Letting Him In

Chapter-43

Kaeden ignored the urge to comfort him or take him home immediately.

"What hurts exactly, Lijah?" he asked, gently squeezing his shoulder.

"Everything, my entire upper body," he said. "It feels like everything's on fire."

"Okay, c'mon," Kaeden said, getting up. "My car's right here. Can you walk?"

Elijah nodded, his throat moving as he swallowed harshly. He got up, but stumbled as soon as he took the first step.

Kaeden caught him, carefully wrapping one of Elijah's arms around his shoulder, ignoring the pain that went through his own body from his father's inflictions. Slowly, they walked over to the car, and he opened the passenger door, carefully helping his friend in.

Getting into the car, he began driving, but this time not far enough to make things worse for Elijah.

"Where're we going," he asked after a few minutes, his eyes closed and head against the window.

"Hospital," Kaeden said, going on before Elijah could interrupt. "Don't argue."

Another minute of silence ensued before Elijah spoke again, this time looking at Kaeden, albeit with his eyes half-lidded.

"I'm sorry," he murmered.

"The heck are you sorry for?" Kaeden asked, bewildered. "I'm the one who fucked up."

Elijah shook his head, shifting in the seat and wincing a little.

"About before and for calling you at four in the morning," he said. "I just... I didn't know who else to call."

"Don't," Kaeden said, the guilt the had settled in his chest doubling. "You didn't do anything. I lashed out at you when I was really mad at my dad. I was the he who said that all that crap, so I have no idea why you're apologizing. And for calling me? If you didn't call me because we had a stupid argument, I would've killed you later myself."

Elijah let out a small, surprised chuckle. 

"Fine, maybe you didn't mean it. But you were right, I've been doing selfish shit these past two, three, weeks. It's just... I don't know what to do anymore."

"Hey, stop," Kaeden said, pulling into the hospital parking lot. "I'm sorry I said that, all of it. All I wanted to say was that I need my bestfriend right now, because I don't know who else to go to either, but I sure as hell never meant to say it the way I did. And I can never apologize enough for it, because that was shitty of me on alot of levels."

"How about we forget that ever happened? You said shit, so did I. It's done. I'm not willing to ruin our friendship because of your bastard father."

"Done," Kaeden said, relief flooding his body. He realized he hadn't been sure Elijah would forgive him, but clearly he had forgotten who he was talking about. Elijah wouldn't hold a grudge to save his life, especially against someone he cared about.

"Now c'mon, let's go," Kaeden said as Elijah winced again, a groan escaping his lips.
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Waiting.

That's what they'd been doing for the past five hours.

Once Kaeden had brought Elijah in, the doctors had rushed him away for testing. Kaeden had immediately gone to call his mother, asking her to come over, and also to call Elijah's parents. He had Elise's number, but he was too tired to explain this to her.

About two hours and alot of tests later, Elijah had been moved to his room where they'd been for the last few hours.

The conversation about why he had been out at four in the morning and what would have happened if Kaeden had been asleep and hadn't answered his call was a long and presumably awkward one, and also one he had gladly sat out of, waiting outside instead.