***

I woke up a few hours later. The sun was still up, but the light in the air made me guess that it was around five. I was still laying on the ground in the alleyway. My ribs ached and I wondered if any were broken. It made breathing tough and I closed my eye again, trying to move as little as possible.

After a few minutes, I heard my phone buzzing and painfully crawled towards it. My fingers feebly grabbed it and I held it against my chest for a minute, thinking of who to call. All my close friends were out of state and could do absolutely nothing to help me. Mom and dad would lose their shit, and I didn't want them to see me like this. Rowan... I didn't have his number and my life had just been threatened on the account I told him... Erik.

I fumbled to unlock my phone, trying to stay conscious. I scrolled through my recents and found his name, tapping the screen and putting it on speakerphone. Erik picked up a few seconds later, sounding cheerful.

"Finally came to your senses then, huh? You joining us for video games? We're about to start drinking." I took a while to respond, trying to muster up the energy to speak. "Evan?"

"Can you..." I gasped out, trying to catch my breath.

"Evan, what's wrong?" His tone changed and I heard him shushing the guys in the background.

"Can you... Come get me please..." I whispered, hoping he'd be able to hear me, because I couldn't speak any louder.

"Yeah, of course Evan, just let me know where you are."

"An alleyway... Car garage..." I said, holding in a whimper as tears started to leak from my eyes in pain.

"Don't talk if that helps, just send me your location, can you do that?" I lifted my phone and went to messages slowly, before sending it to him. "Okay, I got it, stay on the line."

I closed my eyes again and heard him yelling at one of his friends, telling him he needed to drive him over, and that it was an emergency.

"Ten minutes, Evan..." his voice was fading out and I welcomed the darkness again.

***

"Holy shit..." I felt hands on my shoulders and more than one voice.

"Evan, wake up," I groaned and my eye opened, showing me Erik's worried face up close and somebody standing behind him. My vision started to blur again so I closed it. "Call an ambulance." Erik said to his friend urgently.

"No..." I mumbled, peeling my eye back open.

"Evan, you need to go to the hospital."

"No... Can't afford it..." Neither of my parents jobs gave them good health insurance and I didn't want them spending thousands on hospital bills right now.

"Evan..." Erik's voice sounded hopeless.

"Please... don't..." I heard him exhale stressfully and pick up my keys from the ground before speaking again.

"Okay, you're coming to my house. Help me get him up." He said to his friend.

I felt them get on either side of me and I clenched my jaw as they lifted me up. I kept my arm around Erik but clutched my right side with the other one, feeling a sharp pain. My nausea from earlier came back and I heaved, unable to stop myself from throwing up all over the pavement. When I was done, I spit out the blood that'd been coming from my mouth and Erik and his friend helped me over to the car.

"Shit... Evan is that your car?" I looked over at it, the windows were all shattered along with the head and tail lights, and the tires looked like they'd been flattened.

"Mhmm." I mumbled. That would cost a lot.

We'd gotten to their car, I could barely hold myself up and was leaning on his friend heavily. He pulled my arm over his shoulder and held it there, helping my efforts.

"What the hell happened?" Erik asked, turning to face me. His eyes were scanning my face and shirt, looking more and more worried by the second. I glanced over at the garage, the shutters were shut and lights were off. They'd probably closed when I was unconscious. Erik's eyes followed my gaze before he turned back to me.

"You don't have to say anything right now." He said, opening the back door. His friend helped me in. I lay down on my side and closed my eyes as the car started. Erik jumped in the driver's seat and started the way back.

I faded in and out of consciousness while he drove.

"Take my phone and call Rowan, tell him to meet me at my place." I heard his voice as if from the other side of a tunnel.

"No..." I mumbled from the back. Erik pulled to stop at a light and I heard him turn around.

"Why?" I kept my eyes closed.

"He'll kill me..."

"No he won't."

"Not Rowan..." The other guy...

"Evan you're really out of it right now, save your energy we're almost there." He said, starting to drive again, muttering "call him," to his friend.

