“Call a taxi!” I screeched.
“Got no cash. Got nothing, Soph. Please come. Please.”
“Just get a taxi, Callum, please, for God’s sake! I’ll pay them when I get there!”
I’d never moved so fucking fast.
***
My taxi arrived just as Callum was getting Casey out of his. Her legs were rigid, twitching with strain, and her head was lolled back, eyes flickering. She was crying and panting at the same time, a terrible sound that punched me straight in the gut. It was so much worse than I’d imagined, and my eyes filled in a heartbeat, rushing to her side as he struggled to lift her out. He burst in through the doors, muscles tense enough to match hers, and I stared in horror at the vets’ faces. The way they looked at Casey and then each other spoke volumes.
They ushered us into an examination room and Callum laid her flat on the table, stroking her head and talking to her all the time.
“What happened?” I cried. “What did he give her?”
He pulled out a rancid piece of meat from his pocket, and they rushed it off to the lab.
The vet shone a light in her eyes, opened her mouth too.
“Hyperextension, vomiting, rapid heart rate.” He focused on Callum. “What symptoms were presenting when you found her?”
“Panting... crying... sick everywhere.”
The vet stretched out his arms. “Was she stood like a sawhorse? Like this?”
Callum nodded. “Then she went all twitchy.”
“We’ll need to wash her stomach, attempt to remove the rest of the toxin. Please wait outside.”
The fear in Callum’s eyes broke my heart. His voice was so nervous, so unlike him. “Help her, please. Please make her ok again.”
“We’ll be doing our very best for her.”
I took his arm, pulling gently. “Come on, Callum. Let them work. She’s in the best hands.”
He hovered just long enough to put his face to hers. “You’ve gotta get better now, alright? These nice people are gonna take care of you. Love you, Case, so much.”
The savage’s eyes were wet with tears when he rose, but he didn’t linger any longer.
***
Callum collapsed in a heap in the corner once the vet was out of sight.
“I’m going to fucking kill him,” he growled. “Just as soon as she’s alright. Gonna cut his fucking heart out.”
“No,” I said. “He wants the fight. Don’t play into his hands. You’re better than that.”
“Don’t fucking feel like it.”
“Casey wouldn’t want it,” I said. “She’d want you to think about your art, about staying out of prison, about how much I need you to come home with me. She needs us, both of us. We’re her home now, Cal.” I pressed my cheek into his back, soaking his hoodie with tears. “Please don’t push me away.”
“Ain’t getting back together for Case’s sake,” he said.
My heart dropped, pain piling on top of pain.
I was numb as he reached for my hand, barely registering he was holding me until he said the words.
“I’m doing it for me.”
***
We sat there for what felt like hours. Waiting, hoping, praying. We’d flinch every time we heard footsteps, but they’d only be offering coffee. I’d think I’d have it together, only for the image of her big brown eyes to reach out and bludgeon me all over again. Callum was quiet in his grief, locked up inside himself with just the occasional outburst, but for me it bled wild.
“You should go,” he said. “You’ve got work and shit.”
“I haven’t. They suspended me.”
“Why?”
“Doesn’t matter now.”
He didn’t push it and I didn’t share.
“It’s all fucked,” he said. “All of it. Got a fucking exhibition tomorrow, all my paintings and shit. I dreamed about it when I was a little kid, and now it’s all fucked. Can’t do it now she’s like this.”
I smiled, but it wasn’t a happy smile, not really. “You’re at the new Southbank complex.”
“Dunno. Yeah, maybe.”
“No maybe about it. It’s the biggest event of the year. I know, my parents built the fucking place.”
“Don’t matter now, does it? Won’t be going.”
I reached out to touch him, the slightest touch of my fingers on his knee. “Of course it matters. You have to go, it’s your big break.”
“Won’t mean anything now.”
I sighed, a long sad sigh that rattled in my chest. “No matter what happens here tonight, Callum, that art means something. Don’t let it go.”