“Hospital!” Milo yelled at the taxi driver, shutting the car door and turning to the stranger on his right that he had covered with all his coats and sleeping mat.

“You're soaking wet!” the taxi driver yelled back, his loud voice not helping with his already frayed nerves and rising panic as the stranger shivered in his arms.

“No fucking duh!” Milo snapped, looking at him with wide eyes and watched him recoil. “Hospital! This dude nearly fucking drowned so step the fuck on it!”

He closed his lips and turned forward, driving away from the beach.

Milo sighed, feeling the tremors of both his body’s and the stranger. The person was lucky he knew some CPR, letting him get rid of the water that got into their throat.

His legs shook up and down, trying to calm both his worry and his freezing skin. He was wet, cold and seeing a taxi bill in his future, one he couldn't afford. He didn't even have a phone to call the ambulance.

“No.” Milo looked down at the hunched over body of the person he saved, eyebrows furrowed when the dude sat up and spoke with trembling words.

“N-no hospital,” they said, voice barely a whisper. “I-I’m fine.”

“Like hell you are!” Milo yelled, the cold taking over his body not helping with his irritability.

“T-t-take me t-to Augustus Village apartment,” they said, able to talk without trembling and spoke louder, moving forward in their sit to look at the driver.

“Look I don't know what's going on,” the taxi driver said, turning a corner and entering the busiest part of Crestone City, “but if you really were drowning then the hospital is the best place for you, kid.”

Milo nodded at that, wrapping his arms around himself and hoping they got there soon. He wasn't sure but he could have taken a guess that his lips were probably blue by now.

“We've got n-no money on us t-to pay for this trip. All m-my money is b-back up in th-the apartment by the uni.”

Almost like magic, the taxi did a sharp turn and they were on the other side of the road, headed back to the beach.

“Are you fucking kidding me? They could die!” Milo yelled, gawking at the driver that continued on, not even hesitating.

“Well so would my kids that only have me to buy them their meals,” the taxi driver said, voice heavy and shoulders dropped. “Can call an ambulance for you but doubt that'd do much if you're still gonna just be waiting.”

“Extra i-i-if you don't call th-them!” The stranger said, slumping running their palms together. “Fuck it's cold.”

“Deal.”

Milo slumped in his seat, folded arms in front of his chest and hands under his pits.

He was dumbfounded, unable to say anything more. He didn't know what else to say and he was worried they would both die from hypothermia all because the stranger was adamant about not going to the hospital and a driver that cared more about money than them dying.

Seeing how money had become more valuable to someone than a life made him want to curl in a ball and cry, even if it wasn't anything he hadn't seen before.