this is helping him?”
My heart was pounding in my ears, and more adrenaline tinted with rage was rushing through my veins, but his words snapped me out of it. He was right. This was about Chaz, who was presently cowering in the corner with his face buried in his hands like he was trying to hide from the world. The rest of Organic Animal was just standing there staring in either concern, confusion or both.
“Chaz?” I called as gently as I could, kneeling down in front of him. “Hey. Look at me, please.”
He did, but rather than the same anger I’d left him in earlier, he just looked scared. I recognized the glassy look in his eyes and knew immediately he’d taken something after I left.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, his voice cracking in confusion. From the way he was looking at me, I got a bad feeling he wasn’t just talking about now. It was like he didn’t even remember our earlier encounter.
Before I could answer, Sterling interjected, “That’s a good question. One you can answer for security in a moment.”
“He’s fucked up. Can’t you see that?” I demanded. “He can’t go back out there.”
“That’s not your decision.”
“He’s right,” Drake said. He was just about the last person I expected to come to my defense, especially since I’d opened up a legal nightmare by decking Jacob. The one time he really hadn’t done anything to deserve it, too. “Something is wrong.”
To my surprise, Sterling actually seemed to be considering his opinion. He barked for the others to leave, and the fact that Jacob did so without hesitation made me hate him all the more. Unless they weren’t actually dating and all that was for publicity. Or fucking with me. When it came to Sterling, it was hard to tell.
“He was fine thirty minutes ago when he went out on stage,” Sterling said, standing across the room and eyeing me warily, as if he expected me to lunge again.
A valid concern, really, until Chaz slumped over and I caught him. He wasn’t fully unconscious, but he wasn’t responsive either.
“What did he take?” Drake asked, kneeling down next to me and Chaz, studying the singer with more concern than I expected him to show.
“Nothing,” Sterling snapped. “I told you, I made him go to rehab and he’s been clean ever since.”
Drake gave me a knowing look. “Go through his things and bring me the bottle.”
I nodded and reluctantly handed Chaz off to him. I rushed back to the dressing room, and it didn’t take long to find the bottle. It was close to empty. And there were supposed to be twenty pills, according to the label, which also said it had been filled more than two months ago. When I brought it back out to the others, Drake was still speaking with Sterling in a tone of relative civility.
“And he’s been getting worse since he left the facility?” Drake pressed, taking the bottle from me without a word.
Sterling frowned. “You can’t be suggesting he’s like this because he’s sober.”
“I’d say he’s pretty fucking far from it at the moment,” I muttered, going back to Chaz’s side. He was conscious again, but he kept mumbling something about stretching lights.
“No,” Drake answered, ignoring my comment. “I’m saying it’s possible the drugs were masking something else.” He turned back to Chaz before I could ask what he meant, his tone gentler than usual. “Chaz, how many of these did you take?”
The question didn’t seem to register at first, but at least he was conscious for now. “I...four? Maybe five, I don’t...wait, why are you here?”
“Help me get him up,” said Drake.
“Come on,” I said, draping Chaz’s arm around my shoulders to drag him to his feet like I’d done a hundred times before. Never like this, though. The only other time I’d ever been this scared was when I’d found him that night in his apartment. It had been the pills back then, too.
Fuck, how could I not see this? He wasn’t a trainwreck who couldn’t manage to function most of the time like the old Dante, so in comparison, he seemed fine, but my best friend had been this fucked up for this long and I hadn’t even noticed.
“I’m fine,” Chaz mumbled. He was coming back to himself enough to try to push away from me, which came as an odd relief.
“You’re not fine, you can barely stand,” I protested, knowing he’d drop as soon as I let go.
Drake pulled something