Chapter 7:
Shattered Pedestals

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Rossi

- FRONT. NOW. BRING OTHERS.

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Derek stared at the blurry text, hoping that things hadn't gone wrong. They'd been having a good night so far: why did things always go wrong?

"Girls, the great David summons us," he called, standing and gesturing grandly with his arms. He could keep the fun vibes going. There wasn't anything that Dave could throw at him that would ruin this night.

"Is something wrong?" Penelope shouted into his ear over the music, wrapping her arm around his shoulder and weaving with him through the throngs of people towards the exit. Emily and JJ followed close behind, heads together as they whispered and giggled over something that had JJ blushing. It was strange to see Emily laughing.

Strange, and nice.

"Dave probably picked up and wants to bail," Derek suggested. "Or maybe Aaron is asleep somewhere ridiculous again."

Penelope was reminiscing about the time they'd found Aaron and Dave asleep in an elevator cuddled together like puppies in a basket when they reached the front door and stepped out into the cool night—just in time to see Aaron punch Dave square in the face.

Penelope screamed as Dave hit the ground, people beginning to gather into a loose circle around them and drunkenly cheering on the fight. Derek blinked, good vibes rapidly retreating.

Nope. Dave being punched in the nose was not going to ruin his night. Hell, this might even be a good thing. God knows, Derek occasionally felt the desire to punch the man himself.

"Spence," JJ murmured, pushing past them and jogging over to the garden where the kid was sitting on a paver and staring at the empty road with an uncharacteristically vacant expression. Emily followed, barely sparing the two brawling guys a glance. Derek hesitated with Penelope still pressed against his side, torn between breaking up the fight and going over to where the girls were crouching.

"Derek, you need to get in there," Penelope urged him.

"Why?" he asked. "It's about time Aaron stuck up for himself. They won't hurt each other that badly—Dave probably just upset Haley again."

Penelope looked at him and then at the fight. "Well, I'm no expert on proper fighting etiquette, but it doesn't look like Aaron is holding back that much," she told him, eyes wide with worry behind her glasses. "And Dave isn't exactly defending himself."

Derek sighed and pushed through the crowd in front. "Go to the girls," he called over his shoulder. He was younger than both Aaron and Dave. Why did he have to be the grown up here? But, breaking through the crowd, he quickly reassessed his opinion of the fight's inoffensiveness. Aaron had Dave pinned and was hitting him without any regard for his friend's face, even as Dave kept his arms up, refusing to fight back.

Fuck.

"Aaron, what the hell?!" Derek shouted, grabbing him by his arm as he drew it up to strike again. "Calm down, man! Step off!"

Aaron snarled, trying to drag his arm back so he could dive back down onto Dave, who had taken the chance to try pulling himself out from under them. The crowd around them booed, spoiling for a show. Derek could hear JJ telling them to clear off, cussing like a sailor at any who spoke back to her. Aaron's normally calm expression was gone, replaced by a look of utter fury. Derek had seen eyes like that before, usually right before someone got jumped back home. There wasn't much use reasoning with someone with those eyes. He wrapped his arms around Aaron in a bear hug, trying to stop the older guy from bailing after his injured friend.

And Derek had been wrong in that aspect. Aaron had not held back from hurting Dave like Derek had thought he would. Dave's face was splattered with blood from what was probably going to end up being a broken nose and his clothes were torn and filthy, wincing as he tried to stand and placing one hand over his ribcage in a way that had Derek already planning the trip to ER.

"Are you alright?" he called back.

"Who fucking cares?" Aaron shouted, twisting in his grip and shoving roughly at him. "Derek, let me go! Don't get involved!"

"Let me explain," Dave pleaded. He spat blood on the pavement, backing up a little more with tentative, wincing steps. "It's not what it looked like, Aaron, please."

"Aaron, it wasn't anything—I'm sorry—just let us talk!" a third voice broke in. Derek turned his head to spot Haley standing by the edge of the crowd. "I should have come and gotten you as soon as it happened."

"Fuck off, Haley!" Dave and Aaron both yelled at once. She glared at Aaron with a hurt expression before turning and storming off. Derek felt his gut knot. Oh, brilliant. He didn't need to be a genius to see where this was going.

