"No, no, no, no! No! Why on Earth would you do something like this, Zach?!" The petite, light skinned girl hissed, raking her light brown hair as she paced the living area of the apartment she shared with Zach.
"What in the hell was I supposed to do, Emily?! Let him die?! Look at the condition he is in!" Zach reasoned for a millionth time as he pointed at Michael who was laying on the couch, all fragile and almost unconscious.
"Exactly! Look at him!" Emily said sharply pointing at Michael. "Don't you see he's wearing hospital clothes under his clothes! Hospital clothes!" She hissed. "He clearly ran away! He is nothing but a trouble. A big one! He can't stay here!" Emily seethed lowly, just in enough voice so only Zach could hear.
"Get a hold on yourself! He isn't leaving unless he gets well." Zach declared sternly. Emily just stared at Zach with parted lips of disbelief as her blue eyes daggered him. She was so outraged that the light skin of her face was visibly red.
"Do whatever the fuck!" She hissed before storming in her bedroom. Zach sighed heavily as he raked his jet black hair, settling on the small couch near where Michael was.
"I can't fucking believe he brought a fucking stranger straight outta road!" Emily ranted to her laptop over the video call to her best friend Kiara.
Kiara twisted her full lips as she sipped her coffee. "So... Zach just picked some strange, skeptical looking random dude fresh outta road who is wearing what? Hospital clothes?" Kiara summarized everything and Emily nodded. "So when are you all makin' it sure he ain't just ran outta some crack asylum or some?"
Emily huffed, hugging her pillow near her chest. "That's exactly what my concern is. I mean, he legit looks like some stoner and those hospital clothes aren't helping much. But damn that dumbass Zach is just so hell bound to help that stranger. I am sure this dude will put us all into some huge trouble and I'll dump Zach's stupid ass."
"I can listen to you, witch!" Zach yelled from the living area, making Emily roll her eyes and Kiara snickered.
"You know what? Wait some time. He ain't gonna do shit, if he's all weak and technically dead. Wait till he gets better. I mean, if he's really some crack ass stoner dude, kick his ass outta your damn apartment and handle him to the police."
"Or... maybe, we should contact the hospital he's wearing the clothes of." Emily said with raised brows and Kiara nodded in agreement.
"No way!" Came a stern voice from the doorway. It was Zach. He reached Emily and got settled on her bed where she was talking to Kiara on video call. "We are not contacting anyone unless we talk to him first. I saw the fear, the desperation on his face when I stopped my car. Damn he neared looked dead already for God's sake! He was begging for help and God knows for since how long? He said someone would kill him. Why would anyone say such a thing if not in danger?!" He said looking between Emily and Kiara.
"And that's more of a reason why we shouldn't keep him here!" Emily squeaked with wide eyes. "He looks dangerous. I mean, not directly but if someone wants to kill him, then if we help him we are in danger too!" Emily said.
"Zach, I guess Emily is right. I mean, you all don't know nothin' about this guy."
Zach sighed in frustration. "How can it be so damn hard for you to help someone who is clearly in need?" He seethed. "Where's your compassion? Where's your humanity? How can you be so judgemental? If he's a danger we'll definitely get to know eventually! If he is in danger, we'll get to know that too. But in order to know anything, we need to talk to him." Zach said and there was silence. Complete silence. "He's weak, too weak and I cannot just let a person die because you two are being judgemental and ridiculous." With that Zach left. Emily and Kiara just stared at each other in silence for a few moments.
"Well damn... Remind me when I come to you all to give him a nobel peace award." Kiara said with wide eyes and Emily snickered.
"He's right though," Emily said in a defeated tone and Kiara just shrugged in agreement. "This weekend is not gonna pass quickly for me." Emily changed the subject to lighten up the atmosphere.
"You can survive two days without me, like always. Our college is coming to an end anyways. But girl imma tell ya, get ready to eat some new and improved del-le-shus Spanish stuff!" Kiara exclaimed excitedly.
"Ah, so now you're an expert in Spanish cuisine too?" Emily teased Kiara who was a culinary student and of course wanted to become an amazing chef. But Kiara was very curious too and she would often visit some gourmet chefs to learn from them and that's exactly where she was, as it was a Saturday evening. Every weekend Kiara would try to make small trips to these places and learn from the chefs as she wanted to learn from the best and as much as she could. Kiara believed that the best way of learning was to learn from experience and that's exactly she try to do every weekend.
"Not an expert but yup!" Kiara said and they both got engaged in their usual long talks. Although Kiara lived just a few blocks away but either she was always at Emily's apartment or vise versa.
