{UNEDITED}
"Jimmy!" I yelled, burying my hands into fists, unconsciously digging my nails into my palms. My frustration only grew when I looked back to Adam, only to see him wandering away.
I groaned, rushing after him. Latching onto his hand, I dragged him with me to to the only possible exit Jimmy could've taken, "Jimmy!" I repeated, feeling my hand being lifted.
I stopped walking, as Adam bumped into my back. Bewildered, I looked at him. He had lifted my hand up to his face and was staring at it in absolute amazement. "This is nice." He clarified, quietly. Still examining my hand in his.
My eyes widened, and I wasted no time in walking again to find Jimmy. I had better things to do than to babysit Adam, it was his own life, his own choice and I wasn't going to waste my time on him. Not again.
As we rounded another corridor, I spotted a shadow move from the corner of my eye. Without hesitation, I dragged a helpless Adam towards the shadow.
But it certainly wasn't Jimmy.
Just behind the corner, shielded away from view a ball of fluff scuttled behind what looked to be a very expensive, small table which held an exquisite vase only meant to please the eye. The golden ball of fluff ran in circles around the table, making my heart flutter and pound.
Out of nowhere, it bounded over to us. The dog was rather large, with doe-like brown eyes that could manipulate even the most wilful of humans, it was undoubtedly, the most gorgeous dog I had ever seen, but what could I expect from a family like the Valentino's.
Adam's face split into joy; I took a lengthy second to soak up the sight. I hadn't ever seen him like this. It certainly wasn't the intimidating Adam that followed me to a bus stop, or the scary Adam that got sent to Juvie, or broke Jayden's nose that one time and it wasn't the Adam that screamed at me to leave a few days ago. So I concluded that it couldn't have been Adam at all.
I pondered the likeliness of a twin, maybe multiple personality disorder, or, more likely than all. He must have been bitten by a radioactive spider.
It was just that simple.
But what shocked me most was Adam falling to his knees, his arms open wide as the dog sprinted to him, shoving past me in the daze of excitement, and shouting, "Bailey!"
The air was knocked out of my lungs, it could've been the excited dog, or it could've been that the dog's name was Bailey.
"He loves that dog." A voice sounded from behind me, I swivelled around seeing Jimmy leaning, nonchalant, against the corner of the wall.
My eyes burned with an uncontrollable anger, "You brought me here because he was high." I stated.
Jimmy nodded, looking past me and at Adam, "He doesn't usually do it this close to home, I've had to pick him up a couple of times from the Underground. I assume he's shown you?"
I nodded wordlessly and waited for him to continue, but I couldn't help but notice the glimmer of surprise in his eyes. I remember the Underground and all the irreversible trouble it had caused me, in all honesty, I really didn't want to remember the Underground at all.
"His parents will come back from work any minute now, and if they see him like this they'll send him to a rehab centre, and God knows Adam will spiral downhill from there, if not the rehab centre then it will be Juvie and Adam can't go back--"
"What did he take?" I asked, looking back to the boy on the floor, laid like an angel with his arms spread like wings, completely immobile, the only aspect of life was the deep chuckle resonating from his chest as Bailey licked his face.
Jimmy rubbed his forehead and sunk further into the wall, "Not anything serious, I think it's only marijuana this time. That's his drug of choice."
Something inside me snapped, and I felt a deep sickness shift into my chest, pounding like a drill. What had happened to change the boy who has liquid luxury dangling from his fingertips, into the Adam I know, of whom has a 'drug of choice.'
It was my turn to rub my forehead, "Why did you call me, out of everyone? How did you even get my phone number?"
Jimmy raised his eyebrows, "Adam had your number in his phone," he paused, peeking around the corner, past me once again, checking on Adam, "and as you might already know, Adam doesn't have many close friends, if any. That dog is the closest thing he has to a friend, might sound pathetic, but that's just how it is. He's never brought anyone to my diner. So I already know he likes you."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Take it as you will."
I shook my head at his vague answer, defeat lingering on my lips. "I came here on the bus, where do I take him?" I said.
Jimmy looked at me manifestly, "Back on the bus." He stated.
I suppressed the undying urge to strangle him right where he stood, "But where?"
He flashed a smirk, which didn't look half as right on his face as it did on Adam's, it still sent a slap of deja vu.
"That's not my problem."
I groaned, tugging on loose strands of my hair as Jimmy sauntered off into the other direction, a mocking spring in his step.
"When will it wear off?" I shouted to his retreating back.
"I don't know! But when it does, bring him back!" He replied with a jolly laugh.
I stood entirely still, just watching as he turned around a corner. What do I do with him?