"Look, let's just go and work this out," Derek started saying, loosening his grip just a little.

Mistake. Aaron surged forward, shouting and almost dragging Derek with him. "He made out with my girlfriend! I thought you were my friend, Dave!" Derek locked his hold and tried to pull Aaron back before he could reach Dave, who was determinately not backing down.

"She came onto me—ask Spencer, he saw it!" Dave responded, desperately. "You've just got Haley's point of view! She's a lying bitch!"

Aaron stopped, throwing Derek off balance before shoving back at him. Derek yelped as the two of them fell together, feeling his knee twist up under him. The burning, liquid pain that shot up his leg moments later was all too familiar.

Fuck, not again, he had time to think before his world contracted to the agony that was his knee, falling to the distant sound of someone screaming.

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"He's smashed," JJ said. Her face was a strange mix of disappointment and disbelief. "He is completely wasted."

Emily watched them and fought the urge to laugh. Well, for once she wasn't the fuck-up of the night. Here they were, carefully keeping an eye on her, and it was their golden boy who'd managed to disappoint them all. She felt almost guilty for the amusement she took from that.

Well, she wasn't completely amused by it. After all, she was maybe possibly a little bit responsible. She had let him come after he'd cornered her in the dorm and demanded to be allowed. He'd given her some variation of the speech he'd given the others and she'd caved. How could she not? Ah hell, it wasn't like this would hurt him. He'd have a hangover in the morning and probably not touch alcohol for at least another two years. This was a learning experience for him, she was sure.

Judging by the miserable expressions on the other two girls' faces, they probably weren't as optimistic about it as she was. Spencer's head hung low, his eyes heavy-lidded, and he was completely zonked out.

It was a little unsettling, the immobile way he was sitting. Spencer was a paragon of movement: constantly jiggling or twitching, the relentless motion grating endlessly on her nerves. But now he was sitting completely still, his long limbs tucked up close to his body and chin resting on his bony knees. He bore a startling resemblance to a dead spider, curling into himself, and she felt her amusement steadily shift into an ice-cold chill in the pit of her chest. Swallowing back trepidation, she crouched down next to JJ and reached forward, lifting his chin until his eyes were level with hers. His lids were hooded over an empty stare, and she tapped him on the cheek with her other hand.

"Hey, Shrimpy. Wake up now. You're missing all the fun, Dave's finally getting his ass kicked."

JJ made a disapproving noise next to her, and she could hear a rustle of fabric as the woman turned around to try and peer through the endless rows of legs between them and the action.

"He doesn't look right," Penelope said. "He's so pale—is he okay? Is that okay? That's not okay, is it?"

Emily could her voice beginning to crack with panic: panic that they very much didn't need right now. She'd taken a first aid course once, ages ago. The medic had shown them how to startle someone awake, hadn't they? She was pretty sure she could remember. "Brace him for me, don't let him slump backwards," she told Penelope, whose face dropped.

"Brace him?" she squeaked. "Why?"

"Just do it," Emily snapped. She waited for Penelope to do so before unbuttoning the top buttons of his shirt. She could see the shuddering rise and fall of his chest—shallow and intermittent, both bad things—and desperately tried to think back to her first aid classes. Was he conscious? How could she tell? Clenching her fist, she pressed her knuckles against his chest and rubbed them back and forth hard over his sternum. She'd had it done to her before, and it was not fun. He jerked violently under her hand, startling all three of them. Emily watched as his eyelids snapped open, exposing wide, dark eyes.

His pupils were dilated enough that she could drown in them.

"Christ," JJ muttered. "I am never letting you out of my sight again."

Emily ignored her, tapping once more on his cheek. His reactions were sluggish, fractured. Fear made her hands begin to shake. She dropped them so the other women wouldn't see and panic. "Spencer? Hey, idiot, are you with us?"

JJ made that noise again, clearly taking offence at her use of the word 'idiot', but Emily was running on the assumption that Spencer's ego wouldn't bear the slight to his intelligence. If anything got him to respond, that would.

That was assuming that Spencer even had an ego.

The angry noise JJ was making changed into a hiss of concern as he finally managed to keep his eyes open long enough to make unsteady eye contact. "Holy shit, Emily. Look at his pupils."

