Dying and Everything in between

2| The Snickers and KitKat Debacle

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Lucas didn't like promises. He didn't like keeping them either.

After making sure Laura had left, he started roaming the empty halls, doing everything to avoid that damned meeting room because it was hurting his already fragile ego.

Lucas knew Laura meant well. He knew she wouldn't do anything that could be bad for him. He, however, hated the idea of that program. And as he took in the boring appearance of the hallway, he realized there wasn't much to do there except walk and hope not to get caught by any adult who would snitch about him to his aunt.

Maybe he could manage not to get caught and successfully skip the meeting. He would like to believe in the odds where he was right. Although, at this point, if his terminal illness wasn't going to kill him, his boredom would send him to the path of extinction.

The program was scheduled for an hour, but time liked to drag when there was nothing to do other than walk hopelessly in an empty hallway.

Ten minutes in, Lucas was bored out of his mind and his legs were beginning to get sore. Luckily for him, thirty minutes into his self-imposed exile he found a jackpot: a vending machine.

In mere seconds, he was standing in front of the vending machine, eyeing the variety of snacks present there, his mouth dampening as his stomach gurgled on cue. Luck for once sided with him as he found some spare changes in his pockets when he patted himself down.

But as he inserted one of his coins into the vending machine, the machine beeped back at him angrily.

"What?" He mumbled, brows furrowing as he knocked on the glass a few times trying to get any kind of response. "Excuse me?"

Lucas took a deep breath trying to keep his anger down as he moved closer and inserted another coin, slower this time. He focused hard on his motion to make sure his hand was steady but the machine denied him once more.

"You dumb stupid thing." Lucas knocked the glass of the machine repeatedly. "Why are you not working?"

The only job this machine had was to dispense out cheap candies but by the looks of it, the vending machine must have hated sick people because it seriously wasn't cooperating.

"Work you piece of junky, dogwater-,"

"-you good bro?

As soon as Lucas heard the person's voice, he straightened himself gathered the last bit of his remaining dignity, and looked to his side at the stranger who witnessed his little meltdown.

As much as he wished for a middle-aged worker whom he could easily fool and make a run for it, he was met with the sight of someone his age.

Lucas watched the stranger pull out the ear pods from her ear and place them in her pocket. From the looks of it, she looked like someone with impeccable confidence and didn't mind owning up to it. From her raven hair that fell to her shoulder, fringes framing her face to her simple outfit, everything was neatly put together making Lucas more skeptical of her.

"I'm managing," Lucas said stiffly.

The stranger pursed her lips into a flat line clearly not believing him. With a small smirk, she nudged Lucas out of her way. He merely watched as she got into doing what she had to do.

Somehow with one knock and a shake, the machine dropped four Snickers bars at once.

"I think they got stuck." The stranger said, grinning ear to ear as she handed Lucas his candies. He snatched it from her hesitantly. "Oh, and Snickers is a good choice. Keep it up, bro."

"Oh, you are some wizard who knows what kind of person someone is based on their chocolate taste?" Lucas blurted out the first thing that came to his mind; not bothering to hide the annoyance and anger that laced his tone.

At that, the girl's lips broke out into a lopsided smile, "Well, if you phrase it like that then yes I am a wizard."

"You can tell what kind of person I am based on my favorite chocolate bar?" Lucas asked sarcastically, his face contouring into a deeper frown.

"Sure!" She answered a bit too enthusiastically. "People who like Snickers are lonely souls who seek validation and try to find a silver of happiness in the form of caramel and chew their problems in the form of peanuts. They also hide their feelings like the chocolate outside covering the caramel-ly goodness."

"The hell? What is your favorite chocolate then?"

The girl leaned on the wall taking a moment to think about her answer. "I am more into KitKat."

"Hm, so you are someone with incurable daddy issues who can't make up their mind so they go for the things they can break in half easily which makes up for their impulsivity and inability to make personal meaningful connections consequently making everything gooey and messy."

"Now that's just rude."

"Just sharing my opinion" Lucas shrugged, tucking his candy bars into his pocket.

Right before he could escape back to his self-imposed isolation, the stranger called out to him. "You are Lucas Andrews, right?"

"No, I am a stranger that you should stay away from." He said turning his back on her and starting to walk. "Stranger danger you know?"

"You are supposed to be in the program right?" The stranger merely ignored him and started walking beside him.

"It's none of your business." He scowled, annoyance fueling him to walk faster. "And stop following me."

"Stop power walking man. I just ate I don't feel like walking."

"I don't care," Lucas said turning a corner towards the elevator and taking a break, waiting for the elevator to arrive.

The stranger caught up to him and stood beside him and only then did he realize how creepy this girl was.

"Who are you even?" Lucas asked finding nothing in her appearance that could hint at any illness. She was pale but not the sickly kind of pale and she wasn't wearing any medical bracelets or anything. "Are you even in the program?"

"Yes, I am." She replied. "My brother, Jake organized the program and asked me to make sure you don't get lost on your way here." She explained trying to hide a smile that seemed malicious to Lucas. "and my name's Joy Jones."

"Goodbye, you creepy motherfucker." Lucas said as the elevator door opened, adding an extra bite to his words.

"This won't be the last you see me!" She called out. "I'll make sure of it!"

"I don't like you!" Lucas shot back as the doors were sliding off.

"Well then," Her voice was already sounding distant. "See you soon." What a joke.

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