After having a couple hours of conversation, they finally said goodbye and immediately, Emily was reminded of that stranger in their living area. Her heart started to pump faster as she frowned. But curiosity was in her blood, so she slowly stepped out of her bed and tip toed outside in the living area. The lights were now dim and she carefully kept stepping close to that creepy stranger and she saw that he was lying in exactly the same position as she last saw him hours ago. Just a sheet was now covering his body that Zach must have put over him. She frowned as she slowly and carefully kept stepping closer to him to take a peek of him.
Damn you curiosity!
But as she kept focusing her eyes over him, what she saw, she wasn't expecting. He was shivering.
It was early May and summer was reaching it's peak, sheets were covering him and he was still shivering and that too visibly in this dim light.
Emily muttered a very low 'Oh God' and sprinted in her room and straight to her storage cabinet and took out a blanket. She quickly made her way back to that stranger and hesitantly put the blanket over his shivering body. She was about to leave, when reluctantly she reached her hand out and touched his forehead.
He was burning.
"Seriously?!" She whispered in frustration. Not only she had a totally uninvited stranger in her apartment, about whom she had no idea if he was dangerous or a plain psychopath. And now top of all, he was sick. She sighed deeply as she shook her head, heading towards Zach's bedroom. She tried to open the door but it was locked. As usual. She rolled her eyes.
Emily thought for a while but then shrugged and knocked at the door, not caring if the sound was too loud for the sick person on the couch. There was no way in the hell that she was spending her night taking care of some stoner. She knocked and knocked again until Zach finally opened the door with an expression so deadly on his face that Emily rolled her eyes again.
"That guy's sick." Emily said pointing towards the shivering man on the couch. Zach stared at her with such a hard expression.
"Seriously?! You fucking woke me up in the middle of the night to tell me your judgemental shit?!" Zach seethed in an extremely irritated manner.
"What? No. I mean he's really sick. He is 'sick' sick. Shivering and having a fever 'sick.'" Emily explained and Zach sighed.
"And you weren't human enough to take care of him?" Zach muttered as he turned around and entered his bathroom to take some cold water and a cloth.
"I was human enough to put a blanket over him!" Emily yelled in the lowest voice.
"Heavens are obliged!" Zach shot back as he took the stuff and reached their uninvited guest. Emily saw as Zach put some ice in the water, soaked the cloth in the cold water and put it on that stranger's burning forehead before she entered her room and plopped on her bed.
"He is sick now. But he definitely will cause a huge trouble." Emily muttered.
The next morning, Michael was just in the same position when Zach and Emily came out of their rooms. Just his shivering was gone but his breathing was irregular and his temperature was just as high. It happened because of all that running he did with his brain and muscles weak and vulnerable right after the session and all the sweat was cherry on top for his weak body.
Zach made Michael some soup so that he could gain some energy back. Michael slowly sat up while Zach helped him as his muscles felt so weak and sore and it was then his exhausted eyes finally saw the face of the person who saved him. Michael had got earlier that he was an Asian but he was just now looking at him properly. Zach was young, someone in near in his mid twenties. He had jet black hair, contrasting with his pale skin color. Michael's eyes then caught the movement not too far away and he saw a young, slender and fair skinned girl standing awkwardly just a few steps away from where he was.
"Thanks for saving me." Michael said in a congested, weak and hoarse voice. And though he tried to smile, he couldn't. He was in too much pain.
Zach smiled, his naturally narrowed eyes turning into slits. "No worries, buddy. Eat something so you can gain your strength."
"And get the fuck outta here." Emily muttered sharply. But Zach heard her. Michael heard her too, and it hurt him and he got brimmed with embarrassment.
"I... I won't bother you much. I just... feel weak." Michael said, looking down embarrassingly as he felt like a burden. Zach clenched his jaws as he gave a sharp look to Emily and she simply shrugged.
"There are no issues at all. You can stay here till you are completely fine..." Zach's words trailed off as he didn't knew his guest's name.
"Michael," Michael said as he reached out his hand towards Zach which he accepted warmly.
"Zach," Michael gave him a simple nod as he struggled weakly to breathe. Zach then gestured him to eat his soup and slowly Michael started to eat the soup. He was still feeling nauseous and his head was extremely heavy because of the session he had and his fever just made everything worse.
"What in the hell is your problem?" Zach hissed, as he reached Emily in the kitchen as she was preparing the breakfast.
"That guy." Emily said pointing the spatula towards Michael who was struggling to eat his soup. "He's my problem."