Emily didn't have to look; she'd already seen. There was only the barest hint of hazel around the edges, unresponsive to any light.

"Aaron?" Spencer slurred, letting his head thump back against Penelope's arm. Emily felt like gagging at the loose way his head rolled on his neck, as though he had no control over his muscles anymore. It was such a sharp contrast to his usual precise way of moving that it was alien and frightening.

"He's stoned," Emily said. The other two had clearly already come to that conclusion themselves, faces paling. "Shit, what did you take? How much did you take?"

"He wouldn't," Penelope snapped. "He wouldn't have taken anything by choice. God, Emily. You know Spencer—there's no way he'd take drugs willingly."

That left one option. Her hands stopped shaking. The fear vanished, replaced by an ice-cold nothing that sharpened everything around her. When he woke up, he was going to tell her who he was with, and then Emily was going to find the cunt who did this and they were fucked.

"We need to get him out of here," JJ told them, standing. "I'm going to get the guys; he's not going to be able to walk."

Emily had almost forgotten about the drama happening behind them. The crowd's cheers had shifted to booing and frustrated cursing, so she assumed Derek had been successful in calming the other two down.

Penelope pulled Spencer into a hug, letting him slump into her arms with his face hidden by her hair.

"What are you doing?" Emily asked, trying to ignore the adrenaline kicking in. "We need to get him up."

Penelope shook her head, her eyes following JJ as she cursed her way through the crowd. "We need the boys to do that. Until then, I don't want anyone getting a good look at him." Her eyes met Emily's, fear magnified by her brightly coloured frames. "He's sixteen: it only takes one report to the dean and the college will have to act to save its reputation. They won't have someone so young getting into this kind of trouble on campus."

Emily nodded, settling herself next to Penelope and leaning against Spencer's other side. She could feel the uneven beat of his heart against her ribcage, focusing on that instead of panicking. Keep doing that, she thought, closing her eyes and focusing on that beat. There was no way in hell she was letting one mistake ruin Spencer's life; the kid had too much potential. Wait for the boys. They'd work this out, as a team. She took a deep breath, listening to Pen whispering to herself.

No… not to herself.

"We're here, we're always going to be here," Penelope was murmuring, tucking her chin against Spencer's sweat-damp hair. "You just keep on keeping on, and we'll wait for you to wake up again, okay, honey? You're safe, we'll keep you safe." Emily ignored the drunken shouting and cheering going on around her, focusing on Penelope's soothing rambling and the continued beat of Spencer's heart. Her memory tugged at her, remembering her mom once teaching her some silly rhyme. It didn't sound like something Mom would do but listening to the steady ba-bump next to her was almost nostalgic.

Mom crouching in front of her with flour-streaked hands, wiping away tacky tears from her cheek and pressing a small hand against her chest, her heartbeat thudding through Emily's palm. Makes my heart beat, two-forty-six. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. A stupid clapping game. That didn't sound at all like her mom. Emily frowned, trying to push the memory away.

Then the screaming started.

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Dave watched as the two men toppled backwards, seeing what was going to happen before it happened but being powerless to stop it. Derek's face twisted as they fell, his mouth gaping open in a wordless shriek before his vocal cords caught up with his brain and the real screaming began. Aaron had managed to steady himself, his furious gaze locked on Dave but, before he could resume his assault, his friend's cries of pain penetrated his consciousness and he spun around. Dave watched as the anger drained away in an instant. He'd never actually seen a physical representation of 'white as a ghost' before now, but Aaron was doing a great impression of it right now.

"Oh fuck, Derek!" Aaron cried, dropping to his knees next to his friend and reaching for his leg. Derek was clutching at his knee, shaking uncontrollably and as close to being out of his mind as Dave had ever seen him. Sweat dripped off his face and the crowd had fallen silent as he retched with the pain. Dave prided himself on being the first to react in an emergency, but right now he was reeling with the throbbing from his ribs and face and dizzy from what he was pretty sure was a concussion. All he could do was watch the two on the ground.

Aaron was looking around, his eyes snapping from person to person as he tried to find someone sober enough to help. JJ appeared as though summoned by the screams, not even hesitating before running towards them.