I passed out until we pulled up to Erik's and he woke me up again. It was harder to get up than last time. My body was getting stiff as the injuries made themselves known.

He led me to his house, and I caught sight of myself in the mirror by the front door. My white button down had been stained with deep red blood that had dripped from my face over the past few hours. My left eye, cheekbone and bottom lip were swollen, and there were cuts scattered across my face underneath splotches of dried blood. I looked like shit.

Erik took me to the living room, sending his friend to the kitchen to grab some Advil. There were three other guys sitting around the tv with game controllers in their hands. They all turned around one by one when we entered.

"Dude, what the fuck happened?" One of them said, dropping his controller.

"Guys just go upstairs to my room and play there for a bit." Erik said, leading me to the couch. They all stayed seated, their mouths slightly agape.

"We can help with something if you need—"

"No, please go upstairs, you can come back in a little."

I felt myself stumble a bit as my head spun, and Erik grabbed me tighter. The guys stood up and slowly went upstairs like scolded children, and Erik helped me onto the couch.

"Stay here," he said, heading to the upstairs bathroom. I felt myself falling to the side and ended up laying down on the couch. It was so soft, and brought me back to when I'd been on it last. When Madison had been telling us stories and we'd all been happy and high off our minds.

I was drifting off again when Erik's friend came back from the kitchen and shook my shoulder gently, a bottle of Advil and a glass of water in his hand.

He helped me up with difficulty and I took a few capsules before laying back down on the couch and closing my eyes. It was hard to keep them open, my head had been throbbing for hours and the light only worsened the pain.

In a half conscious state, I felt a wet towel gently dabbing my face and Erik's voice talking to his friend. I tried turning my head away, it was annoying, like a fly buzzing around while I was trying to sleep. But I only managed to turn an inch when I heard the sound of the door banging open.

"What happened?" I heard Rowan's voice entering the living room and Erik stopped cleaning the blood. There was a brief silence before I heard him in front of me. "Who the fuck did this?" His voice was deadly.

"He couldn't tell us, he can barely talk." Erik said. I felt my non-swollen eyelid being pulled back and Rowan's voice saying something to me. I tried brushing his hand away but he pulled it back before I could and moved it to the back of my neck.

"Evan, you need to wake up, I'm taking you to the hospital."

"Don't want to..." I mumbled, and moved my hand to cover my chest as my ribs throbbed painfully. I felt Rowan pull back my arm and unbutton my shirt, opening it. His fingers gently touched my ribs and I opened my eyes in pain and gasped, pushing his hand away.

Worry was etched on his face along with anger, so much anger. I put my arms back around my stomach protecting the area again.

"Evan, you have at least one broken rib, and a broken nose, I'm taking you to the hospital." My eyes were slowly drifting shut again.

"I can't... Too expensive."

"Evan, stay awake."

"Mmm."

"Keep your eyes open for me." His fingers were on my temple. "Go start my car," I heard him handing his keys to Erik who left the room.

I felt Rowan's hands reach behind my back and pull me up to sit against the back of the couch. My working eye opened and he put his hands on my shoulder to keep me upright.

"Did you hit your head?" I stared at him before answering, his face drifting in and out of focus.

"Yeah..."

"Where?"

"The back..." I mumbled. He came closer,

"Keep your eyes open for me," he said, and lifted my eyelid again, examining my eye. After a few seconds he took his hand away, putting it back on my shoulder. "You have a concussion Evan, I can't let you sleep until we get to the hospital."

I groaned and leaned my head back against the couch, and felt him pull my arm around his shoulder and lift me off of it. My legs met the ground and I stumbled a bit, but his grip was strong.

Rowan led me outside to his car. Erik quickly hopped out of the driver's seat and started making his way around the car.

"You're driving," Rowan said, helping me in the backseat and following me in. Erik got back up front and shifted gears, sending his friend back to the house.

Sitting up hurt a lot. The top half of my body put weight on my ribs and they ached too much. I leaned against Rowan, trying to hold my breath to ease the pressure. He shifted and lightly pulled me down to lay in his lap.

"You can lay down, just stay awake okay?"

