[Complicated] Close Call

[Lance James Renner]

Dated for 10/14/2011


Lance looked down at the coffee table, staring down at the empty bottles as his feet were sitting against the edge of the glass. It was sort of ridiculous how you could be in a group of people that were so loving, so caring, have the most amazing girlfriend a guy could ask for, and still feel alone. Logan was the greatest man Lance had ever met in his entire life, and more often than not any accomplishments Lance had in his life were just a product of trying to impress Logan. He could do anything. When anything went wrong in their group, he was the one to fix it. And he always did. No matter what it was, Logan could fix it. But he’d let Lance just be separated from him for years. He understood now why they had shipped him off. A kid at his age then really shouldn’t have been drinking. If it started that early then it was just a sign of trouble to come. But looking back on it, it had really only made things worse. Lance never caused a fuss. He didn’t show signs of over-excitement and he didn’t show any indication of when he was pissed off. Aside from this latest stint with Jake and Dani. Just when you thought you knew someone… and something inside of him had snapped. He knew that none of them really meant anything by calling him ‘twit’, that it was just a joke since he still carried a lot of British tendencies from having had lived so many years there. But he had to admit it did make him feel a bit isolated, the same way he had been when his parents shipped him off. The person he had looked up to the most when he was just a little boy, was the same one that everyone else looked up to in their family now. So why should things change.

Ever since he had gotten shipped off it just turned into a spiral of holding everything inside, seeming composed, wanting to project the image of the perfect son, brother, friend, just to keep everyone else satisfied. Then when the doors were closed and he was alone, he could sort all of his feelings out at the bottom of a bottle. But when he returned he was able to slightly hide his problem, since every one else loved to party so much. It became easier to socially drink than to have to hide it. Lance groaned, sitting up before he looked at his phone. He leaned forward, pinching the bridge of his nose as he closed his eyes and then looked back at his phone, pressing the speed dial for Logan before he held the phone to his ear. He shook his head, taking in a deep breath and sighing each time the phone rang. “ Fuck it,” he said, hanging up at the sound of Logans voice. Either the caller ID, or actually Logan. He didn’t care at this point. Lance tossed his phone to the side of the couch before he looked forward at the coffee table, forming his hand into a fist before he slammed it into the glass , shattering it to the ground. The sting in his hand worsened after he unclenched his fist and let his hand relax. Lance winced as he looked down at his hand, noticing the bits of glass that had sheared themselves into his skin, stinging and then the blood that was starting to pool down towards his fingertips.

Lance’s first thought was that his hand looked like it was in bad shape, and that he should probably go to the hospital. But on second thought, it was late. And he was pretty tired. Lance reached down, taking one of the pieces of glass from his hand, screaming out in frustration at the sharp pain that it sent up his arm. “ K it stays,” he said, in a defeated tone. He looked at the door to leave the apartment. Going to the hospital would take so much work. He turned his head down the hallway. Yeah, bed sounded a lot better. He just needed to get there. But he was standing; when did that happen? Lance narrowed his eyebrows, wondering how much exactly he had drank. He knew it was more than normal, but this was ridiculous. It was like he was in some sort of Christopher Nolan film and was falling down a rabbit hole of confusion. Lance shook his head quickly, holding his good hand up to the hallway wall as he basically pulled himself to his bedroom. After sinking into his sheets he sighed as he closed his eyes and tried to ignore his hand. He should call Kiersten, to talk to her or something. He should get up and go to the hospital. He should forgive Dani since he’d forgiven Jake, and he should handle his emotions in a different way. But it didn’t really seem like any of that was going to happen soon.

[Joel Carter Foster]

Joel yawned as he unlocked the door to his and Lance’s apartment, stepping inside from the hallway. He sort of liked the fact that the both of them could afford a nicer place, but really liked to keep it modest and down to earth. “ Hey man I’m home, I brought Chinese.. hope that’s alright. It was right by the studio,” he called out, dumping the take out bags onto the kitchen counter before he tilted his head out to see whether or not Lance was coming. But he was surprised at the silence that followed. “ Lance?” he called out again, but this time he took his jacket off as he left the kitchen and threw it on the table. When he stepped into the living room, he sighed, looking at the broken glass coffee table with an ungodly amount of empty alcohol bottles surrounding it. “ Awesome,” he muttered under his breath. Joel turned back to the kitchen to grab some cleaning supplies to pick everything up. “ Spend the whole day at the studio then come home to clean up someone elses’ mess,” he muttered under his breath, kneeling down to pick up some of the glass pieces. Joel was careful to pick each of them up but then tilted his head as he looked down. Was that blood? He looked down at the ground, noticing more pieces covered in blood and what looked like to be blood that had gotten on the carpet. “ Lance!” he yelled out , dropping the cleaning supplies altogether and took about two steps to get out of the living room and making his way to Lance’s room.

