Thicker Than Water by Abigail Livinghouse (top ten books of all time .txt) 📕

 She sighed, closing the door. “Alright, but I go out of town and won’t be working until next Thursday so you have to hold out until then.” She cautioned, and I nodded seriously. 

After I left the hospital I headed straight to the first dorm party that I could find. A girl named Cecilia was throwing a fairly good one in the dorm next to Addie’s, and I was hopeful that Addie would be there.  I needed some release from tonight, and the best way to do that was with some good old teenage recklessness.

 As soon as I arrived a drink was thrust into my hand and I was welcomed with a hug by someone who I barely knew. Who also unsurprisingly knew my name.

 “Derrick! Glad you could make it!” The guy said enthusiastically, and I nodded at him with a small smile on my face.

 “Yes, it seems like quite the event.” I said as I observed the wildly dancing people and the obvious drunk ones in the corners making out with guys, girls, and sometimes I saw them just grab someone random and shove their tongue down the poor person’s throat. Usually if it was a guy, they didn’t object.

 “Do you know if Adeline is here?” I asked the guy. He was short, with dark curly hair and glazed over brown eyes. I could tell that he was about one more drink away from either alcohol poisoning or gaining the status of the corner people. He shook his head.

 “Didn’t see her man. You know, no offense but Adeline doesn’t seem like the type of girl who would go to these parties.” The guy said, completely honest and true but I still bristled in irritation.

 He was right though, Addie wasn’t the party type. She was the exact opposite of the stereotypical “college girl”. She never drank, had never thrown or gone to one of these parties before, and I believe the craziest thing she’s ever done in her life was date a guy one year older than her without asking for her parents’ permission first.

 She just has a good head on her shoulders, unlike most of these campus crazies like Mr. Tipsy over here. I sighed, realizing that this hadn’t been the best idea. If I really wanted to find Addie, then the best and only place to search would be her dorm room.

 “Thanks anyway.” I said to him, turning around and setting my untouched drink down on a random table before leaving.

 I headed over to Addie’s dorm, taking the flight of stairs and knocking on her door. Her roommate Carrie opened it and smiled when she saw me. 

 “Derrick, good to see you. Hate to break it to you but”, she moved aside and allowed me a peak behind her,  exposing a sleeping Addie under the covers of her bed. I sighed.

 “Tell her I stopped by please?” I asked and Carrie nodded, closing the door with a sympathetic smile on her face.

 Back in my own dorm sitting on my own bed, the door swung open no more than two minutes after I had arrived and a dark figure came in, flicking on the lights as he did. A tall light haired boy stood in the doorway, his hands in his hoodie.

  I nodded. “Carter.”

 My roommate looked up and waved his hand in acknowledgement at me. “What are you doing here mate? Thought you’d be off breaking dear Adeline’s bed by now.” He said with a wink. 

 I rolled my eyes. Carter had a slight British accent that he had picked up from a few years there when he was younger. He wasn’t a born Brit, but his family had lived there for the better part of his childhood.

 “She’s sleeping.” I informed him. He shook his head.

 “Poor bastard. Went to get his needs met only to find that his girlfriend had fallen asleep.” Carter made a tsking sound at me as he made his way to his closet and began to undress. “Such a shame.”

 I reached back to grab my pillow and throw it at him, which hit him neatly on the head. He spun around, only in his boxers.

  “Hey! Don’t take your sexual frustration out on me. I’m sure Adeline will be awake tomorrow, for your sake at least.” He said with a snicker. I lodged another pillow at him, which hit him in the stomach this time.

 “And mine.” He chimed in and pulled on his sweats. “Let me rephrase my earlier statement. You poor, horny, frustrated bastard.”

 I looked around for something else to throw at him, mildly annoyed but too lazy to find another pillow, and in my lapse Carter had already gotten into bed. I grunted before getting out of my clothes as well.

 I saw that Carter was still awake, reading a book that he had by his bedside. I got under the covers and turned facing the wall, feeling that it was barely close to midnight and that sleep was much farther away than it should be.

 “You feel okay?” Carter called from his side of the room.

