Serendipity.

10

Matt's phone ringed at 2 am, Marc's name appearing on the screen.

Max was doing better: She was hard-headed, but sometimes she gave in to eat, just for Matt to stop worrying. She started to sleep more, and to spend more time with Matt was helping her a lot more that they could've anticipated. Until the call.

"Matt?"

"Hey, are you okay?" His voice was full of sleep.

"Matt, Max is at the hospital."

His whole world stopped. "What?" He got out of bed at an inhuman speed, found shoes and left his house.

"I came to pick Aaron up and she was here. She's beaten up Matt, but she's not talking to any of us."

"I'm on my way."

He wasn't aware of the road, or the speed he was driving at. His mind was racing, his heart felt like it could stop at any moment. The desesperation was consuming him from the inside, tears threatening to blurr the street.

When he arrived, Marc's boyfriend was already waiting for him at the emergency wing entrance, glimpses of tiredness and awful worry alarming Matt even more.

"Aaron, what the hell happened?"

"Matt, she can't be alone. The bruises are ridiculously big, she's fainted three times already, she vomits everything she drinks and she refuses to talk to anyone." Aaron guided him through the cold hallways, leading their way to Max's room. "Room 505. Marc's with her now."

"How did she get here?" Matt was at the edge of freaking out, his hole body trembling with something that could be identified as pure and painful fear.

"It seems like someone gave her a ride. Matt, I'm not the one supposed to say this to you, but it was definitely not an accident." Aaron opened the door of her room, letting Matt burst into the small space.

"Max." Matt's whisper came strangled, rage starting to bloom on his chest.
She was laying on the hospital bed, an IV on her arm to keep her from dehydration. Her skin was horribly pale, her arms were marked with bruises that looked alarmly like fingers. Matt was beside her in a second, and carefully bringed both his hands to cup her face, catching her opaque eyes. Her cheek was tinted a dark blue shade, and her lower lip was splitted. Her hair was dark brown. "Love, who did this to you?"

She struggled to meet his eyes, besides breathing and handling the excruciating pain she was feeling on her hole body. The faint click of the door indicating that Marc left the room made her realize that they were alone, and a sudden burst of dread broke into her: she couldn't hide it anymore.

"It was my mom."

Matt's world crumbled with those four words. "What do you mean?"

"I visited my mom and she didn't like my hair." Max started crying, squeezing her eyes shut just to not look at Matt's concerned eyes. "She said that my hair would look prettier if I colored it like my natural hair color again, so that's what she did. She told me that she loved me a lot and that she was hurt because I wasn't good enough, and then she told me that I could do better and that I'm not what I used to be. I tried to confront her and tell her how much it fucking hurt to be so lost on myself because I don't know how to live without anxiety because of being so scared to fail to her and then... And then..." Her sobs shocked her hole body, making it imposible to continue.

Matt hold her so close to him to the near point of fusing them, stroking her now dark hair. His heart was beating stronger than before, the need of holding her pieces together burning in his chest.

"It's my mom, Matt," She said, her voice completely wrecked.

"Shh, just rest a little bit, okay? We don't have to talk about it right now." Matt swallowed one, two, three times in an attempt of getting rid of the knot on his throat. Her shattered figure fell limp on him, careful of not touching the multiple bruises staining her skin.

"Please don't go," Max begged, grabbing his shirt for dear life.

"I'll stay. Fuck, I'll stay forever."