"Mhmm." I tried to focus on his hands on my shoulder and against my head, but I could feel myself fading again. I tried to keep my eyes open but my head slowly lolled against him. He was talking to me and moving my head, keeping me in a half conscious state.

We made it to the hospital and Rowan practically carried me in. They gave me two shots, one to wake me up and another to numb my broken nose while they popped it back into place. I didn't feel them do it but I was sure I'd feel it tomorrow after hearing the sickening cracking sound it had made. I had two broken ribs and a concussion. They'd taped up a few of the cuts on my face and by the time they were all done, I looked like I'd just survived a car crash.

Erik had called my parents over after seeing the twenty missed calls from them on my phone. They were on their way and I sat dully in the hospital bed, no longer feeling dizzy or tired, just feeling numb. Erik and Rowan sat across from me, Erik's foot was tapping nervously and Rowan's hands were clenched together, while he sent a murderous glare down at the floor.

I heard a knock on the open door and saw two police officers, a man and a woman, walk in, looking at me. I quickly glanced at Erik and Rowan, but they didn't seem surprised at all.

"Mr. Palmer, we'd like to ask you a few questions if that's alright with you?" The woman officer asked me. I looked in between them and shrugged.

"Sure." She gave me a smile and pulled out a notepad while the male officer put his hands on his belt and came closer to me. I noticed Rowan's eyes narrowing and following him closely.

"Can you describe your attacker Mr. Palmer?" He asked, his voice was rough and deep. I started describing him as best I could before he moved on.

"Where were you attacked?"

"Uh, near this car garage place, I'm not exactly sure what it's called..."

"The alleyway next to Melvin's Car Parts. His car was vandalized too." Erik finished for me.

"Alright. Do you know why he attacked you?"

"I think he thought I was gay..."

"Do you know why he thought that?"

"—That's not a relevant question officer." Rowan spoke up and the cop glanced at him quickly before moving on.

"Had you ever seen him before?" I nodded slowly and felt Erik and Rowans eyes on me.

"A few months ago, on Jackson street he said some shit to me." There was a moment of silence as Rowan put the pieces together and the cops wrote down the answer.

"What were you doing on Jackson street?" He asked, I may have imagined a slight tone of hostility to his voice, as he realized that's where the gay club was.

"Walking."

"And he, what just said some shit to you and left?" I opened my mouth, trying to find the words to say. Rowan stood up and walked over to them with his arms crossed.

"His name is Ray Warner. He hit Evan twice that night with one of his buddies so I hit him back and knocked him out. His cousin, Melvin Warner owns Melvins Car Parts, where Evan was attacked." The woman officer scribbled down everything he'd said while the man officer stared at Rowan, before taking a step back and nodding to his partner.

"We'll keep you and your family updated if we find him, Mr. Palmer."

"You have his full name and know that he vandalized a car and beat the shit out of a college kid. I hope finding him won't be an issue, just go do your job." Rowan said venomously and my mouth fell open. I watched the officers and was even more surprised when they walked away without saying anything back to him.

I'd never heard anyone talk to a police officer like that. In this town, they were worshipped as if they were the cast of CSI Miami, solving murder mysteries and stopping terrorist threats, when instead most of them were really at home beating their wives and arresting black kids for talking too loudly to each other on the streets.

Rowan sat next to me on the hospital bed and looked closely at my injuries while I stared back at him, still in shock.

"Your nose is bleeding again," he said, and grabbed a few cotton balls from the table. I took them from him and leaned my head back, trying to stop the blood. "So that asshole found you again then?" I glanced at him from the side.

"Yeah. You weren't supposed to know though. Said he'd kill me." I saw his hands tighten around each other and felt him shift a bit.

"Rowan..." Erik said quietly, and they exchanged a look I couldn't quite see in my position.

I saw his grip loosen and he put a gentle hand on my back, rubbing it softly. I felt my heart pick up a bit at his touch before I heard a loud shrieking in the hallway.

"Where is he?!" My mom's voice echoed through the hospital and I let out a loud groan.

Oh, fuck.