POV
Stephanie
I'm sitting with Millie on the couch as she's burrito wrapped in a blanket and on her phone looking surprisingly happy. This girl's emotions are all over the place lately, and I can hardly keep up.
I'm scrolling through TikTok when a text comes in from Julian.
Call me asap, it's about X. Go somewhere where Millie can't hear you
My heart instantly feels as though it has stopped.
What the fuck?
When it comes to X, it can be anything. I know tonight didn't go well for the two of them so I'm extremely nervous right now.
I tell Millie I need to run out to my car and when she offers to come with I immediately combat the offer. Whatever is happening with X, Julian doesn't want her to hear. I leave the suite with Millie inside and go outside to call Julian.
My heart is pounding through my ears as the ring continues until Julian's voice takes over after the third one.
"Babe?" Julian says through the phone.
"Yeah? What's going on Julian?" I ask nervously.
"It's X, Steph." He says with a raspy voice sounding like he was just crying maybe.
"What? What happened to X?" I ask dying for information.
"He overdosed Steph, he fucking overdosed on Oxys. He's okay, he's okay now he's getting looked at by Evelyn and a doctor but he fucking overdosed Steph, I found him." Julian says with obvious tears and now I'm crying too.
"What? No.." I say in disbelief.
"I fucking found him, he looked dead Steph, he was dying." He says and it breaks my heart that he found him, X is the closest person to him and he almost lost him.
"I wish I could be there with you Julian.." I say meaning the words.
"I know babe, me too, I really need you right now but you need to stay with Millie, she can't know what happened tonight, promise me." He says desperately.
"I promise Julian, I promise," I say.
"I have to go, babe, I need to check on him, I'll keep you updated." He says.
"Okay please do and I'm so sorry Julian," I say before we say our goodbyes.
Oh my god.
My heart is completely shattered by what Julian has just gone through, oh my god and Millie, the poor girl is completely in the dark about what happened and will stay there.
Her life is heartbreak after heartbreak these past few years.
How could X do this to her? To himself?
I pray he didn't purposely do this, I know he didn't do it to get her attention but I pray he didn't purposely do this to kill himself.
The thought makes me cry even harder.
Millie is upstairs right now going through her high of the day, I cannot tell her about X, she would be completely devastated and he's not out of the woods just yet either. Only three months ago she lost her father to a drug overdose and now this?
If Millie knew about X's overdose I don't think she'd ever recover, she's completely in love with this man whether she fights the feeling or not.
I need to go back up there before she gets suspicious and act like everything is fine when in fact everything is far from fine.
I get back up to the hotel room keeping my tears at bay, hopefully, any evidence has subsided.
I let myself in and she instantly notices.
Shit…
Hurry think of something!
I feed her some bullshit about pmsing and a homeless man, which I feel terrible about but it's the first thing that comes to my mind.
I don't think she really bought it but she's not pressing the matter. I tell her I'm going to bed and luckily escape without any other interrogations. I close the bedroom door and slide my body down to the floor and hold onto myself tightly letting a stream of tears run down my face.
X may be Julian's best friend, and X may be the love of Millie's life but X is also my friend and right now I'm hurting too.