Dauntingly, I turned back to Adam. My eyebrows raised as I wondered what to do with him, or if he could even stand. "Adam?"
I wanted to laugh at the situation, I wanted to just let out a hysterical bellow of a laugh and really think about the insanity that has become my life. On a regular day I would've been at home watching reruns of old shows, probably have my dad come back late and have to cook him a microwave meal. But it wasn't normal, I was staring at a boy, who tries to mess up his undeniably perfect life at every cost, and even more abnormal was that I was starting to care for him.
His head popped up over the mound of fluff laying on his chest. "Yeah..." He whispered, staring at me expectantly.
I walked closer to him, "Do you want to stand up?"
He sighed, releasing a weird groan, "I'm okay."
"That wasn't a suggestion, it was more of an order. Get up."
"But, Bailey."
I almost let him stay there, underneath the dog but I couldn't. His parents would come home any minute, see him lying there in a heap of drugs and dog, and send him to the looney-bin. At least, that's what I would do.
"No, Adam. Get up."
He glared at me, it was meek and lacked the intimidation it usually held. "You're more mean than you let on, Marshal." He sighed, his voice unusually high as he shuffled Bailey off his chest and flopped her onto the floor. The dog released a snort of annoyance, but none the less curled back into a sleepy position in the middle of the corridor.
Slowly, Adam jostled himself into a standing position, wobbling but standing.
His stare was heated and fierce, unwavering to my every move. His brown-almost black, eyes never left mine. Even when I grabbed his hand and tugged him with little to no confidence in the direction of the entrance.
After quite some time, I began to recognise items of decor and soon enough we were at the entrance. I didn't have a single clue what I was going to do with the emotionally unstable, high-as-a-kite teenage boy latched onto my hand.
But I knew that I couldn't leave him.
"Where are we going?" He asked, somewhat sober all of a sudden. I stopped, mid-step, deciding to test his sobriety.
"Narnia."
His eyes widened a fraction as he placed both his hands on mine, "Aslan?"
I decided not to be offended, although my hair was blonde it certainly wasn't a lion's mane and he clearly wasn't sober at all. I began pulling him towards the direction of the bus stop, it wasn't late, but it was around rush hour and the sky was already beginning to descend into dark hues of amber and gold.
As it was around rush hour, meaning there was an unusually large throng of people coming home from work. With a bitter taste invading my mouth, I didn't stop to take notice all the stares thrown our way. Disapproving and harsh, the stares only reminded me how much I didn't belong here.
In no time at all the bus pulled up. I was ready to leave Adam on the side of the road to defend for himself, he had never infuriated me as much as he did when he was high. Adam had been mumbling incoherently the entire way there, with the addition to tugging on my hand in an attempt to drag me somewhere that held his wandering, jumbled mess of a drug-induced and decisively short attention span. I tried to ignore the way my had felt connected to his, with his long, spindly fingers wrapping around my small hand.
I would be lying if I said I had done this before.
But that was the thing about Adam. He was so unconditionally, irrevocably exciting and every second I spent with him was like injecting myself with liquid adrenaline. My heart would pound against my ribs, bursting at it's heartstrings and I would always crave more. He was unpredictable with every aspect of his entire existence. And I was hooked.
We sat near the back of the bus, not the very back row as everyone knew that was where the troublemakers sat and out of everything I needed today, trouble wasn't on my shopping list.
It was only as the bus was nearing to my house when I realised that neither Adam nor I had even made a move to untangle our hands from each other's; I suppose it was more my decision than his. Especially in the state he was in.
I had kept a close watch on him the entire journey, convincing myself that he would get himself into trouble with the state that he's in. Detrimental trouble, seeing how much trouble he would usually attract being sober. But I knew somewhere deep down, that I was worried.
I was worried about Adam. Everything, absolutely everything sparked a flare of worry, from what little Jimmy had said to Adam's abnormal collapse the other day all led me to believe that something was terribly wrong with Adam.
And the truth was, I didn't want to lose that liquid adrenaline just yet.
Deciding not to go to the abandoned house, as my dad wouldn't be home until the late hours of the night, I pulled Adam towards mine.
"This isn't Narnia." He sulked, tightening his grip on my hand. Carelessly, I shrugged, not looking back at him but I could feel his presence grazing against my back.
Shaking off the feeling, I yanked him towards my room, hoping that he wouldn't say anything weird, or uncomfortable because I would loath having to awkwardly sit in a room with him after that.
I sat him down on my bed, he was being unusually quiet. I wondered for a moment if he was going to throw up, but dismissed the thought when he just hiccuped before giggling again.
I stood in front of his sitting figure, trying to make up a plan on what the hell to do with him.