Page 72 of Quiet Obsession
“Fuck,” I grunt, shaking like I’ve been dipped in an ice bath as I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand.
“What the hell happened this time, Creed?” Hyde demands, hauling my arm over his shoulders. “You weredoing so fucking well. Almost a year without pulling a stunt like this.”
I almost spill more than my guts and tell him it’s Millie’s fault, but a nurse appears with a wheelchair. Hyde explains what happened while the rooms morph before my eyes.
I’m in a trance for a while, floating in and out of consciousness. Or maybe it’s the drugs, because next time I come to it, I’m in a hospital bed, wearing a hospital gown, my arms hooked to a bunch of IVs.
“One day you’ll get yourself killed,” Hyde spits out.
Worry drips from his words, so I don’t laugh. I’m not sure I have the strength. He sits by my bed, paler than pale, his fingers trembling as they clutch his phone.
“They patched you up, but you’re staying overnight,” he tells me, tapping the screen. “The concussion’s pretty bad.”
“I have a fight tomorrow,” I groan, pulling myself up.
“Not happening. Lay back down. You’re staying.”
Like hell it’s not happening.
Jasper’s not getting away with it that easily, but I’m too fucking sore and exhausted to argue with Hyde.
“Fine, I’ll stay,” I grunt. “But I’m getting out first thing in the morning. Go back to campus. I’m fine.”
“Yeah, you look it. Tell me what happened.”
I wish I could. The guilt, the confusion, the fucking need for Millie... It’s all eating me alive, but the truth is out of the question. Hyde would either gut me or max out whatever drugs are hooked to my veins.
“Bad day,” I lie, shrugging it off.
“Jeremiah?”
“Jeremiah’s dead, Hyde.”
“Doesn’t mean you’re healed. It’s okay not to be okay all the time, but fuck, Elias...talk to me. Don’t go looking for cheap thrills. You know I’ll listen.”
I squeeze the bridge of my nose, warding off the smell of antiseptic premating the air. What the fuck do I tell him? How do I explain this without losing him? He’d never forgive me for touching his sister and taking her innocence in the roughest way possible. He fuckingshouldn’tforgive me.
I’m not good for her, but fuck... I wish I could be.
“You’re a selfish fucking asshole, you know that?” Hyde says while the nurse disinfects my scraped knuckles. “You only think about your own ass. You don’t give a shit about me, Noah, or Dash.” The tone of his voice sends the nurse out the door. “You don’t stop to think about how I feel every time Jed calls and I have to wonder if someone fucking killed you this time.”
His phone rings. He glances at the screen and a small eleven crawls between his brows. If it was Dash or Noah, he would’ve answered already. Same goes for his parents. He hasn’t mentioned any girl that’s caught his eye, but... maybe that’s because she’s his safe space?Someone who doesn’t drain him dry or require constant fixing?
Something hot and bitter curls in my chest. The idea of Hyde choosing someone else over me, of his attention slipping away and me becoming a problem he’s had enough of makes my skin prickle.
He’s the best friend I’ve ever had. I’m far from good for him, I know that, but I can’t lose him. He’s my only constant.
The only one who gives a fucking shit about me.
“You need to get that?” I bite out, bitter and defensive. “Go ahead. It must be important.”
“It isn’t,” he assures, sending the call to voicemail. “You are, though. You and your fucking self-destruction. You need to stop sabotaging your own life, Creed. You can’t die and leave me.”
An apple-sized lump forms in my throat. I’m a trainwreck and I’ve no idea how to leave the tracks. I don’t deserve a friend like Hyde.
He’s been through some shit, too. He doesn’t talk about it, but I feel the neglect clinging to him. I feel it in the way he takes care of me, the way he stays, the way he gives me what no one ever gave him.
His ringtone plays again and he swears loudly, switching it off.