"Enough!" Zach said through gritted teeth. "If you want to be a bitch you can. But that man is not leaving. And like I had anticipated he seems to be a nice guy."
"We don't know that yet! He needs a place and food. It's obvious he'll act all nice!" Zach shook his head half in disappointment, half in disgust.
"Where's bathroom?" Michael whimpered as he kept the soup away on the table as he felt something rising up his throat. Zach's attention was quick to fix on Michael and he immediately lead Michael to the bathroom in living area. As soon as Michael entered the bathroom, he fell to his knees, throwing up in the toilet.
Zach got filled with worries because Michael indeed was really sick. Zach helped Michael to stand up and lead him to the sink and Michael washed his face and mouth. "I am so sorry." Michael muttered embarrassingly.
"That's totally fine, man. You're not fine at all." Zach said, noticing how weak Michael actually was.
"My head hurts." Michael whimpered lowly and Zach lead him to the guest room this time.
"You can have some rest here comfortably." Zach said as he helped Michael in the bed and Michael said a weak 'Thank you.' Zach sighed heavily as he again reached the living area where Emily was.
"He is extremely sick. Dude couldn't keep some soup inside of him." Zach told Emily and she rolled her eyes.
"Get some doctor to see him so he can recover and leave as soon as possible." Emily hissed.
"No. No doctor." Zach said thinking. "He was in hospital clothes and it's clear that he ran away. Maybe it wouldn't be safe." Zach said and Emily groaned.
After the breakfast, Emily headed off to the studio for rehearsals. Zach, however stayed with Michael because he thought Michael might need some help plus he didn't needed much rehearsals anyways he was an amazing drummer.
Emily, Zach along with two of their other friends- Mark and Hannah, were a band where Emily was the lead singer, Zach was drummer, Mark and Hannah were guitarist and bassist respectively. The Thunder were a band getting quickly in great demand. They were getting booked to perform in big and crowded, well known night clubs and pubs, restaurants, big, wealthy private parties. But naturally, they wanted more. They wanted to have their own album, their own concert someday. Someday...
When Emily left, Zach decided to have a conversation with Michael. Not to make him feel weird, suspected or uncomfortable but to get some information.
With every ounce of strength Michael had, he managed to take a quick shower in the guest room. Zach gave Michael a pair of his clothes which Michael was really thankful for and now Michael was sitting on the bed in the guest room, half sitting, resting his back against the headboard, with a blanket up till his chest. His eyes were heavy and drooping as he breathed irregularly through his slightly parted mouth.
Zach knocked and entered the guest room and with a smile, got settled next to Michael and Michael gave him a weak smile. "So... Are you new in LA?" Zach attempted to make a small talk.
Michael immediately got where this would go. "I'm not a criminal if that's what you wanna know." Michael cut the thing straight to the point.
Zach smiled sheepishly. "No. No that's not what I meant."
"It's natural to have such questions. I'm not in a very good or acceptable condition right now." Michael said in a low voice as he sniffed through his congested nose weakly. His fever was too much and he felt extremely weak because of it.
"Uh... Who... Well," Zach cleared his throat hesitantly. "Who were you running from? You told me someone would kill you?" Michael's heart dropped at the question. He couldn't tell the truth. There was no way he was going to risk telling them the truth. When he would get better he'd leave LA. He had no idea how or where, but he would.
Michael swallowed, as he pondered what to say. "My... My family." He muttered as he frowned. Zach's eyes grew large.
"The heck?! Why would they try to kill you?" Zach wanted to know but when he saw Michael's face, it struck him that he was being too nosey and he was making Michael uncomfortable. "I am sorry. I didn't mean to say like that."
"It's fine," Michael said in a soft voice. "You can be assured, neither I nor my family are any sort of criminals. I promise. We just..." Michael sighed. "We're just not in a very good place with each other right now."
The way Michael said that with so much truth and innocence in his huge, exhausted eyes, anyone with brain would've seen he was telling nothing but truth. And Zach saw that too and it made his heart so much lighter.
A few moments passed by when Michael again spoke. "Your tattoo is interesting. I like it." Michael said noticing the sleeve tattoo on Zach's right arm that was exposed from his t shirt. It was an all black tattoo, covering Zach's whole arm, right from his shoulder till his fingers. It had various squiggly patterns, morphing into one another, with various 3D realistic structures, most unique being a big card of Ace at his biceps. His tattoo had various patterns resembling insides of machines, a huge clock, rough looking patterns morphing into flowery ones. It was basically a work of art.
