Mentors - A Joshler Fic

Chapter 18

Josh's P.O.V.

I woke up the next morning bright and early and groaned when I remembered that I had an early soccer practise today. I begrudgingly got out of bed and showered and got dressed. I went downstairs to grab a quick bite to eat. My mom was already awake and sitting at the table reading the newspaper and sipping her coffee. “Good morning mom,” I said cheerily.

“Morning honey. Off to practice?”

“Yup, have to be there by eight, but we should be done by ten or eleven depending on how long coach keeps us.”

I sat down across the table from here and ate through my bowl of cheerios rather quickly and gulped down a glass of orange juice. “Gotta go, bye mom.”

“Bye honey, have a good practice.”

I grabbed my bag and went out to my car. The drive to school was quick and I walked in and made my way to the locker room. Most of my teammates were there already except for the few that were always late. “Josh, my man. How’s it going?”

“It’s going good dude, can’t complain. Ready to sweat our asses off today. I’m sure coach has some tough shit in store for today.”

“Ugh yeah, it was bad enough having to get up this early over thanksgiving break, now I’ve got to actually work.”

Just then coach walked in the room and everyone stopped their small talk to listen to what he had to say. It was his usual pep talk followed by the order to hurry up and get our asses out on the field. I opened up my locker and took off my clothes to change into my practice jersey. I had just finished getting dressed when my cellphone rang, most of the room had cleared out by now, only a few stragglers remained. I looked down to see who it was, it wasn’t a number I knew but out of curiosity I answered it anyway.

“Hello. Who’s this?”

“Uh hey Josh? It’s um Zack, Tyler’s brother. I know you hate me and shit but uh I just came home and I found Tyler on the floor. He’s pretty out of it, he like cut himself or some shit I don’t really know. He keep coming in and out of consciousness, I don’t know what to do.”

“Shit. Fuck. Okay, I’ll be there as soon as I can, stay with him. Try to keep him awake.”

I threw my phone into my bag and didn’t bother changing out of my jersey before running out as fast as I could through the hallway and out to my car. I threw my car into gear and floored it to Tyler’s house, paying very little mind to the speed limit as I drove. My heart was pounding. Finally in record time I made it to Tyler’s house and I flew out of my car and into his house, running upstairs where I could hear the sound of muttering voices.

“Ty, come on, why’d you do this?”

“Why do you even care, you fucking sold me to pay off your debt. You don’t give a shit about me. Just let me die in peace.”

I burst around the corner and into the bathroom just in time to hear Tyler speak this. When he saw me he stopped speaking, and gazed down at the floor. What first struck me was the blood, Zack had thrown towels over most of it, but I could see that he’d lost a lot of blood. The second thing I noticed was how pale Tyler was, probably from blood loss. I knelt down beside him, he wouldn’t meet my eyes. I looked down and saw that he was clutching his arm, the gashes that covered his arm were gruesome. I was shocked. I knew he definitely needed to go to the hospital, it looked like he was barely hanging onto consciousness.

“Ty, I’m gonna take you to the hospital.”

“No,” he muttered quietly, his voice barely a whisper. “I don’t want to.”

“Tyler you don’t have a choice,” I said adamantly. I reached out to pick him up in my arms and he struggled against me.

“Don’t fucking touch me! Don’t touch me! Get off,” he screamed, his voice hoarse. I let go of him. He slid away from me his eyes wide with fear, anxiety written across his pale tear stained face.

“Tyler, please. Please let me take you to the hospital. I don’t want you to die. Please. I love you. Go to the hospital, for me please.”

“No,” he said, fresh tears flooding his eyes. I felt so helpless. I reached out once again to try and hold him, he struggled against me but I didn’t let go. “Tyler. Tyler. It’s me, Josh. Your boyfriend. I love you so much and you’re the most amazing boyfriend ever. You make me laugh and your smile lights up the whole room. I love you, please let me hold you, I would never hurt you.”

He gave up the struggle and collapsed against me. I held him in my arms, taking caution not to hurt his arm. His body shook as he sobbed, but I didn’t let go of him. “It’s okay babe, let it out. I love you okay. I’m not going to leave you.” I looked up at Zack who stood silent across the room, watching us with a blank expression on his face. I felt hatred in my heart towards him. What he’d done to Tyler was unforgivable. I turned my attention back to Tyler.

“Ty, can I take you to the hospital?”

He didn’t respond but I stood up with him in my arms and carried him gently in my arms out to my car. Zack followed behind me. I set Tyler in the passenger seat and buckled him up. I turned to face Zack. “I don’t know if you want to somehow contact your father and let him know what’s going on? I mean I don’t care but he should probably be informed.”

“Uh yeah, I’ll let him know.” I walked around to the other side of my car and was just about to get in the car when Zack spoke again. “You know I am sorry about what I’ve done to Tyler.”

“That’s all well and good. But the damage has been done. Maybe you should tell Tyler those words. Not me.”

I got in the car and pulled out of the driveway and made my way to the hospital, making small talk as I did to try and keep Tyler conscious. I pulled right up to the door of the emergency room and carried Tyler inside. We were obviously quite the sight to see and immediately nurses were rushing to our aid with a gurney, which I set Tyler on, he still hadn’t spoken. I told them what had happened and they whisked him away to a room, I watched him go and when the nurses finally left after I’d given them all the details I wandered over to the waiting area and took a seat.

Finally I allowed myself to break down, and allowed the tears to flow freely as I held my face in my hand. My mind was haunted by images of blood, and most of all my the hollow and terrified eyes of my boyfriend. The boyfriend that I loved so much and cared about so much. I continued to cry until a friendly nurse came over with a sympathetic smile and a box of tissues. She sat with me for a minute and I was able to calm down. It was then that the thought occurred to me to call my mom and tell her where I was, cause practise was probably over by now.

I took out my phone and dialed her number. “Hello,” she answered.

“Mom,” I said. “I’m at the hospital.” Of course she freaked out at this and asked me if I was hurt. “No mom, um it’s Tyler. I got a phone call from his brother. Tyler tried to kill himself last night.” It hurt to say the words aloud, to have to acknowledge the reality of the situation. She freaked out at what I said, and I ended up having to calm her down. She resolved to come down to the hospital right away. I hung up the phone and leaned back in the chair and waited staring at the way the florescent light reflected off the linoleum floor.