Time To Save Him

Before

My alarm startles me awake. I feel a lot more tired than usual. I roll over and look at my bedside clock: 2:00 am.

Why is my alarm going off at 2:00 am?! I sit up on my bed and try to wake up a bit. The noise stops and then starts up again ten seconds later. That's when I realize that that is not my alarm. That's Jason's ringtone... I don't know why I didn't recognize the rapid ding ding ding ringtone I have set for him.

My heart starts beating faster. Some part of me knows that he's not just drunk and in need of a ride home. There is more to this. My stomach is full of butterflies and I feel nauseous. I know that I am supposed to take deep breaths when my anxiety hits me like this but I never seem to do it in moments like these.

"Jay?" I answer as soon as the phone's to my ear, almost breaking my charger with how hard I whip it off. "Is everything okay? Why are you...?"

"I need you to not have a meltdown right now," he says, cutting me off, there is static around his voice that makes me assume that he has me on speaker. "Get dressed and I'll tell you everything in the car. I'm already on my way."

"Jay?" I ask again but I hear the beeping of the call ending. "Dang it, Jason! You know better!" I slam my phone down onto my bed.

After a moment of panic that involves quickly double-checking that I did not crack my screen, I get dressed and run downstairs to the lobby of my apartment building. I see his blue Chevy Cruze park right as I step outside. I get in the car and the second that I am buckled, he speeds out of the area, running two stop signs in the process.

"Jay, you can't just not tell me what's wrong and then speed through the streets like a maniac."

"Ben is in the hospital," he says with little emotion, his eyes deadset on the road. I have a feeling that driving is not his top priority right now.

"What?!" I exclaim, almost jumping out of my seat but my seatbelt holds me back. "What happened?"

"Don't know yet. One of his roommates texted me from Ben's phone saying that he 'left it when he went in the ambulance.'" He gestures to me the cupholders between us and I now realize that there are two phones where there is usually just one. "Pisses me off that he had to say that so round-a-aboutly and couldn't have just fucking led with the fact that Ben is in a fucking ambulance."

"Are you sure that he isn't just trying to stir up drama? Ben always complains that his roommates are all drama seekers."

"I don't think that any of them would go this far."

I look out the window and wonder how we have had the luck to not run into any police officers, but I guess that it's not really luck if Ben might be hurt.

<*>

You know that feeling when you see that someone is okay and the world just lifts off of your shoulders? Well imagine the opposite when the world suddenly crashes harder down on you and your joints cannot handle the weight. That is how I felt when I saw Ben's mom crying into her husband's shoulder and hearing her repeat, "Not him, too! Not him, too!"

"Mr. Dalson!" I call Ben's stepdad as I run over to them, Jason following me at a more relaxed pace. Jason is a fast driver but a slow walker which has always been funny to me, even at a moment like this.

"Have you heard any news? Is Ben okay?" I ask but Mr. Dalson sighs. I take a good look at his face and notice that he too is crying.

"I'm sorry, kids," he says and I feel Jason's arm come around me, "Ben is braindead."

<*>

Ben and I were neighbors growing up. We were best friends until the fifth grade when his family moved. It broke my heart because his family was like my second family, but his stepdad had gotten a new job in another state. Jason and I met in high school and were just acquaintances with mutual friends until senior year when we worked on a project together and realized that we liked hanging out outside of school. Jason and I ended up going to the same college and ran into Ben at a Freshman event within the first month of school. The three of us started hanging out and we have been an inseparable trio ever since.