Miles to Go

Chapter 7

Ethan

When the two of them had finally arrived at his house, Miles sat Ethan down like a porcellian doll as he reached for his keys and unlocked his apartment door. By this time, Ethan was groaning from the pain of the cuts on his stomach. Ethan guessed Miles must of heard him cause he turned around quickly with a sympathetic look on his face. "Don't worry you'll be fine in no time, ok?" he said, lifting Ethan up. He swung one of Ethan's arms around his shoulder and helped him walk inside the apartment.

"Neat place you got here" Ethan said in an effort to make conversation. "Shhh..you don't need to force yourself to make small talk. Just focus on your breathing, okay?" The man said, as if he had read his mind. Doing as directed, Ethan lied himself on the bed as the man went to grab his first aid kit.

"This'll be a piece of cake" he said to Ethan to reassure him. "Now, I need to remove this" he pointed, grabbing the hoodie Ethan was using to keep the blood from spilling. After doing as told, the man tended to Ethan's wounds with a serious, yet confident, look on his face. Ethan found himself feeling somewhat safer after seeing the man's abilities and relaxed a bit.

He looked down towards him and smiled. "All done. Lucky you, no need for stitches."

"How is this lucky.." Ethan muttered under his breath. "Well could be worse. You could be, y'know, dead." The man chuckled. Ethan didn't see anything funny about this. "Alright, so who can I call" he asked all of a sudden. "What do you mean..?" Ethan asked, confused. "Y'know. Family, friends, distant cousins, anyone to pick you up and take care of you" he replied making several hand gestures as to say "come on, hurry this up."

"Well..I just moved up here.. And my family is..lets say my mom and I had disconnected with them." Ethan shrank, thinking about how isolated from his family he'd actually become. "Oh..I see.." The man said, looking down, his gaze fixex on his shoes. "Well.."  He started, tapping his foot anxiously before looking up brightly. "I was looking for a roommate" he chuckled. "Look Mike, was that your name-?"

"Miles" he corrected. "Miles, I don't think I could ask this much of you. You've already done so much for me. Why would you go this far for a stranger?" Ethan asked confused. "I.." He began, "well..you're not a complete stranger" he said. "We shared a class together in highschool. Pre-calc. And you always looked like such a loney dude. Still do a little bit, to be honest. You look like you could use the company too, based on your current condition"  he said, scratching the back of his neck, nervously, awaiting his response.

"..we did huh?..okay..okay. I give in" Ethan sighed, it's not as if he had many options. "Wow that didn't take much convincing" he said aloud. "You trying to make me mistrust you man?" Ethan said, raising an eyebrow suspiciously. "No! no! I just think its weird you believed me on my word" he stammered. Again, he makes himself sound so suspicious Ethan thought. "Well, you saved my life." Ethan said gratefully. "Of course I'd trust you." 

"Alright, now that that's decided lets get you resting. Sleep will cure the wound faster" he stated matter of factly. Ethan yawned, his body's way of agreeing with the guy. "Yeah, I'm not opposed to the idea" he said weerily. Today had really done a number on him. "Here, just lie down here" he said, patting the bed. Ethan lied back down carefully as the man turned his back to go grab something.

Ethan was still a little on edge but his body was fighting to stay awake right now. The man returned with a blanket and he graciously accepted it. His body now went into literal sleep mode as he passed out more willingly than he'd like to admit. Exhaustion took him out faster than any car crash.