Joel came into Lance’s room quickly, flipping the light on only to find him passed out on his bed. “ Lance! Dude wake up, what happened?”. Joel turned the light on and then went over to Lance, noticing his hand hanging off the edge of the bed. He was so still, so unmoving. And the first thing Joel could think of was how long David had laid motionless, bleeding, before someone found him. Joel froze in that moment, unable to think, move, breathe. He knew he needed to snap out of it and help him, but honestly he couldn’t even think straight. Lance was like a brother to all of them, to every single person in that group. Mackenzie and Kiersten had already lost a sister, him and Madeline lost their brother, Scarlet lost her brother. There literally was not a way they could survive as a group if they lost someone, not like this. Joel took in a quick breath and ran over to Lance’s side, raising his hand to his face and smacked him quickly. “ Wake up Lance, wake up,” he said, leaning down to see if he was still breathing. Joel stood up quickly and took out his cell phone, calling the only person he knew he could handle to talk to right now. After he dialed Ryan’s number he held the phone to his ear and waited for him to pick up. ‘ Hey man, what’s up?’ Ryan’s voice echoed from the other end of the phone. Joel brought his hand up to his hair, trying to calm himself enough to even know what to say. Ryan was going through his own shit with Madeline right now since they broke up, he didn’t need to be put in charge of this. “ I just got home from the studio and Lance is passed out in his room. Not like, ha ha he drank too much passed out. Like.. he shattered the coffee table, his hand is busted up and bleeding, and he’s not moving, I’ve smacked him a few times and it seems like he’s barely even breathing, it’s just really shallow. And I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do, Ryan.” he rambled off quickly, realizing that Lance wasn’t the only one in the apartment that wasn’t really breathing. ‘ Shit, okay..’ Ryan said, seemingly trying to process everything. ‘He’s still breathing though?”. Joel dropped his hand from his hair, feeling pretty helpless about the situation. “ Yeah, but barely. I mean it sounds really weak,” he said, turning his back away from Lance and leaning against the doorframe. Maybe if he didn’t look at him, it wouldn’t be this hard. ‘ Joel, you need to call 911. Tell the dispatcher everything you just told me. ‘. There was more that Joel wanted to talk to him about, things they had to take into consideration. Like the fact that Lance was a part of being the face of a kids and family network. But the conversation ended quickly, he just needed Ryan to snap him into action. He didn’t need him to lean on. In the end, Joel decided to take a different approach. Getting Lance to the hospital was important, but so was keeping a low profile. Calling the police and getting an ambulance to their place wouldn’t exactly create job safety for Lance. Joel put his phone back in his back pocket, before he leaned down and did his best to pick Lance up. He always seemed to forget that Lance probably weighed more than he looked. Looking at pictures it wasn’t long ago that he was a pretty scrawny guy. Joel groaned as he held Lance against his side. “ Come on, buddy” he said, keeping his arm gripped tightly around his waist.

Once they were finally outside and Joel was able to hail a cab, he slid Lance into the backseat of the cab “ We gotta get to the hospital,” he said to the cab driver as she shut the door behind him. Once he started driving, Joel leaned back down, placing his ear near Lance’s mouth to monitor his breathing. Still there, so that was better than nothing. Joel sat up and slid lower into his seat. There was a lot of people that needed to be told. Logan, Kiersten, wasn’t Lance best friends with that Jake guy? Then there was Riley and Mackenzie for certain, too, but Joel was pretty certain they were in France, or on their way, something like that. All of that could figure itself out, it wasn’t like he wanted to have phone calls with anyone else. Joel snapped out of his trance as the cab stopped and he looked back down at Lance, gearing up to pick him back up again and headed through the sliding doors of the ER. “ I think he drank too much, and there’s something wrong with his hand,” he said, straightening up as a group of the ER staff took Lance and placed him on a gurney. “ His name’s Lance Renner, and I’m assuming his family is on the way,” he said hastily after one of the nurses started asking about his identification. It seemed like everything was moving so fast, so many people were coming around Lance and pulling him away. One of the nurses walked calmly over to Joel. ‘Let me show you where you can wait,’ she said, giving him a soft smile and lead him towards the waiting area. Joel sank into his seat before he leaned forward, letting his head hang as he dropped his elbows against his knees. Hopefully he didn’t make a dumb mistake by bringing him here instead of calling an ambulance. Paramedics could do more than Joel could; then again, they would have needed to wait for the ambulance to get there anyways. This way he at least got to the hospital quicker. Only time would tell, but more than anything Joel just wanted Madeline to be there with him.