From Bullets To Billions novel Chapter 57

Chapter 57: Don’t Forget The Bill

Max still had no idea who the woman was, and through his blurry vision, he couldn’t really make out her face clearly either.

But right now, that didn’t matter. He was hurt, and he needed help fast. So, letting her guide him, Max found himself being half-dragged to a small local clinic.

Given the late hour, it wasn’t particularly busy, which was exactly what he needed. Plus, there was another bonus he hadn’t expected.

"Uncle Larry!" Cindy shouted as she pushed open the front door.

The place was crammed at the front with shop supplies, over-the-counter meds, cough drops, ointments, while the prescription counter sat near the back. Beyond that, there was a small private medical room, meant for quick examinations and minor treatments. If something serious came up, they’d just send you straight to the main hospital.

"I’m up, I’m up!" a man in a white medical coat said, stumbling out from the back room, looking like he’d just been woken up. "Cindy, what are you doing here so late... you need pads again or something?"

Without missing a beat, Cindy grabbed a bottle of cream sitting on a nearby shelf and hurled it straight at the man’s head. He barely flinched in time.

"Alright, alright! You definitely need those pads!" he said, laughing.

"Shut up, you sexist pig!" Cindy snapped. Then she pointed to Max, who looked like he could collapse any second. "Right now, I need your help. Can’t you see I brought you a patient?"

"And you dragged him here because... what, students are loaded these days and can pay for my services? Or because the 24-hour hospital was just too far away?" Larry asked, raising an eyebrow.

Before Cindy could even answer, Max swayed dangerously, his legs giving out beneath him. Larry rushed forward, slipping under Max’s arm and propping him up with his shoulder.

"Guess I don’t have much of a choice now," Larry muttered, hauling Max toward the private medical room.

He carefully lowered Max onto the small examination bed, making sure he didn’t just dump the kid there like a sack of potatoes. His eyes immediately went to the dark blood soaking through Max’s shirt. Grabbing a pair of scissors, Larry started cutting through the fabric, layer by layer, until he finally exposed the source of the bleeding.

"What the...?" Larry muttered under his breath.

The wound was nasty, deep, and not the kind of injury you got from tripping and falling. It was something else entirely, something far worse.

"What the hell are kids getting up to around here?" Larry thought grimly. "This isn’t playground stuff anymore."

Shaking his head, he grabbed his supplies. "I need to disinfect this first, then put a few stitches in. It’s going to leave a scar... but at least it’s in a spot no one usually sees," he whispered to himself as he worked.

Meanwhile, outside the room, Cindy was pacing back and forth, tapping her foot anxiously against the floor.

She barely noticed when the front door creaked open again, and another figure stepped into the clinic.

"Cindy!" Abby called out as she burst through the clinic door, her chest heaving. "Is it true? What you said over the phone, that Max is here and he’s hurt?"

"Yeah," Cindy nodded, her face turning serious. "It was kinda crazy. I just ran into him out on the street. Looked like he was trying to make it home or something. You think it was the guys from school? Maybe they reacted after what happened in his class."

"I don’t know... I don’t know," Abby muttered, hugging herself tightly. "All I know is Max has always kept everything bottled up. No matter what he was going through, he never said anything. I feel so useless. How am I even supposed to help him if he won’t let me in?"

Seeing the way Abby’s voice was starting to crack, Cindy moved closer and gently rubbed her best friend’s back. Abby looked like she was just seconds away from breaking down.

"It’s okay," Cindy said softly. "If he’s keeping things to himself, he must have a good reason. After seeing what kind of state he was in today, I think... I think I’m starting to understand why."

The two girls waited anxiously, standing in the quiet front area of the clinic, until finally the door to the small medical room swung open.

Larry stepped out, wiping his hands on a cloth and wearing a tired but reassuring expression.

"He’s going to be fine," Larry said, seeing the panic in their faces. "He didn’t lose as much blood as it probably looked like. He’s mostly just exhausted."

Both girls let out the breath they’d been holding.

"He completely passed out," Larry continued. "Even while I was cleaning and stitching the wound, he didn’t even flinch. Poor kid must’ve been running on pure adrenaline until he just... couldn’t anymore."

"When I gave him anesthetic, he didn’t react at all," Larry said, running a hand through his messy hair. "It was almost like nothing in the world could wake the kid up. But he’s stable now. Still... do you have any idea what happened to him?"

Cindy shook her head quickly.

"I just found him like that," she said, a hint of guilt in her voice.