Acquaintances

Chapter 18: This isn't real

A/N: Song attached that I recommend listening to while reading. 

The weekend passes way too quickly, every spare minute spent with Matt, and every other minute spent talking to my Grandad to see what is happening with Louis’ contract. I think everything will be fine, but I can tell Louis hasn’t stopped stressing about it since it all went down, and the lack of support from his ‘fans’ isn’t making it easier.

Today is the day that Louis and I are going bungee jumping, for safety reasons we have to be there really early so that we can be debriefed on protocl, and I am absolutely terrified. So instead of getting to Louis’ at 5am to pick him up like I’d told him, I arrived at 4:30am. There are lights on inside, which hopefully means he must be up getting ready and didn’t sleep through his alarm like I thought he would.

After keying in the code, I walk up the pathway to his door, pulling my jacket tight around me as the cold night air hits me hard. I knock a few times, but he doesn’t answer, I push the door open when I notice it’s slightly ajar, walking into the semi-lit house.

“Louis?” The house is eerily silent as I walk through the empty living room and down the hall. Searching for him, maybe he went out last night and isn’t home yet? Why was the door unlocked?

When I reach his bedroom, I push the door open but it gets caught on something, I push it harder and as I step in, I see what it was caught on. Louis’ foot.

“LOUIS!” I screech upon seeing him, sprawled out on the carpet of his bedroom floor, not moving. My eyes zero in on him, taking in his appearance in shock, not knowing what I have just walked in on.

My heart drops, and before I even know what I’m doing, I’m kneeling down beside his limp body, taking his face between his hands. Oh my god.

My hands caress his pale face as I feel for his pulse under his jaw line on his neck. His face is cold, completely neutral and the pain that is coursing through me from seeing him like this is so devastating that the tears running down my face would be enough to fill a river.  My breathing has turned into an erratic pant as I try to regain a regular rhythm but my whole body is in panic mode. What happened?

I shake him, pleading for him to wake up. “Louis, Louis, Louis!” I beg, reaching for his phone on the bedside table, remembering I left mine in the car. Please be okay.

I dial 999, glancing around the carpet while I wait for the call to connect, my stomach falling when I see the empty vial, with a small coating of white powder on the inside. Oh fuck no. I’m going to be sick. Coke.

He overdosed?

“What’s your emergency?” The generic voice fills my ears and it takes me a while to realise their talking to me. It’s one of those moments where I’m not in my body, everything is in slow motion and I’m watching from above, willing myself to act faster but nothing happen. Nothing and everything happens at once, I can’t keep up, I’m frozen and one part of my mind is trying to make sense of what happened but the other part is freaking out about what I should be doing.

“I need an ambulance, I think…I think…”

“Can you tell me what’s happened?” The voice asks calmly. No I can’t tell you what happened I have no idea! Why am I so horrible in this crisis mode?

“Um, I think he overdosed on cocaine, but I don’t know how long ago or how much. I don’t think he’s breathing.” My voice is frantic and all my words string together into one inaudible sentence. I feel for his pulse again but can’t feel anything, and I’m not sure if that’s because I’m so panicked my fingers are shaking or because he isn’t breathing.