"JJ call an ambulance," Aaron instructed her, his voice a lot calmer than his expression suggested. He turned, eyes skimming over Dave as though he wasn't there, calling past him. "Hey, you! In the blue shirt! Go get ice, lots of it. You, next to him. Pillows, cushions, anything. Now!"

JJ was on the phone, one hand holding Derek's shoulder down as he struggled to sit up, his screams turning to gasping moans. "We're elevating and icing the limb. Yes, it's a prior injury. We'll stay with him—"

Taking a few stumbling steps back, Dave hissed at the pain in his ribs. He didn't need to be here. Aaron needed to concentrate on helping Derek. Dave's presence would just distract from that. He looked around, hoping to spot Emily in the crowd and figuring that maybe she was somewhere with Spencer. He had a vague memory of half-carrying the semi-conscious teenager outside and depositing him on a rock before the apoplectic Aaron had turned up.

But it would probably be for the best if he just found himself somewhere to sleep this night off—he'd just let the others deal with things without him complicating them.

Dave shoved through the crowd, ignoring the angry mutters around him and limping alone up the street. He could hear sirens wailing behind him, approaching fast. People were scattering, not wanting to be there when authorities arrived.

Aaron had always told him that he was a narcissist with an attention complex, always needing to be in the spotlight. Most of the time, Dave agreed. Not tonight.

Tonight, for once, he just wanted to be invisible. The anger and pain on his best friend's face, pain that he'd caused, Derek's injury, all of it. He couldn't deal with it. He needed to be anywhere but here.

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The pre-dawn light turned the campus a hazy blue as JJ finally made her way home from the hospital. Her breath was a puff of fog in front of her face as she tried to blow warm air into her hands to defrost them, half-jogging from where the taxi had left them towards the dorm. She was exhausted, her muscles aching from being tensed with stress all night and a dull throbbing in the base of her skull a stark reminder of the drinks she'd consumed before everything had gone to crap. Her eyes burned like she'd been rubbing sand into them, and she shuddered to think what her makeup and hair must look like.

Aaron paced steadily beside her, head down and lost within his own thoughts. She could see her exhaustion mirrored in his body and face, with the added guilt that she knew he was piling onto himself. His hands were bandaged, courtesy of a grim-faced nurse. She hoped that Emily and Penelope had gotten Spencer home okay. She hadn't even told Aaron about him yet, not looking forward to that conversation.

The hospital wait had been as endless and frustrating as the previous one. JJ had been fighting off an unsettling sensation of déjà vécu the whole night, remembering the last time she'd sat in a hard-backed plastic chair in a hospital waiting room anticipating news about Derek. The doctor hadn't said much since they weren't family, just informed them that Derek was in surgery and that there was no point waiting because he was heavily sedated. The entire time they'd barely said more than a few words to each other, and none that had included anything that wasn't 'Do you want some coffee?' or 'I'm going to the bathroom.'

Aaron slowed his pace as they drew closer to the dorms. JJ could guess why. She didn't know what he and Dave were fighting about but it wasn't really a wound that needed to be reopened again until after they'd all gotten some sleep.

"Do you want to stay with us tonight?"

Aaron blinked, looking at her with a startled expression as though he'd forgotten she was there. Perhaps he had. When he spoke, his voice was husky and cracked, almost as though he'd been crying: "Please."

She didn't say anything else and they slipped into the dorms together, tiptoeing up the stairs to the third floor. Aaron avoided looking at Derek's door as they passed it. JJ glanced up the hall to where Spencer's room stood opposite Emily's. She dearly wanted to go and stick her head into at least one of their rooms, check they were okay, but she wasn't quite sure how to broach the subject with Aaron. Aaron had sort of assumed leadership over their oddball group and she knew that he'd probably blame himself for Spencer's potential, well, whatever had happened to him. Her gut twisted to think of the possibilities.

Maybe they could hide it from him.

First thing she was doing when she woke up was going down to the chemists in town and buying a drug testing kit. Most benzos would show up on it. Until they had confirmation of what had happened, they'd keep it hidden from the more emotionally compromised of the group.

Outside of her room, JJ realised her cell was still off from the hospital and swore inwardly. Penelope must have been losing her mind being kept out of the loop. Expecting her bubbly housemate to immediately overwhelm her with questions, she slipped her key in the lock and pushed the door open. Two pairs of eyes immediately turned to meet her, both wide with concern.

