100 Theme Challenge #28

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28. Can you hear me?

Anton was on his way to work, boiling coffee in hand and already late, when he noticed people start to stop around something on the ground. He approached because he always had been too curious for his own good, and he saw that it was an unconscious man, his body limp. He made his way through the crowd and crouched down, placing his coffee down without a second thought.

"You," he pointed a middle-age woman. "Call an ambulance." She nodded and ran off.

He pressed his ear down on the man's chest, and tried to hearg anything beside the loud thumping of his own heart. He couldn't.

"He's not breathing." He gulped, hands sweaty, and forced himself to think straight. He had CPR training, and he knew one wrong step could bring the man to his death. He placed a hand under his chin to tilt his head back and open his mouth and pinched his nose. He didn't think twice before giving him artificial respiration. He quickly followed by chest compressions. Numbers blurred before his eyes and he forgot where he was at for a second, until he pressed on. He didn't know for how long he kept going, but at some point he heard the woman tell him the ambulance would be here soon, and then the man gasped while he was breathing in his mouth. Under other circumstances, it could have been awkward.

"Hey, can you hear me?" He asked instead, watching green eyes slowly peer open.

"…Yeah… I… what happened?"

"You collapsed, but you'll be fine now."

"Will I?" The man murmured just as the paramedics came through the crowd, dispersing it. They began to patch the man up, who kept his hooded eyes on Anton.

"Will you stay with me?"

"Uh…" He had tons of paperwork to complete, he had an appointment for work… "Yes, I will."

He climbed beside him in the ambulance, took his hand and smiled reassuringly.

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