Flowers from a lover [rewrite]

14.0

It was 7:58 PM, and the phone was ringing. Lucas had awoken from his nap (that had gone on a bit longer than he initially planned) and ran to pick up. "Leo!" He exclaimed, a little too enthusiastic than he normally would greet. He had almost knocked the phone over because he had tugged on the cord a little too much. There was a small scuffling before Leo responded, "Hello, Lucas." He sat down, "I'm sorry I didn't call yesterday, or if you got worried. Daniel just went through this horrible breakup with his girlfriend of two years, and I was over at his place trying to soothe his troubles."

Lucas had never known what it was like to have his heart broken, mostly because he's never had someone to break it. He fidgeted with the phone cord and pulled the small table with the phone closer to him, "How is he holding up?" He asked, "I know romantic pain can have quite lasting effects." Leo sniggered a little, which confused Lucas as to what he found funny, "'Quite lasting effects'" Leo mimicked in a horrible impression of a British accent, "I like that. Anyway he's not in the best place right now but he's a tough guy, he'll get out of it soon. The girl was a big jerk anyway." Lucas had seen his old roommate Max go through a breakup once before. He had been a rightful mess and hadn't eaten or slept well for weeks. He saw the cost of love if it didn't work out, it could change even the strongest and happiest of people. Of course Lucas didn't get why it affected him so badly, or why it was something ever worth crying over.

- - -

Max had took the hat off his head and collapsed on the gray, tattered sofa. He threw the hat across the room and dug his hands forcefully into his hair. "She made me a promise, you know. She made so many promises and I was the one who was weary of them but you know what? I promised anyway." He turned to look at Lucas, who's eyes were like lasers on his crumbling friend, "She made me promise and she goes ahead and becomes the one to break them. Why make promises you can't keep? It's bull." Lucas was a bit scared to approach him in such a fragile state, but he picked up his cat Luca off the sofa and onto the floor, and sat down next to Max. "I-" He tried to begin, "I'm sorry, but I don't understand how you can be so angry at her for that but still love her at the same time. I'd expect you to be more cautious of feeling anything for her again."

"You don't understand, Lucas," Max sniffled and made to wipe his nose with his jacket, but Lucas quickly leaned over to grab a tissue from the box in the center of the table in front of them, "Thank you." He said as he took the tissue from Lucas, "Being mad at someone you love is almost always never enough for you to stop loving them. You can't spend so much of your time building a home for someone in your heart just to evict them all in ten seconds." Lucas nodded but still couldn't bring himself to understand, "If I were you, I'd have just tried to forget about her." "That doesn't happen right away." Max explained, "It takes time. Trust me Lucas, one day you'll realize just how much of a villain time can be." "What do you mean?"

"You can only go so long without having been hurt by love. When you're older and you experience it all for the first time, you get hurt more. You're not used to it, you don't know what to do, and you don't know who to blame. Everyone is going to tell you that time heals all wounds but in your head you're just thinking, 'all time does is throw salt on them', you feel all these things more because you've never been hurt before, and you'll come to get angry at the person who did it to you because they're the first to have done so." Max tried his best to let out while tears still fell down his face. Lucas felt horrible. He was supposed to be the supportive friend, and Max was the one helping him as if he was the one who just got heartbroken. Lucas promised himself to remember Max's words. To be prepared. He would prove that all you need to do to let the pain subside was to forget about it. Time did heal all wounds, but he wouldn't let anything wound him.

- - -

"Lucas? Did you hang up?" Leo had broken through his wall of thoughts, and he immediately shook his head. "No I'm here." He responded, letting a heavy breath he held in his chest come out. "I hope Daniel realizes she was a jerk and moves on." Leo agreed with a chuckle, "So do I, Lucas." He pulled open the curtains to let in the shine of the streetlights onto his bedroom floor, "Did you work yesterday when I didn't call? Were you worried?" "I didn't really worry," Lucas said, not very truthfully, "well I did, but I know you have a life and you can't spend every night on the phone with someone from the future." "Well when you put it like that," Leo chortled, "I quite enjoy talking to you. I'd happily spend every night on the phone with someone from the future."