"Andy!" I screamed through my tears shaking him furiously. "Andy; wake up!"

I was sick with worry and the ambulance still wasn't here. Andy was lying on the floor, unconscious, an empty packet of sleeping pills beside him. He wasn't breathing properly, like something was caught in his throat. It was all my fault; I realised this now and I was ashamed that I didn't have the guts to call Michelle.
"I'm so sorry… I swear." I screamed again shaking him harder. "Andrew! Andrew Clemmensen… wake up right now!"

I stared down at him holding his hand, listening to him breathe which felt like the best sound in the world right now; until… Silence, not a sound and now I quit breathing. Andy wasn't breathing either.
"No! Please don't die. I love you!" I knew this wouldn't help but it was the only thing I could do. "Your mum loves you; Bradie loves you! You can't die now! Please! It's so unfair!"

The world seemed to slow down; I felt dizzy and sick. Every sound I heard became muffled and distant. I collapsed beside Andy squeezing his hand. He couldn't be dead, he just couldn't be. I closed my eyes and the distant sound of sirens filled my ears.

The paramedics rushed upstairs as soon as they arrived and found me curled up to Andy on the floor. One of them shook me awake and asked if I was okay. I told them I was fine; they needed to help Andy.

I'd had no choice. I'd had to call Michelle; and now here we were; crowded around Andy. After she asked me what had happened, I couldn't help myself and I told her everything; about me, about Shaun; about everything. She was ashamed of Andy but too upset at almost losing her son to be angry at him. I'd never felt more guilty. It was my fault, not Andy's.
"I have to go." I said to Michelle. "I'll be back later."
She didn't answer. "Bye." I said.

I'd had no clue where to go, so I decided to go to the only person I could talk to; Bradie. Bradie was Andy's step-brother but you'd swear they were brothers. They were just so… friendly towards one another. Yeah, they fought but doesn't everyone. Bradie was the same age as me, seventeen; two years younger than Andy and one year younger than Shaun. We were both in the same year as Shaun because our birthdays are early in the year (Bradie's is March and mine is January). I had never had much to do with Bradie. To me, in a way, he was just there; another person to have to get along with. But in more ways than one I wanted to be friends with Bradie; I just didn't know how to be. But in any case I always knew I could talk to him; he'd always made that clear.

I rang the doorbell. Bradie, his Mum, Yvonne and Andy's dad, Gary lived not far from Andy in a little terraced house where their neighbours were practically on their doorstep. Andy didn't live here; he hadn't since he'd decided to live with his mother when he was fourteen. Bradie answered the door and looked surprised to see me here. Bradie was a very subtle person but he was never outspoken.
"Hey," he said holding the door open for me. I stayed put, "I heard."
"You did?" I stepped over the threshold.
"Yeah, from Mum."
"Well it's probably not how you heard it but you get the general idea."
"I think so."
We walked down the hallway towards the kitchen which was at the back of the house. "Is your Mum home…or Gary?"
"Nah, just me."
"Oh. So, what did you hear?"
Well," Bradie seemed reluctant as though he didn't want to say anything out of place. "I heard that you were cheating." And then he added rather quickly. "But that's totally ridiculous, right?"
"Right." I said trying not to sound too half-hearted.
"And I heard that Shaun's really pissed and that Andy tried to…" Bradie stopped. I said nothing. "He tried to hurt himself."
Typical, captain understatement. "So that's what you heard?"
"Yeah, I mean I know it's totally whack and all that but that's how I heard it."
"It is totally whack," I paused, looking out through the lace curtains of the kitchen window and took a seat in a chair. "But you know what's even more whack is that your Mum actually got it right for once.
Bradie looked shocked. True, Yvonne was the resident gossiper. Her life revolved around taking stories and twisting them in to scandals. She rarely gave the whole story; only the bad bits and she added in her own little details to make it worse. But this time, it seemed that even Yvonne couldn't make this worse so she'd told it straight out. "I can't believe you did that." Bradie said simply. There was no hint of anger in his voice, no sign of betrayal.
"Me neither. I mean, I don't want to seem like I think I'm a total angel but Andy…"
"It doesn't matter what I heard okay?" I looked at Bradie. Was he really just accepting this? Why wasn't he upset? "But I do want to hear your version of things."
"Well after school the other day when you were… well late; he came up to me and told me that Michelle wanted to talk to me."
"Yeah, sorry about that… got kept in."
I shook my head. "Anyway, he convinced me to go home with him, of course, Michelle wasn't there and Andy… took advantage of that… but you know what's worse. I let him and…" I trailed off, tears in my eyes. "I enjoyed it."
"Hey," Bradie put his arm around my shoulders. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."
"But I want to." I straightened up, took a deep breath and brushed away the tears. "So, Shaun came and found us. Naturally, he wasn't happy and we had a massive argument, during which Andy disappeared to his room and then Shaun left. I felt so upset so I went up to talk to Andy. Then, I found him…"