Quinn’s forehead wrinkled. “What?”
“Nate—he’s—crap.” Not waiting to explain any further, I took off toward the gym. “Hey—what the fuck?”
About thirty feet away, in front of the steps that led down to the gym, three of my teammates had formed a sort of triangle. And right in the center of that triangle was Nate. I’d seen Tim shove him toward Karl, and just before I’d yelled, Karl had pushed him to Brent.
But at the sound of my voice, Brent had looked up, a guilty look on his face, and whether it was out of instinct or deliberate, he took a step to the right, getting out of Nate’s way and leaving him hurtling helplessly down the short staircase.
It was like something out of a nightmare. On the football field, I had a reputation for making moves that were so quick and decisive that a few local writers called me the Flash. But here, in a hallway in our school, I couldn’t move fast enough to grab Nate before he fell. I was close enough to hear the sickening thud of his head against the iron railing and see his face go slack and blank before his limp body rolled to a halt at the bottom of the steps.
Behind me, Quinn screamed. “Nate!” I heard the pounding of her feet, and I turned to catch her before she could trip and fall on top of him. My heart was thudding in dread, but I held it together enough to grip Quinn’s upper arms, giving her a little shake.
“Go get help. Do you have your phone? Call 9-1-1, and get—fuck, I don’t know—get the school nurse or the principal or someone.”
Some of the horror cleared from Quinn’s eyes, and she nodded, reaching in her back pocket for her phone even as she took off in the direction of the office. Once I was sure she was on her way, I jogged down the stairs to kneel next to Nate, careful not to jostle him as I tried to remember the little bit of first aid training we’d gotten in health class.
Don’t move him, in case his neck is broken.Bile rose in my throat. Nate was lying at an odd angle, but I didn’t think he’d fallen far enough to have snapped his neck.
“Taylor, shit, we didn’t mean—” Brent was babbling behind me, fear evident in his voice. Son of a bitch was afraid he’d gone too far, and dammit, he should’ve been scared.
“Shut the fuck up. Just shut the fuck up.” I growled the words. The last thing I needed was to deal with his sniveling right now. I concentrated on Nate again.
Check for breath sounds.His chest was rising and falling—it was almost imperceptible, but there was no doubt that he was breathing. Good. That was good.
Check for bleeding and apply direct pressure.I leaned over him, half-expecting to see a pool of red spilling around his head from where it had hit the railing, but I couldn’t find anything. Was that good? I vaguely remembered my mother saying that head wounds always bled a lot, maybe some time when I’d come inside the house, covered with blood. So no bleeding had to be a good thing, I was pretty sure.
“Leo, man, what’re you going to say happened?” This time it was Karl talking, anxiety threading his voice. “If we get in trouble for this, we won’t play tomorrow. Hell, we’ll probably get kicked off the team. Suspended from school.”
“Holy fuck, I’m eighteen.” Brent sounded like he was on the verge of crying. “I could be prosecuted—”
“Would you shut the fuck up?” I spoke through my teeth, my jaw clenched. “Do you think I fucking care about your problems right now? Nate’s unconscious, and he might—shit, do you ever think about anyone other than yourselves? He’s sick. Do you fucking understand that? Something like this is a huge deal.” I reached for Nate’s hand, lying limp alongside his body. The skin was cool, but not cold. That was good, too, wasn’t it?
I glanced away from Nate only when I heard the sound of running feet. The school nurse, Mrs. Channing, along with the principal, were following close behind Quinn. I fastened my eyes on her face, needing to make sure she was okay. She was pale, and her eyes looked huge and full of terror, but she wasn’t about to pass out or get hysterical. She was holding it together, and I was grateful.
Mrs. Channing knelt on the other side of Nate’s body—his body? No, on the other side of Nate. She picked up the hand I wasn’t holding, and I realized she was checking his pulse. Her sober gaze met mine.
“What happened?”
It was a loaded question, and of course I knew what she meant, but I chose to focus on the most important information. “He went down the steps, and his head—” Nausea threatened again as I heard the sound in my memory. “He hit his head on the railing. He was unconscious when I got to him. I couldn’t get here fast enough to stop him from falling. I went as fast as I could.”
“Leo, stop. We’ll deal with that later.” She touched the side of Nate’s head, careful not to move it. “I can’t see any bleeding.”
“Is that good or bad?” I blurted out the question. “I can’t remember. Is it bad when the head doesn’t bleed? I didn’t move him, and I made sure he was breathing, but I couldn’t remember about the head.”
“You did just right.” Whatever the nurse was going to say next was lost in the noise of a door bursting open as EMTs rushed toward us. I was pushed out of the way as they swarmed Nate. I stood, my body stiff, and moved up the stairs to wait next to Quinn.
Almost as if it was drawn to me like a magnet to steel, the side of her body pressed into mine, and she ducked her head to burrow it in against my chest. My arms went around her, pulling her tight into me, and then I couldn’t help lowering my lips to touch the top of her hair. She was trembling, and in that moment, I would’ve done anything to comfort her. Anything to make it all better for her.
“What happened here, Mr. Taylor?” Mr. Platten, the principal, spoke low.
“I ...” A lump formed in my throat, and I found it hard to speak. “I’m not really sure, sir. I just came around the corner in time to see Nate falling. I tried to get here to grab him, but I was too far away.” I inclined my head toward Quinn. “We were just around the corner, and I heard—something. I ran, but I couldn’t get to him in time.”
“He tripped.” Brent was talking to Mr. Platten, but his eyes were on me. “I guess he was on his way to the gym when I—when we passed him, and the next thing I knew, he was on the ground. It all happened so fast.”
Fury burned in my chest, and I wanted to yell,Liar.But I kept my mouth shut. Right now, I was only worried about Nate. Later I’d deal with Brent, Karl and Tim.
The EMTs had Nate on a wheeled stretcher, and they moved him fast toward the doors. One lingered to speak to the principal.
“Were his parents notified?” She glanced at Quinn and me. “Are you friends of his?”
