Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice [boyxboy]

Chapter Fifteen

And I'm not kidding. I hoped he was dead. Gone. Kuh-put. Six feet under. Pushing up daises.

Dead.

"Ethn... N'moving..." Lucas mumbled.

"Lucas, please don't hurt yourself." I responded, my voice breaking. Lucas gazed up at me, his dark, black-blue eyes glittering in the sunlight before he gave a short nod and rested his face against my chest, breathing softly. I forced my legs to take me forward and I walked around the school building to the front instead.

I wasn't going to let anyone Lucas see him like this in person.

No one should see him like this.

By the time I reached the front of the school, there was a cop car and an ambulance sitting out front, which surprised me. I hadn't thought they'd arrive this quickly. It was when a paramedic went to take Lucas from my arms when I panicked.

"We need to take him to the emergency room, he could have internal bleeding." One of them protested when I pulled up short.

"Touch him and I'll kill you." I heard myself say. I felt like I was on autopilot. I didn't trust anyone to touch Lucas. He was just barely conscious, and he felt like he would just float away from me if I didn't hold onto him tight enough.

"Ethan, you have to let them take him," I heard the Coach say from behind me, "They won't hurt him."

"No." I said sharply.

"You can ride in the ambulance with him, but if you don't let us take him, he could die from this." The paramedic snapped at me. That hit home and I immediately let them take Lucas from me, placing him on the stretcher.

Bad idea.

Lucas seemed to know immediately that he was no longer with me because he smacked the nearest paramedic, who gasped in shock, holding the side of his face. Lucas started to sit up on the stretcher, gritting his teeth and grabbing for me.

"No!" He protested when the other paramedic caught his shoulder to pull him back. That made me panic.

"Don't hurt him! I didn't give him to you to hurt him!" I snarled, taking a step forward, but the Coach caught me under the arms firmly, holding me back as they struggled to pin Lucas on the stretcher.

"I said don't hurt him!" My voice broke again and I could see the flashing blue and red lights blurring. I quickly blinked just as the paramedic injected Lucas with something that was slowly making him sink to the stretcher.

"What did you do?!" I gasped.

"They didn't hurt him," Coach said gently, "But you have to calm down, Niles. Come on, we're riding with Lucas to the emergency room, okay? But you can't jump anyone, or you won't get to see Lucas."

I forced myself to relax, taking deep, shaky breathes as the Coach led me by the elbow to the ambulance behind the stretcher. Once we got inside, the doors slamming shut behind us, the Coach and I plopped on a bench as two paramedics worked on Lucas, who was getting hooked up to all sorts of things I didn't understand.

"W-Wait," I said quickly as the ambulance took off, "What about his parents? His parents have to know-- And the rest of his family."

"Do you know the number?" Coach asked me, taking out his cell phone and handing it to me. I nodded quickly, stared at the phone, then quickly handed it back.

"I can't." I managed.

"What?"

"The last time I called about Lucas, they... I can't. Please."