JJ froze in the doorway, Aaron bumping into her as she stopped. Penelope stood from where she'd been fiddling with the computer at her desk, her gaze flickering from JJ to Aaron before darting guiltily to her bed where the covers were pulled over a still form. Emily was lying on JJ's bed, a cell in one hand and dark eyes locked on Aaron's face. JJ should have known that Penelope wouldn't sleep until they'd found out what was happening and that she wouldn't let the others out of her sight. JJ prayed that it was Spencer sleeping in Penelope's bed, and not Dave.

Nodding at them, she waited until they'd closed the door behind them before speaking in a low voice, doubting they'd be able to hide Spencer from Aaron now seeing as it appeared they were having a sleepover. "How's Spence?"

Penelope scooted the chair forward, tugging the blanket down and pursing her lips. "He's been out for hours. He was all wrong on the way home—we should have taken him to the hospital."

JJ felt Aaron stiffen next to her. "What's wrong with him?" he asked, voice sharp. "JJ, you didn't say Spencer was sick." She flinched at the accusatory tone in his voice.

She was saved from answering by Emily. "Derek?" she asked. Penelope looked up from where she was smoothing hair off Spence's forehead, her expression hopeful.

"He was in surgery when we left," JJ answered, dropping her keys and bag onto her desk and moving to Penelope's bed to get a better look at her friend. She didn't like the immobile way he was sprawled. His skin was pale and clammy, hair matted by sweat and sticking to his forehead.

"Is he drunk?" Aaron asked. She hadn't realised he'd followed her to the bed, pushing past almost roughly in his haste and pressing his fingers to Spencer's throat.

Emily squirmed, clearly unwilling to commit to an answer. "We don't know. He seemed way too… out of it. We're waiting for him to wake up."

Aaron looked pissed. JJ waited for the inevitable, 'you should have told me!' that she knew was coming.

"You should have taken him to the hospital!" he said, his voice as close to angry as it could be without raising it. "You have no idea what he might have been given or what could have happened to him." There was a long silence, and his eyes widened. She could actually see the procession of 'what ifs' passing through his mind. They'd been running through hers all night. "Oh fuck, what the fuck happened to him?"

"If the college finds out…" Penelope said, her voice wavering.

"We're keeping an eye on him, Aaron," Emily cut in. "If he'd gotten worse, we would have called someone."

JJ listened to them bicker, staring at Spencer for a solid minute and half zoned out until she registered what her eyes were seeing. "Guys," she called. She waited a moment, watching his eyelids carefully, and then tried again. "Guys!" They stopped. JJ disregarded them now she had their attention, shuffling forward to get closer. She leaned down, taking his hand in hers and smiling. "Hey, sleepyhead, look who's awake."

Spencer blinked at her and stirred under the blankets, trying unsuccessfully to prop himself up on one arm to look about the room. His tongue darted out, wetting his lips, face scrunched up against the light in the room.

Emily tapped her on the arm, passing her a bottle of water.

"Dim the lights," JJ murmured to her. "How are you feeling?" she asked him, uncapping the bottle and holding it out.

He tried to reach for it with a hand that tremored uncontrollably and undershot. Taking pity on him, she held the bottle to his lips and let him sip at it.

"I've felt better," he croaked, turning his head away from the bottle. "What happened?"

Even as he regained coherency, his pupils only sluggishly reacted to the light. Yep. She was definitely getting a drug kit.

"We were hoping you could tell us that," Penelope said. "You gave us all collective heart attacks."

Spencer looked confused, hazel eyes darting from one person to the next. "I… I don't understand. Tell you what? Where's everyone else?"

Aaron's voice was grim: "What happened? Did you take something?"

Emily's looked away, trying to hide her expression from them both. Spencer's eyes widened, and he sat bolt upright. JJ could see his breath hitching with panic and could hear the slight wheeze in his throat. He was on the verge of an anxiety attack, terrified by something.

"This isn't possible," he stammered, panting with fear. Both Penelope and Emily tried to coax him down, telling him to sit and just breathe, but he was ignoring them with his eyes locked on Aaron. "I can't remember, Aaron. I can't remember past this afternoon. I have no idea what happened to me."