Chapter 6:
I cringed a little as I made my way to the
choir room. Even though it had been a
couple months since everything, I still wasn’t all that sure of my voice,
especially not when Mr. J decided to randomly “test” us since everyone in class
decided to be slackers simultaneously and not learn the music.
“Ass-holes,” I muttered.
“Hey.”
One word out of Kevin’s mouth, and I knew I’d crossed some imaginary
“line.” I eyed him, to see if he was
gonna start yelling right there in the hall that I cussed, but he just kept on
walking. I squinted at him. Something didn’t seem right.
“Hey Kev,” I wondered, “You cool?”
“Uh, yeah,” he answered slowly. It was like he was fuzzy in the head or
something. “My bag’s just heavy is
all.” He tried adjusting it, but it
didn’t end up like he wanted it, and he grunted, getting pissed.
Sighing loudly, I stuck my hand out, not saying
anything. Kevin stared at it
blankly. “Bag,” I prompted.
He complied, slowly handing it over. Honestly, he looked like shit. Pale as a ghost and sleepy as hell. “God, my
head hurts,” Kev complained. It looked
almost like he was limping.
It didn’t take long for me to be more than a
little concerned. His words were kinda
slurring together, like he’d gotten smashed the night before. But, the thing is, Kevin doesn’t do that
kind of thing. Like, ever.
“You want me to call my ma?” I asked, “She’d
come and get ya, I’m sure. She’s off
today. She’d take care of ya ‘til your
ma could come,” I offered.
“No.
She can’t help. My head-- My body’s fallin’ asleep.”
I could barely tell what he was saying
anymore. “Well, what? You wanna go to the nurse, then?” I
tried. He needed to go SOMEWHERE that
much was obvious.
“Stop.”
He was moaning. Not good. My eyes bugged as I watched Kev sway on his
feet. I tried reaching out for his arm,
but with two backpacks it was hard.
“..Need to..”
Confused, he groped around a second.
I couldn’t figure out what he was doing. But suddenly, just kinda swerved to one side and slid down the
wall ‘til he was sitting. Right there. In the hall during passing time.
“Shit, Kev!
What the hell are you doing?” I dropped both bags to the floor and got
down by him. His head was in one of his
hands and he was struggling to stay awake.
Shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!
What the hell’s wrong with him? “Kev? What the hell? Talk to me!”
Nothing.
Damn.
And all of a sudden he was getting sick. I looked around for something to use, but
there wasn’t anything. My heart was
pounding as I looked around me for someone who could help, a teacher, a
student, anyone. But no one
stopped. And there was no faculty
around where we were. Kevin looked like
he might pass out any minute.
“Damn it, Kev!
Stay with me, here!”
I was scared now. And totally pissed that no one was helping. I mean, were they blind? As a last resort I dialed Howie. Damn
it, D! Pick the hell up!
“Hey, Alex,”
Howie’s voice was real muffled by static and background noise but I wasted no
time with small talk.
“Something’s wrong with Kev!” I said, hoping my
voice sounded urgent enough to let Howie know that it was serious, but not so
much that I freaked Kev out.
“What do you mean? What happened?”
“Shit, Howie!
Where the hell are you?” I snapped.
Kevin was slumping over to one side.
I caught him with my free hand and struggled to keep him up. “Damn it,
Howie! He’s passing out! What do I do?”
“Jay,” the voice on the other end of the phone
sounded calm, but I could tell I was making him nervous. “What’s up?
You have to talk to me, man.”
“I don’t know, but he’s blowing chunks
everywhere and he said his head hurt or something before! I think he’s hung over, but he doesn’t do
that and he doesn’t smell like it!”
There were tears in my eyes and I’d started shaking.
“Where are you? I’ll grab the nurse on my way.”
I told him what hallway we were in, and in a
way I was glad it was emptying out. At
least Howie was coming, and the nurse.
They’d have to know what to do.
If I was right, and Kev was hung over he could lay down somewhere and sleep
it off. But I still called my mom
anyway. I had a weird feeling in my gut
that I should. Moms usually know stuff
that I don’t. I was panicking, and if
there was one thing I learned about my mom over the past months is that she’s
good at talking me down.
As my phone was connecting, Howie ran up with
the nurse close behind—-he took one look at Kevin and turned a weird color,
gray or green or some combination of that.
He backed off quick as I did when the nurse approached and started
talking loudly to Kevin.
The sound of Mom’s voice surprised the hell out
of me. “Go to class, Alex.” She said it without missing a beat. I could tell she thought that I was just
being my usual self and calling her ‘cause I could.
“Ma, just talk to me a sec, would ya?” I asked,
praying she’d realize that this wasn’t just me messing around.
“Alex, what is it?” she sounded concerned right
off the bat. I sighed, relieved.
“It’s Kev.
Something’s n-not right.” Damn, my stutter. Damn it to hell! I need
to talk normal if she’s gonna understand!
Talk normal! “Um, he’s
uh. Like smashed or something, I don’t
know! B-but, but um he doesn’t smell
like anything. I—I mean. I don’t know. It’s, um, just—it’s all messed up and I don’t know! Just, uh.
What should I? I mean--”
Mom cut me off. “Sweetie, calm down. Can
you tell me again? What’s wrong with
Kevin? Is someone there with him now.”
“Um. I,
uh, called Howie and he got the nurse.
They’re both, uh, with him now.
I d-d-don’t know what’s wrong, Ma!
It looks like he’s hung over, but he doesn’t do that! But he’s throwing up and looks close to
passing out, if he’s not already. I was
talking to him and he, just ah, got all confused and sat down right in th-the
hall. Um. Said his head hurt earlier and his bag was heavy.” Already I felt better, just getting it all
said. The betterness only lasted a few
seconds, though.
“Xander.”
Shit! It’s bad. Shit, shit,
shit! She called me Xander! Oh Jesus--
“Alex!” she was talking loud, in that mother-teacher voice, like
she’d been trying to get my attention or something. “Are you hearing me?”
“What?
Yeah.”
“You need to hang up with me now and call an
ambulance, do you understand? It sounds
like Kevin’s in trouble.”