edited
Following Aiden inside his house, Luis and Edwin were met with a heartbreaking sight. There were bottles everywhere, a pair of sweatpants on the ground next to the bedroom door, and... yes, shattered pieces of what must have been a bottle all over the floor. None of this was as bad as how Aiden looked himself. When the two saw him at the elevator, he could barely hold himself up and he had come back to the apartment with the help of the walls he put his hand on in order not to collapse there and then. Even Luis's sassy attitude was nowhere to be found at this moment, as he could only feel sympathy for the broken singer who had been sitting there quietly, hiding his face with a hand over his eyes and lips parted, breathing pattern somewhat unsteady.
Edwin moved closer to him, as he saw Aiden's chest beginning to rise and fall more and more, and saw sweat glittering on his very pale skin. Before he could do or say anything, Aiden sat up, pushed him out of his way, and ran to the bathroom. From the sound, he knew he was throwing up. Again.
Edwin rushed to the shelf he remembered Brad getting the medicine from and took out the pills, going in the bathroom's direction with a glass of water, careful not to step on the shards on the floor.
Aiden was lying there on the bathroom floor when he got there. He just seemed lifeless. The only thing that showed he was actually still alive was the fast and harsh breathing. Edwin sat down beside him and tried to pick his upper body up, but his limbs were very lax, thus he had become really heavy, regardless of the considerable amount of weight the man had lost in just three days.
"Open your mouth. You have to take your pill."
The breathing was becoming more desperate and the sweating more visible. His shirt was beginning to soak.
"It's- not- that..." Aiden said with much effort in a breathy voice and clutched onto his chest.
"Does it hurt, Aiden?"
The other nodded shortly. "My heart, it's beating really fast." He groaned and swallowed hard.
Luis must've come there a while ago cos upon hearing that, he said, "I'm gonna call an ambulance."
9 minutes later and two nurses rushed into the bathroom where Aiden was still lying, curled up into a ball and wincing in a pain that the two men didn't know the source of. They took him away immediately, and they followed by Luis's car.
A stressful hour passed while his friends arrived at the hospital one by one after Edwin called Brad to inform him, and he must've told the others. They all sat there thinking he must've just overdosed again or something. They wanted to kill him as much as they were worried about him.
After a long, devastating wait, the doctor came out of the room. They all stood up and circled her immediately.
"We had to do a gastric lavage on him, but he's good now."
"But he said his heart was aching?" Edwin questioned.
"He hasn't been eating for days and probably only drinking alcohol, which his body refused, so he must've been throwing up constantly and the amount of alcohol and the pressure the stomach was going through put the body in shock. That's why his lungs and heart began overworking. But as I said, he's good now. He just needs to eat properly and rest a bit. He'll be able to go out tomorrow if nothing goes wrong. He's asleep, but you can see him."
"We should've just broken down his door and kicked his fucking ass and made sure he was at least eating instead of letting him be." Finn said, sighing.
"This is my fault. I got angry at him and made him feel more guilty than he already does. I'm so stupid." Joe cried while hiding his face in his palms.
Brad patted his back. "It's not anyone's fault. You three keep passing this guilt ball to each other when it's really none of yours in the first place. The accident wasn't Aiden's fault. The overdoses weren't Ian's fault and this, right now, is not your fault, Joe. Come on guys, let's go see him."
Edwin couldn't help but get curious about the accident they were talking about. Why did Aiden feel guilty for it?
As the doctor had said, Aiden was asleep, but his body was a little warmer compared to the cold temperature before. They couldn't stay for long as a nurse told them that only one person can stay and Max called his name and said he'll stay first so they had no choice but to leave. They could visit tomorrow at the visiting hour.
DeleteCreated with Sketch.
Edwin was getting ready to give his shift to the next doctor and go to the hospital to visit Aiden when he received a text.
'Ed, they discharged him. We're going home. Come there if you want. -Max'
When he arrived, there were only three inside. Aiden, Max, and Luis. Max looked furious and was just sitting there glaring at Luis for some reason while the other two were watching something on an iPad.
"Okay then, just make sure to change the style of the harness. I really don't like the one the stylist gave me last time. It felt like it burnt through my skin." Aiden was telling Luis without noticing Edwin's arrival in an exhausted and low tone.
"You're going to perform? When?" Edwin found himself asking.
Aiden lifted his head and looked at him with an empty gaze. His whole facial expression was just... lifeless. "Yeah, I'm having a world tour, remember?"
Edwin felt his blood boil from the disbelief. "What the fuck? Have you seen the state you're at?" He turned to Luis. "How is he gonna perform like this, Luis?!" He pointed at Aiden with his veins popped out at his temples.
"We don't have a choice here. The tour starts in a week and all the tickets have been sold out. Plus, we have already booked all the concert halls all around the globe."
"So then fucking cancel them! He can't even stand on his feet. How is he supposed to dance?" He was kind of shouting at this rate.
"We can't afford to cancel the tour, Edwin. You're not familiar with this stuff."
"Give it up. They'll do whatever they want. I just hope you regret the things you're doing after you're finally dead from all this." Max was looking at Aiden with teary eyes and then left the room.
When the others arrived and heard about this, they all went crazy. Finn just kept himself busy cooking while nagging at Aiden occasionally, and Joe went all out screaming at Aiden. And the singer just remained quiet, listening to them all until they were done.
"Don't you have anything to say?" was the last thing Joe said, and then the apartment fell silent.
"Thank you for being worried about me, but I just wanna get on the stage as soon as possible and forget about it all."
"You don't wanna get on the stage. You wanna tire yourself to death and run away like you always do. If you weren't so weak right now, I would beat you up." Joe hissed with a disgusted look on his face and rushed out of the place.
Edwin sat beside Brad, who was just going through his phone.
"Do they always bicker so much?" He asked.
"Who? Denny & J? Yeah, they kinda do since a few months back."
"Can I ask why? Aren't they best friends?"
Max, who overheard them while sitting down next to Edwin, answered. "You know those cliche movies when two best friends fall in love with the same person and it breaks them apart? That's what happened here."
"Max." Brad gave a look at the young boy.
"What? he's one of us now. He's gonna find out sooner or later." The younger shrugged. "My stupid brother fell in love with Ian while they were at the WOD competition, but didn't confess until after he quit his programmer job. It was all fun and games until he started being busy most of the time, which led to Ian spending time with Joe more often at the shared apartment they used to have back then. Slowly, Joe started falling for him but kept it to himself. Actually, that wouldn't be the whole truth cos Joe had a crush on him maybe way before the two started dating, but he was just scared to admit to his gay side! And after that, it was already too late. Anyway, my bro began to be away for months and Ian was becoming more desperate and lonely so Joe was there to comfort him and then on a drunken night, they... slept together which they regretted later on but it was already done and it shattered Ian cos he hated cheaters and now he was one of them. So he just ate himself up from the inside and kept his distance from all of us, thus becoming lonelier, the thing he hates most, and changing all the unconditional love he felt towards Aiden to pure hate cos he was the reason he had done what he hated the most. Sure, we kept telling him they were drunk and stupid, but it didn't change anything. After Aiden came back from a Europe tour last year, they had a big fight and Ian said he wanted to break up. And then the accident happened and then Ian left him for real and then Joe and my brother had a super big fight which led to Joe leaving the fucking country to stay away. It was a complete shit show."
"Wow." Edwin's head felt light because of all the info he got at once and the amount of drama in it.
"Yeah, exactly. I'm sure if I wrote it down, it would make a well-rated TV drama." Max chuckled bitterly.