Mon Frere ✓

thirty-three: THE END

"What did it say?"

Laurent ignored Roy. He dialled Marcus' number.

"Laurent-"

"What does it mean?" He asked interrupting Marcus.

Marcus hesitated, "Look, man, I don't know what he was thinking when he went out driving. We were both together at his place talking and was really wasted, crying and I tried to calm him down but he wouldn't listen. He grabbed my car keys and ran out. Got into my car and drove off-"

Laurent gulped. "Where's he?"

"He-he... He's in the emergency ward right now, Laurent. He's been in there for hours," Marcus choked. "Larry's in the emergency room now and I've never beem so scared, Laurent. He's my best friend. I promised I was to help him out. How am I supposed to fix things if he's like this? It's all my fault. I took too long and now, I'm going to lose my best friend."

"What is it?" Roy asked, puzzled at the horrified look on Laurent's face.

Roy snatched the phone from Marcus just as Laurent bolted from the room.

**
Laurent banged against the dashboard of the uber.

"Relax, man," The uber driver cautioned, checking his dashboard for any dent.

"Well, can you drive faster, dammit!" Laurent snapped.

"I'm not allowed to go beyond this speed. Sorry."

Laurent fisted his twists, itching and restless in the passenger seat.

It was almost 24 hours since Marcus had called him and he was about 5 minutes from the hospital Marcus had said Larry was in.

Laurent's eyes burned with angry, regretful tears. Tears he wasn't hiding, not from the uber driver, not from anybody. In that moment, he didn't care what anyone thought.

All he cared about was Larry. He was going to lose Larry the love of his life. All because he had been too much of a chicken to stay by his side and fight for their love. He'd given up on their love because he had been too worried about what everyone thought about their relationship. He had disregarded the most important thing which was Larry and what Larry felt for him.

Walking out on Larry had been the biggest mistake Laurent had made in his life. He had had to make several mistakes, life changing decisions that had turnsd out to be threatening mistakes but none of them was as painful and as regrettable as ignoring Larry, leaving him and pretending he didn't love him when in truth, Laurent had spent every second of each day aeaiy from Larry, thinking about Larry, what he was doing, if he had eaten, if he had his bunny smile out or if he was sad because of him, if he had gone back to dancing, or was he not ready yet. He had thought about Larry a lot, too much.

He should have said something. He shouldn't have hurt Larry this way. The blame was all on him. If anything happened to Larrg he would never forgive himself. He would never be able to continue living his life because then his life would be meaningless, worthless.

When the Uber stopped in front of the Hospital, Laurent jumped out of the car and began to race towards the building.

"You can't run-"

"Get out of my way!" Laurent pushed the security man aside and raced into the building.

He stopped abruptly at the front desk. He breathed, "Please, Larry Bourgeois."

The nurse began going through the computer records-

"Laurent?"

Laurent looked up and found Marcus holding a burger and ice coke in his hand. He ran to him.