Colby yawned loudly, groaning at the sound of his phone ringing loudly by his ear. Shuffling around in his little cocoon of fluffy blankets, Colby reached out to grab his phone, the loudness of the device confusing his ears, which have heard nothing but silence during his peaceful nights sleep. Colby's eyebrows furrowed when he saw the caller ID and the time. Elton Castee was ringing him at.... 2:30am in the morning. What the hell could he want. Groaning, Colby answered the phone and held it to his ear.
"What do you want?" Colby grumbled, slightly ticked off that he was awoken from his deep slumber.
"Colby?" Elton said into the phone.
"That's my name, don't wear it out," Colby yawned, flopping his head back onto his pillow.
"Colby..... dude I'm so sorry," the elder sighed, causing Colby's heart to pound slightly in his chest.
"What's going on?" Colby mumbled, a little more awake now.
"Listen, it was an accident ok? We were just messing around and..."
Colby gulped as Elton trailed off.
"Elton?" Colby whispered, sitting up in bed now.
"I'm at the hospital," Elton sighed.
"Why? Elton what's happened," Colby questioned, pushing the blankets of him and kicking his legs free.
"We were just messing around, in this abandoned building. Me, Sam, Corey and Jake," Elton explained.
That was right. Colby was supposed to be going out with them, but a sudden wave of tiredness and a need to film a YouTube video kept him from tagging along.
"I don't even know what happened. He must of been climbing, maybe he slipped or something because I just turned around and he was, he was just laying there and...."
"Who!" Colby interrupted, swinging his legs over the bed.
"Sam..."
Colby stood up, putting Elton on speaker as he hurriedly threw on a hoodie and some jogging bottoms.
"Where is he? Which hospital?" Colby asked, tugging his shoes onto his feet, grabbing his set of keys (including his car keys) and wallet, making for the front door.
"*insert hospital name*" Elton responded.
"Is he ok? I mean, is he.... just is he awake?" Colby breathed out, trying to remain calm as he stumbled out of his apartment, locking the door behind him.
"I don't know, they haven't updated me. They took him to the emergency department. Jake's with him," elton said, sighing heavily.
"How bad... how bad is it, Elton?"
Colby asked, pushing some buttons on a elevator, scrapping it all together when it didn't come straight away, jogging down the stairs instead.
Elton was quiet, deadly quiet. It made Colby's skin crawl.
"Elton?" Colby repeated.
After a few beats of silence, Elton responded.
"Pretty bad, Colby...."
Colby held back tears as he darted out of the lobby, jogging down the street where his red car was parked. He got in as quickly as possible.
"The nurses will tell you more when you get here," Elton added, after hearing no response from the younger male.
"He wanted to see you, Colby."
Colby closed his eyes, letting his tears spill over.
"I-I'm gonna hang up so I can drive. P-please tell him i'm on my way? Ok," Colby begged, doing up his seatbelt and wiping his wet eyes with his sleeve.
After Elton agreed, Colby hung up the phone, letting out a shaky sigh as he started the car, driving to the hospital as quickly as he could.
{time skip}
The dreaded building came into view, and Colby felt tears building in his eyes as he parked the car. Elton has texted him saying he was waiting outside. Taking long, shaky breaths, Colby took a second to compose himself and wipe his red eyes before getting out the car, slipping his phone inside his pocket and walking towards the entrance. Sure enough, he saw Elton, leaning against the wall looking up at the sky.
"Hey," Colby breathed out, when he was close enough for Elton to hear him. Elton shot his head down to meet Colby's gaze, trying to offer a weak smile to the brunette with red, puffy eyes. "Did you tell him?"
Colby asked. "That I was coming?"
Elton shook his head.
"I popped my head round, he wasn't awake," Elton sighed.
"What do you mean he wasn't awake?" Colby panicked, nervously playing with the sleeves of his hoodie.
"I mean he was sleeping, Colby. Just come on, we're allowed to see him. He's just, not in the best way," Elton said sadly.
"He only got here an hour ago. They're assessing his injuries before they do anything else."
Colby stuck his hands in his pockets, as he followed Elton into the hospital, down a corridor and into a big, open area.
"He's just in the ED at the moment, they'll move him to a ward when they know what they're dealing with," Elton said softly, looking back at Colby. Colby looked around, cringing as he took in the many cubicles filled with patients, sitting in their hospital gowns on the uncomfortable looking beds, heads down, waiting for treatment. Elton stopped outside a small room, the room having glass doors that you could see right through. Colby's eyes scanned over a sign hooked onto the door.
