights, secrets, and emotions I didn’t want to deal with. I just wanted to feel good, to not worry about anything, at least for a little while.
Tucking the bag into the pocket of my jeans, I shut the car door and made my way back toward the venue. Maybe I couldn’t control everything around me, but I could try to have fun and forget all the shit causing me stress.
Once inside, I headed straight to the bathroom and did a line.
The high hit quick, but it didn’t last.
Minutes later, my vision blurred, and it felt as though I wasn’tgetting enough oxygen in my lungs and I couldn’t keep my eyes open. The next thing I knew, my body was jostled from side to side.
“Come on, Silas, wake up,” a voice demanded.
I wanted to yell at whoever was shaking me, but I couldn’t even open my eyes to see who was doing it.
What the hell was going on?
“I called 911. The ambulance is on its way,” the same voice stated but it didn’t sound as though they were speaking to me.
Ambulance? Why was an ambulance coming?
“We need to keep him awake,” another voice called out and someone slapping me lightly on the face. “Silas, stay with us, man. Come on.”
The muffled chatter continued, and I could hear the worry in their voices. I was desperate to tell them I was fine, but my mouth and body wouldn’t respond. Then suddenly my body jerked violently, and I gasped, trying to pull as much air into my lungs as possible.
“Keep talking to him,” someone said, but I didn’t know who. “We need to keep him conscious until the ambulance arrives.”
“Silas, stay with us.” It was the same voice as before, but now I was pretty sure it was Malachi. “Just open your eyes, okay?”
“Come on, buddy. You’re stronger than this.”
My eyelids fluttered open, and I saw a blurry Jesse leaning over me. I felt like throwing up. I was about to ask what was going on, but the room exploded into chaos when paramedics burst into the room. Before I knew what was happening, they had me strapped to a stretcher and were wheeling me out of the theater.
“Silas, can you hear me?” one of the EMTs asked as they lifted me into the ambulance.
“Yeah,” I croaked. “What happened?”
“Someone found you unresponsive, and you were given Narcan. We need to get you to the hospital.”
Nothing made sense, and my brain was too jumbled to try to piece it all together.
He continued to grill me as he got an IV started in my arm. “What didyou take tonight?”
“Take?”
“I’m not a cop, so I’m not going to judge what you did. But I need to know what you’re on so I don’t make things worse by giving you the wrong meds,” he explained.
Even while I was unable to think clearly, my first instinct was to tell them I hadn’t taken anything, but obviously something had happened tonight, so it was probably better to be honest. “Just a line of coke.”
“What else?”
“Nothing,” I responded. As far as I could remember I hadn’t even had any alcohol yet.
There were more questions and some poking and prodding, but it was all a blur, and when we reached the hospital, I was rushed to a room in the ER.
The doctor barked out questions to the EMTs while other people drew my blood and hooked me up to monitors. It felt as though I’d run a marathon, the exhaustion overwhelming, and I let my eyes drift closed.
I woketo the beeping of machines, and a pounding in my skull. Blinking against the lights, I turned my head and noticed a nurse checking one of the monitors.
She looked up and smiled when she saw me staring at her. “Hi there. How are you feeling?”