Zach grinned at Michael's words. "It's cool, right! I had about eight different designs made before I finally liked this one." Zach told Michael who nodded.
"Uh... If you don't mind me asking, what do you do? I hope I'm not keeping you from your work." Michael asked in an apologetic manner.
"Naah, all set. Emily and I are a part of a band." Instantly, Michael's eyes lit up, even though it was just the slightest in the slightest, but they did.
Zach and Michael then started to have a conversation about music. All types of genres, and instruments and songs, the artists and notes and what not. It was extremely weird for Michael that his name, his music was not mentioned once while talking about music. Michael was not used to of this but at the same time he felt weirdly... free. Not only that, non of the other great artists or songs from his time were mentioned. And it was so extremely weird. On the other hand, Zach was stunned, mesmerized, astonished, mind blown by the amount of knowledge Michael had in the field of music. As if Michael owned the music world, as if he was some musical legend, a musical genius.
All in all, Zach became a fan of Michael.
As the noon came by, Zach prepared a quick meal for both of them. It was a quiet meal. Michael still had a high temperature and he was still weak and a bit nauseous. Zach asked if he should call a doctor, but Michael immediately refused.
Although Michael didn't eat much, but whatever he ate he was able to keep it down finally and then he was quick to drift off. He opened his eyes again, to a loud voice. It was Emily. Michael now knew he could be comfortable with Zach and he liked Zach as well. But Emily... He wasn't very sure about her. He was still thinking about her sharp remarks and the way her blue eyes were nailing him as if he was some creep. Which probably what she was thinking of him.
The rest of the evening passed by slower than Michael had thought, maybe because he was doing nothing. He skipped his dinner, because he was still feeling nauseous and his temperature was not going any lower and it was pissing him off more than ever.
Zach told Emily about the conversation he had with Michael, about how he was extremely, insanely genius in musical field. Emily was highly intrigued but didn't say anything.
After Zach and Emily had dinner, they both decided to sit in the living area and watch TV. As the day came near to an end, Michael's temperature increased even more.
I shouldn't have taken that shower. He thought, realizing that maybe his temperature didn't went down because of the shower he took. Zach then decided to check on Michael and he got extremely worried that Michael's temperature was not getting down.
And then suddenly, the main door opened with a loud thud and Emily squeaked, running to the door knowing exactly who it was. Zach giggled, shaking his head as Michael almost jumped out of his skin at the sudden noise.
"It's just Kiara. I called her here especially." Zach said that unfamiliar name and within a few minutes Michael saw a caramel skinned African-American woman, with her long black hair in thick braids, walking in with Emily inside the room. She had about two or three inches over Emily. Kiara's dark brown eyes were quick to get fixed on a quite sick looking Michael who was breathing irregularly.
Kiara gave Emily a look with one brow raised. "That's the dangerous stoner dude?" Kiara said in a loud enough voice, pointing towards Michael who looked anything but a dangerous stoner. Emily twisted her lips, as she gave Kiara a dangerous smile.
"I don't do drugs!" Michael was quick to defend himself, in his weak, congested, hoarse voice making Kiara look at him again. Kiara then again looked at Emily.
"And sick too?" Kiara said and reached to touch Michael's forehead. "The 'dangerous stoner dude' is burning." Kiara said and Emily grabbed her arm.
"C'mon to my room, Kia. We have so much catching to do." Emily said through gritted teeth with a smile as she dragged Kiara to her room.
"Ignore them," Zach was quick to tell Michael who was least bothered anyways.
"Why would you say all that in front of him?!" Emily exclaimed with wide eyes and Kiara just shook her head, crossing her arms over her chest.
"You told me about this dude, ranted about him to me for hours but failed to mention how sick he really is?! Zach told me how bad he is and called me here!" Kiara said and Emily rolled her eyes. "And by the way, from where does he look like a dangerous stoner to you?" Kiara shot again.
"Did you came here to defend a stranger?" Emily said pissed as she got settled on her bed. Kiara rolled her eyes.
"It's not about a stranger. It's about a sick human being who needs help." Kiara said and then started leaving. "I'll be back quickly." She said and quickly made her way out of the apartment.
Kiara knew exactly what this sick stranger needed and that's exactly why Zach called her.
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Hello loves! 😘❤️
I hope you all are doing great!
It took me quite a while to complete this one! Whew! 😣 🤕
So here's the aesthetics for Zach- our Asian hero who saved Michael.
I'll be posting aesthetics for the major characters within the chapters like this only! ❤️❤️