CHAPTER 5

Chapter 5: The Price of Oxygen

The passenger door of Julian's black sports car clicked open with a soft pop. The warmth from inside the car rushed out into the air smelling heavily of rich leather and Julian's sharp woodsy cologne.

"Get in " Julian said, his voice low and cutting through the drumming of the rain on the roof.

I stood frozen on the sidewalk, water pouring down my face in thick streams. I looked at the leather seats then down at my dripping mud-stained clothes and my coffee-ruined sweater. I didn't move.

"I said, get in Maya " Julian repeated, not turning his head to look at me. He just tapped his fingers against the leather steering wheel, his face completely calm in the glowing light of the dashboard. "I don't like to repeat myself. You are letting the rain ruin my leather."

My legs were shaking badly. I could barely lift my foot. I stumbled forward practically falling into the passenger seat. The second I pulled the door shut the roaring sound of the autumn storm died down to a soft hum. The heater was blasting air hitting my wet skin and making the raw blistered burn on my chest throb with a sharp pain. I gripped my arms tightly against my stomach trying to stop the shivering but I couldn't. I left a wet puddle on Julians pristine floor.

Julian shifted the car into drive. The engine gave a growl and the car glided forward smoothly cutting through the deep puddles on the dark street.

"Where are we going?" I choked out my voice sounding small and broken in the car. "The pharmacy just sent the medicine back. It's over. The system cancelled it."

Julian didn't answer. He turned the steering wheel with one hand, his eyes focused entirely on the road ahead. He didn't look at my shivering body. He didn't care that I was gasping for air. He drove around the corner of the brick building steering the car into the narrow lane of the pharmacy drive-thru.

He rolled down his window as the cold rain sprayed across his jawline but he didn't even flinch. He leaned toward the sliding glass window where the pharmacist lady was standing.

"The prescription for Chloe Lin " Julian said with his authoritative voice. "Hold #4092. Give it to me."

The lady behind the counter looked at the expensive car then looked at Julian's face, her eyes widening. "Oh I just took that order off the screen sir. The system cancelled the hold because the payment was short by fifty dollars due to an insurance tier change."

Julian didn't say a word. He didn't ask for an explanation. He reached into his front pocket, pulled out a sleek matte-black credit card and slid it across the metal counter.

"Rerun the system, how much is the balance now? " Julian ordered softly.

“Fifty dollar sir” she answered

"Put the amount on the card."

" Right away sir " the lady said quickly. Her fingers flew across the keyboard the clicking noise filling the silence. She swiped the card and the machine let out a loud beep. "Alright everything went through perfectly. Just a moment."

I sat in the passenger seat my eyes wide as I stared at the matte- card sitting on the counter. It was that simple for Julian. Fifty dollars was life and death for my sister. To Julian it was nothing. It didn't even make him blink.

The lady returned to the window holding a small white paper bag staples shut at the top. I could see the shape of the green medicine boxes

"Here you go, sir. Thank you " she said.

My heart leaped into my throat. The relief was so sudden and overwhelming that a heavy sob got stuck in my chest. I reached my hands out automatically my wet raw knuckles stretching toward the window. "Chloe..." I whispered.

Before my fingertips could even brush the paper Julian's large hand shot out. He snatched the bag right out of the pharmacists hand pulling it back inside the car. He rolled the window up with a click completely cutting off the outside world again.

"Julian please " I begged, my voice cracking as I reached across the center console toward his lap. "Please give it to me. I need to take it to her right now."

Julian ignored my hands. He reached over to the dashboard pressed a silver button and the glove compartment clicked open. He tossed the white paper bag inside slammed the door shut and a sharp click echoed through the car. He had locked it.

"What are you doing?" I screamed, the panic tearing through my throat. I grabbed the handle of the glove compartment pulling on it wildly. It wouldn't budge. "Julian open it! Give me the medicine! I did the thesis! I finished it perfectly. Turned it in before the deadline! You gave me the six hundred dollars! Why are you locking it away?"

Julian slowly turned his body toward me. He rested his elbow on the steering wheel watching my hysterical movements with cold dark eyes.

"I gave you six hundred dollars for the thesis Maya " Julian said, his voice dangerously quiet. ". The price went up. My card just paid the fifty dollars. That means the medicine belongs to me."

"It's fifty dollars!" I cried, hot tears spilling over my cheeks. "I will pay you back! I swear I will! I will clean your house I will do your homework for the three months I will do anything! Just don't take her air away! Please Julian I am begging you!"

"You already promised to do anything " Julian murmured, his pitch- eyes scanning my desperate face. ". You don't seem to understand how this works. You don't dictate the rules of our arrangement. I do."

"She will die without it " I whispered. I pressed my forehead against the glass of the passenger window, my shoulders shaking violently as the total despair crushed me again. "Please... Don't do this to her. She didn't do anything to you. It was me. Punch me, ruin me but don't hurt Chloe."

Julian didn't answer. He put the car back in gear. Drove out of the pharmacy lot. The drive to my apartment block was completely silent. The only sound was the heater blowing air and my ragged breathing. When the car finally idled in front of my crumbling apartment building, Julian didn't unlock the doors.

I turned to look at him as my eyes blurred with tears. "Why are we here if you won't give it to me?"

Julian didn't speak. He reached forward pressed the silver button and the glove compartment clicked open again. My breath caught in my throat. He reached inside opened the staples on the white paper bag and pulled out one single green box. He tossed it onto my lap.

"That is a twenty-four-hour dose " Julian said coldly.

I snatched the box holding it against my burning chest. ". The rest?" I gasped, looking at the glove compartment as it locked shut more.

Julian suddenly unbuckled his seatbelt. Before I could even realize what he was doing he moved. He leaned his heavy frame entirely across the center console invading my space instantly. His broad shoulders blocked out all the light from the dashboard trapping my shivering body flat against the passenger door. I couldn't move an inch. His face was inches away from mine so close I could feel the warm puff of his breath against my cold lips. His dark piercing eyes locked onto mine like a predator pinning down its prey.

"You get your sisters doses only when you fulfill my daily demands Maya " Julian whispered, his voice a low terrifying growl right against my ear.

I kept my hands pressed flat against his chest feeling the steady beat of his heart through his leather jacket. "What... What do you want from me?" I breathed, terrified of the answer.

Julians slow terrifying smile spread across his face in the shadows of the car. He reached up his thumb gently tracing the line of my trembling jaw making a shiver run down my spine that had nothing to do with the cold rain.

"Tomorrow morning you sit at my lunch table " Julian whispered, his eyes gleaming with absolute malice. "Right in the center of the cafeteria. Lets see how you handle the sharks.”