Playdate with Fate (A Chris & Keith AU)

Not a Nightmare

During lunch time, Eugene and Keith sat together at the table they sat on earlier at the cafeteria.

While Keith was scrolling through Facebook on his phone, he stumbled upon a post from someone related to Chris. Keith thought to himself, "This either might be his mom or some female relative. But wait, Chris is called her 'dear son' here."

Keith proceeded to read the post from Chris' mother.

She said:

"Dearest family and friends,

My dear son, Chris, just turned 19 last month. Two weeks ago, as we were hearing Mass, he started coughing, that eventually turned to a fever. Though his fever was intermittent, his coughing persisted as days followed. He also complained of chest pain, sore throat, severe headache and pain on the nape. Last night, at around 8:00 pm, he was unresponsive. He didn't say a word.

We rushed him to the nearest hospital, and was immediately admitted. Blood samples were taken from Chris, as well as a chest X-ray, and an ECG. Upon checking his blood pressure, its initial readings were 160/90 and 150/80, and hasn't left this range since. His oxygen levels also dropped down to 87 to 88. As of this post, Chris still needs to have a cranial CT scan.

Now, we're waiting the results of the lab tests done on him.

Chris is a tough kid, I know. He's fighting for his life. While the rest of us from his family wait for every result of the lab tests done on him, I'll do everything I could to see him awaken. It's heartbreaking seeing him suffer like this.

My family and I humbly ask you to help us with getting Chris to fight as hard as he could. Whenever you could, please pray that Chris recovers from this situation. I'm now also knocking on your kind hearts to help us defray the cost of his medical expenses. Chris has only been admitted here for a couple of hours, but the running bill has already reached at around $60 000.

You may donate through this GoFundMe page that I've set up.

Thank you all so much in advance for your kindness."

Keith felt shocked.

All of a sudden, Eugene got startled as Keith dropped his phone against the table. He exclaimed, "Jesus fucking Christ, Keith! Are you alright?" Keith stopped eating and suddenly started crying. Because Eugene felt confused, he took Keith's phone.

Upon reading the post published by Chris' mother on Facebook, he gasped.

Eugene sat beside Keith and rubbed his back to calm him down. He then said softly, "It's all gonna be alright, Keith. You've seen how Chris pulls through even though he's sick." Keith hugged Eugene and continued crying on his shirt.

Keith stopped crying as he heard a ding from his phone.

He pulled away from the hug and saw that Ashly chatted him on Messenger. He wiped his tears while grabbing his phone and thought, "What could Ashly want now? This better be important." He clicked on the chat head shortly after that.

Ashly asked Keith if he saw the post that Chris' mother put out, to which he replied that he did see it already.

A few moments later, Steve looked for Eugene at the cafeteria. When he found him, he noticed that he was sitting beside Keith, so he sat at a chair opposite to Keith. Then, Steve brought his hand out in front of Keith and said, "Hey there. Chris has been talking to me about you before, if I remember correctly. I'm Steve." Keith shook Steve's hand and replied, "Nice to meet you. My name's Keith."

Steve felt confused as to why Keith looked teary-eyed.

So, he asked, "Are you OK, Keith? What's going on?" Keith gave his phone to Steve for a while, which was still on Facebook where Chris' mother posted about what happened to him. Steve's eyes widened and thought, "Oh, my God. Not Chris."

Steve gave Keith back his phone shortly after.

Then, he asked further, "When was this posted?" Keith cleared his throat and replied, "Just about an hour ago." Eugene then blurted out, "No wonder Chris seems like he's less energetic these past days. He was trying to hide his pain."

Eugene, Keith, and Steve started talking about when they would like to visit Chris at the hospital where his mother said that he was admitted to.

Afterwards, Keith grabbed his phone again and opened Messenger. He thought to himself, "Well, if Eugene, Steve, and I all agree to visit him at the hospital within this week, I think it'd be a good idea if Ashly tagged along, too. She is his best friend."

So, Keith sent Ashly a message about his plans to visit Chris.

He told her:

"hey, queen; two of Chris' friends from UCLA and I are coming to visit him at that hospital he was admitted to, and I just wanna ask if you wanna tag along this week? if you've got other plans ahead, it's totally understandable"

Immediately after sending the message, the bell rang.

So, Keith stood up and said, "I've got to go now, you guys. My professor might kill me if I come late." Eugene and Steve chuckled softly and said, "Sure, go ahead. We'll get going, too." Before Keith left, he told Steve, "You seem really nice, Steve."

Keith winked at Steve afterwards.

Once Keith started walking to his next class, Eugene said softly, "Classic Keith." Steve got curious while standing up and asked, "You two know each other?" Eugene stood up as well and said, "Of course, sweetie. Before he moved here to California, I was his next-door neighbor. He was actually the reason for Chris and I to meet before I started studying here." Steve blurted out, "That's so cool."

Eugene nodded and started walking to his next class with Steve.

In the middle of Keith's class that day, at about 3:30 pm, his professor went to the washroom for a while to pee. While Keith's professor was not inside the classroom, he grabbed his phone, sat on one corner of the room, and opened Facebook again.

All of a sudden, he stumbled upon another post from another person that Keith presumed to be another one of Chris' relatives.

The post said:

"Hello, my dearest friends.

As you may or may not know, my nephew, Chris, is currently admitted at the hospital. The doctor told those watching over him (including me) a couple of minutes ago that his severe headache was due to internal bleeding in his brain.

Now, Chris has to undergo another CT scan so our family could collectively assess whether he would be treated through medication or if he needs to go under the knife to drain the blood currently leaking throughout his brain.

We'll need prayers to help him fight through this. And like his mother, I, too, would like to knock on your kind hearts to defray his medical expenses by donating to the GoFundMe page for my nephew. Thank you all so much."

As Keith's professor came back to the classroom, he stood up and slowly walked up to where he was sitting.

While walking towards his seat, Keith's left hand was on his chest. His professor noticed this, so they asked Keith, "Is everything alright, Mr. Habersberger?" All of a sudden, Keith started breathing quickly, which concerned everyone in the class.

Before he reached his seat, Keith suddenly fainted.

To be continued in the Last Part...