"It read, 'resus 2'. Now, Colby wasn't a doctor, but he knew that resus was where the really badly injured people went during their stay in the ED. He'd seen plenty of hospital programs to know that if this was where Sam was, he was in a bad way. And sure enough, colby's eyes settled on the person laying in the bed. He could just see a tuft of blonde hair sticking up, and his heart rate sped up. From what he could see, his best friend was laying down, propped up on a couple of pillows with an oxygen mask on his face. He was asleep, but he didn't look too bad, but then, Colby wasn't close enough to determine that yet. Suddenly, the door opened, revealing a middle aged man with dirty blonde hair, a stethoscope hanging loosely round his neck.
"Oh, hello," he smiled, looking at both Colby and Elton. The older male went to introduce himself, but they were interrupted by Jake popping his head around the corner.
"Colby! You're here," the younger boy smiled. Colby nodded towards Jake.
"Oh, so your Colby. Your Sam's friend right?" The man with the stethoscope asked.
"I'm Doctor Noble, I'll be looking after your friend while he's here," the man explained.
"If you don't mind i'd like to talk to you about Sam's injuries before you go in and see him," doctor noble spoke, earning a nod from Colby. Elton excused himself to go and make some phone calls outside and Jake disappeared back into Sams room.
"I-is he ok?" Colby stuttered, lifting his head to look at doctor noble.
"He's - well I wouldn't say he's absolutely fine, but ok? Maybe. Your friend has been involved in a very serious accident, as I'm sure you've heard. His injuries, are as expected, severe. He came in with chest and head trauma. The chest trauma caused a pneumothorax, we inserted a chest drain to re - inflate the lung but I'm still concerned about it. We ruled out any neck or back injuries but he did suffer, as I said before major head trauma. We're waiting for the results of the head scan before we determine what's wrong," doctor noble explained softly. Colby just nodded, even though he barely understood a word. All he knew was his best friend since high school was laying in a hospital bed.
"He's dipping in and out of consciousness. And when he's awake all he does is ask for you," doctor noble smiled as a blush crept onto colby's cheeks.
Suddenly, the door to resus opened, revealing Jake.
"Sorry, but Sam just woke up again. He wants Colby," jake told the two males. Doctor Noble nodded, and Colby walked inside behind Jake. Sam was moving his head to the side as they walked in, trying to claw the breathing mask of his face, with little effect. It was now that Colby got a good look at his friend. He had a white bit of cloth taped to his forehead, obviously the head trauma. His leg was in some kind of weird brace thing, Colby could see it poking out from under the thin blanket that was draped over Sam. Colby could see the clear tube travelling from sam's lung to a little machine next to his bed. Sam must of caught sight of Jake, because he used all his strength to claw of the mask. "W-where's C-colby,"
Sam whispered, his voice scratchy and quiet.
"I w-want C-colby," he stated once again. Colby took a step to the side of Sam's bed.
"Sam," Colby smiled. Sam turned his head to the other side, blinking up at Colby.
"C-colbs?" Sam breathed out, before coughing violently, causing his body to jerk forward, a sound of pain emerging from sam's chapped lips. Colby gently lowered Sam's body back onto the bed.
"Yes, yes it me silly," Colby chuckled fondly. Sam looked back up at his best friend. His eyes were red and irritated, probably from crying. Colby reached out, running the back of his finger across sam's forehead, watching the blonde relax a tiny bit.
"How are you feeling, Sam?" Doctor Noble asked.
"M-my head h-hurts," Sam stuttered, trying his best to keep his eyes open but he could feel them drooping. Colby smiled at his other half, taking the blondes hand in both of his own, grabbing a chair that was pushed up against the wall with his foot and dragging it up behind him. He sat down beside his friend, still holding his cold hand securely.
"You can sleep, ya know Sam," Colby told him, as he watched his blue eyes dropping.
"C-can you stay?" Sam asked, looking down at colby.
"I'm not going anywhere, I promise," Colby answered, smiling when Sam's eyelids finally closed. His friends hand went limp in his after a while and the blondes breathing evened out. Colby bought the pale hand he was holding to his forehead, sighing as he looked up at Sam. Doctor Noble came over and pulled the oxygen mask back up and onto Sam's face.
"He doesn't seem that bad," Colby whispered, eyes scanning Sam's pale complexion.
"On the outside maybe, it's the inside we're worried about," Doctor Noble sighed, before leaving the room. Colby sighed, running a hand through his brown curls, after releasing Sam's hand and letting it rest on the bed.
"Jesus Christ," Colby breathed out, turning around to face Jake, who was leaning against the wall behind him.
"I know dude," Jake sighed. "I didn't know what to do, I don't think anyone did."
"Did you see what happened?" Colby asked.
Jake nodded.
"He was climbing this ladder to get to the second floor, because the stairs were falling apart. I don't know what happened but he must of fallen from the ladder, I don't know. I just..." Jake trailed off as he buried his head in is hands.
"I heard his head hit the ground, Colby."
Colby cringed at the thought, standing up to pull the younger male into a hug. Jake instantly hugged back, sighing as he tried to rid the sound from his head. Colby sighed too. He should have been there. For Sam. For jake. For everyone.