 I didn’t turn around as I responded. “I’m alright.”

 “Did you get a chance to eat?”

 I recoiled at his question, one that I often received from him but that didn’t make it any easier to answer.

 “Yes.” I said emotionlessly. I could imagine him nod as I heard him turn a page in his book.

 “That’s good. I meant to get out myself, but I just couldn’t find the time.” He commented. At that I nearly fell out of bed I turned around so fast. 

“What?” I asked seriously. Carter barely glanced at me before turning another page.

 “What? I just haven’t had the time. I’ll get to it tomorrow.” He said absently.

 I sat up in bed this time, my tone and expression stern. “Carter, this is your health we’re talking about. You can’t just put it off until the next day. Aren’t you in pain?”

 At my mention of pain, I could visibly see him swallow almost instinctively. I resisted smugly saying “I told you so”. He shut his book, dropping it to the floor and getting up to shut the light off.

 “I’ll quite well, alright? Don’t worry about it, I will take care of it tomorrow.” He promised, flicking off the light and draining the room of color as he hopped back into his bed.

I had no control over what Carter did or did not do. I wasn't his mother, it was not my responsibility. I couldn't help but care for him though. Someone who shares the same difficulties as me, it nevertheless tugs on my heartstrings and makes me stick my own neck out many a times just to assist him. Some may say that it's quite stupid of me, and they would be absolutely right.

The hunger that we both suffered from had been going on for as long as I could remember. When I was about three years old, my parents fell sick with an illness unheard of throughout the town we were presently in. A little place called Scranton I believe.The disease they had made a human being waste away and die from starvation. The patient would be given any kind of food source the hospital they were at could provide. Solids, liquids, feeding tubes, nothing worked. They would all wither and die the same. 

People became desperate. They wondered, what were they doing wrong? The patient was medicated, had food in their system, and yet it only seemed to destroy them further. What else was there to do?It wasn't until the doctors began performing blood tests on the patients was when they discovered something peculiar. Their blood was always thin and weak. It was as if they had been placed on blood thinners. Sometimes the patients would even break out in nosebleeds. The doctors came up with a solution.Blood transfusions. That had to be the answer to why everyone was dying the way they were. Of course! Why hadn't they seen it before?

Blood began to be injected into sick patients, and at first it worked. Their bodies did not reject the new DNA in their systems, they welcomed it. Their bodies no longer rejected food, they actually kept normal portions down for more than a few hours. Some were even regaining their strength. Everyone figured that these brilliant doctors had found the cure. They had not.

The blood transfusions worked for quite a while. People even left the hospital basically back to normal. That only lasted a few days if they were lucky. They would return to the hospital in an even worse state than what they had arrived in, they would have more blood put in their systems, which would quickly be destroyed by the body in an attempt to sustain itself. As a result, many died before anyone had a chance to even wonder what had happened.

The patient's bodies had gotten so used to being provided with blood daily that they weren't able to survive on their own. The doctors realized that while the blood worked temporarily, their patients' systems burned up the energy in the donated blood much too quickly for them to be able to live.They weren't exactly sure what to do next. They were on the right track though, blood was definitely the key. But they seemed to be using it the wrong way. In the meantime, patients continued to receive the necessary blood daily without knowing when they would be able to leave the hospital and continue to live their lives.

One night when a nurse was giving a patient their final transfusion which the patient was usually asleep for, they woke up. The nurse assured them that everything was alright, and that they were just getting their usual blood injection. The patient of course was frantic, but not because of the blood being forced into them.They went ballistic and grabbed the blood bag, ripping it open before the nurse's very eyes. It went everywhere as the patient shoved their face into the bag and began drinking it. The nurse screamed for help at the sight of a human being consuming another human's blood. It was a horrifying sight, and doctors and more nurses immediately began flooding the room and attempting to calm the patient.

It was no use.They jumped up from their bed, tearing all wires and tubes attached to them off and making a break for it, running into the hallway and right into the nearest nurse's cart where a fresh bag of blood sat.And that is when scientists realized that blood was required, and needed to be consumed in