Unquiet Read Online Free Page A

“No, you’re not gonna die! Get up!” He pushed to his feet and gesticulated with angry motions. “Get your ass up, take a shower. That’s crazy talk, even for you!”
    Eliot didn’t move, so Loren grabbed him and hauled him up out of the bed, making him stand.
    “Snap out of this, Eliot Devlin,” Loren said fiercely. “Just snap out of it, goddammit.”
    Eliot’s eyes didn’t change in any way. They just slid closed and he sagged back down to the bed. Loren pulled him up again and bullied him into the shower, having to go in there and drag him back out again when Eliot just leaned against the tiled wall without moving. Loren had changed the stinking, sweaty bed linens in the meantime, and he helped Eliot into a clean pair of pajama pants and a T-shirt, dressing his seventeen-year-old friend like he was three.
    Loren fixed him a bowl of soup and ended up feeding it to him when Eliot refused to pick up the spoon, and he tried his best to mask his horror at Eliot’s condition. In all the years he’d known Eliot, while Loren had seen many, many facets of his epic weirdness, he’d never seen anything close to this. It was like Eliot was in a hole he couldn’t climb out of, and Loren just didn’t understand.
    After his soup, Eliot fell back to sleep as though the little bit of activity had utterly exhausted him, and maybe it had. Loren pulled out his homework and sat at Eliot’s desk, working, until he heard the garage door open. Thank God at least one of the Devlins was home.
    He packed up his shit and got ready to leave, noticing with a jolt three hours had passed since Eliot fell back to sleep, and he hadn’t moved a muscle. Loren checked to be sure he was still breathing and then quietly left the room, although he could have set off fireworks on Eliot’s bed and it wouldn’t have made a damn bit of difference.
    He made his way to the kitchen, where Eliot’s mom, Dr. Rebecca Devlin, was standing in her scrubs, weariness in every line of her body, peering into the fridge. She turned and looked at Loren, surprised pleasure on her face.
    “Well, hello, stranger,” she said. “Haven’t seen you around in a long time.”
    Loren didn’t feel like wasting time on pleasantries. “Something’s wrong with Eliot.”
    Dr. Devlin blinked at the abruptness, but she replied, her tone even, “He’s just been a little under the weather.”
    “He’s not sick,” Loren insisted. “He’s—I don’t even know what he is. Depressed or something? He said everything’s hopeless and he wants to die.”
    “He’s recently been diagnosed with a mild depression, Loren,” she said, a professional soothing tone running through her voice. “He’s getting very good treatment from a well-respected child psychiatrist. And he’s been prescribed some medication.”
    Loren was astounded. Eliot had never mentioned that.
    “I don’t think it’s working,” he said fretfully, “whatever medication he’s on. He—he’s scaring me.”
    Dr. Devlin stopped rooting in the fridge and turned to face him.
    “I’ll talk to him,” she promised. “Sometimes it can take a little while for these types of medications to take effect, so don’t get too upset too soon. We’ll keep an eye on him.”
    Loren just stood there, and at last she said, “Look, I’m tired, Loren. I had a full day, and I have another equally full day tomorrow. I’m sure Eliot will be fine in a few days. I promise I’ll check on him when I go upstairs in a little while, okay? We’ll see you later, honey.”
    Loren felt like arguing against this clear dismissal because he had no fucking doubt he knew Eliot Devlin better than his own parents did, and something was wrong .
    “I think I’ll go back upstairs and stay with him a while longer, if that’s okay.”
    Eliot’s mom nodded, and then turned away to pull some sandwich fixings out of the fridge. “Suit yourself, Loren. But I promise you, he’s going to be fine.”
    Loren murmured a good-bye, and