It came as a shock, it truly did. He knew the other boy was under a lot of stress, but he thought it was under control. He thought the dark circles under his eyes were from staying up to late studying. His personality hadn't changed, he was still the snarky primadonna Logan knew and loved.
How had he missed it? Something so vital, something that must have been so obvious. Derek had noticed, but his questions were ignored or avoided. But even Derek didn't think anything this drastic would happen.
It wasn't as if he had simply disappeared for a shoot or anything. That would have been a relief. It probably would have hurt less if he had gone missing—the lost can always be found, after all.
Shaky breaths and the quiet drop of tears filled the silence, each of the boys willing the ambulance to hurry, hoping with every fiber of their beings he could be saved. They knew deep down it was too late. Pulse grew slower, hope grew thinner. They couldn't escape the silence. They couldn't escape their thoughts, their regrets. Tears fell quicker, mixing with the sticky red liquid surrounding the boy on the floor, barely clinging to the thin strands of life.
The dripping continued, like the steady beat of a clock, dripping like the rain outside that the fallen boy loved so much. But instead of calming the two living, breathing, healthy, hurting boys in the room, it burned their minds, driving their melting sanity closer to the edge. It was simply too much.
Not simply, though. Nothing was simple anymore. Everything was complicated. Everything hurt. It wasn't just the present that plagued them, as they sat in the near-silence with the infuriating sounds, unable to help. It was the past, what they could have, should have, would have done, had they known this would be the result. It was the past, how this would affect each and every one of them.
They couldn't give up. They had to keep trying. To hell if the other boy had given up, if, to him, it was all over. Rags were still held over the leaking wound, Prayers to whoever was listening were still sent, It was a time of red alert. Every shift, every heartbeat, every drop of blood, every shaky breath, it all mattered.
They tried there hardest, but your hardest is rarely good enough. The boy was gone, the air in his lungs gone, the beat in his heart silent. It was over.
Derek and Logan crumpled against each other, shedding more tears in that one moment than the two of them had shed in their life. It hurt so much. They would never talk to their best friend again. They would never tease him for the little things again. They would never hear him sing again. Everything stopped. Everything was silent, except the slowing sound of blood hitting the floor.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Silence.
