Don't Let Me Go

Chapter 15

Lucas continued to stay by Max's side as long as he was allowed to. The doctors came after about 30 minutes of Lucas being with Max. They were checking her IV and making sure she didn't have a fever or anything like that. After they did their routine checks, they told the teen and the two adults that they needed to leave. 

"What? You mean I can't stay with her?" Lucas asked one of the doctors. He was about to speak when he looked at Max's heart rate monitor and saw that it had spiked significantly and that she was now hyperventilating. Lucas saw, too. "Hey it's gonna be ok. You're gonna be ok. I know you hate being by yourself, especially at night but I will be here first thing in the morning, and I will stay until they have to drag me out." Lucas reassured her.

The two doctors looked at each other. With Lucas's reassuring words, Max's heart rate had gone down to normal, and she was breathing normally as well. But when Lucas went to walk out of Max's room, she went back to how she was before. "Hey, kid, wait!" one of the doctors shouted.

Lucas turned around. The doctor sighed a sigh of annoyance and disbelief. "Can't believe I'm gonna say this but, I guess you guys can stay the night. The girl's heart is going crazy now that you're not in there." he said. Lucas had a huge grin on his face. "Really?" he said, excitedly. "Yes kid. Really."

Lucas ran back into Max's room and her heart calmed down again. "What are you doing?" she asked. "I'm staying the night." Lucas replied proudly. Max's eyes widened in excitement. "No way." she said. Lucas just nodded.

Joyce decided she would be the one to stay with Lucas so Murray could go home. She would just call Murray when it was time to go home. The doctors said as soon as Max could keep food and water down, she could go. But she needed to be hydrated. 

A few minutes later a nurse walked in with two sets of blankets and a cot. Lucas said he would sleep on some chairs so Joyce could have the cot, but Joyce refused. She insisted Lucas take it instead. After a few minutes of arguing, Lucas gave in and slept on the cot.

He put it as close to Max's bed as he could get it and he held her hand as she fell asleep. He made sure she was asleep before he went to sleep. The hospital was cold, so Lucas had draped his zip up sweatshirt over Max to keep her warm. 

The next morning, the doctors came in at 6 am to check on Max. At 8 am, they came in with breakfast and water for her. She had to keep it down for 45 minutes in order for her to be able to be discharged. Max at slowly at first, then started devouring the bland hospital food. Lucas had to make her slow down. There was a nurse in there to stay for the next while to make sure Max didn't puke.

The 45 minutes passed by fairly quickly. The four of them, Joyce, Lucas, Max, and the nurse whose name was Suzie (yes Max and Lucas did laugh about it), made good conversation to make the time pass. And before they knew it, Suzie was handing Joyce discharge papers to sign and then she was calling Murray.

Max put her own clothes back on, and she was wheeled down the hallway in a wheelchair and taken out to Murray's car at around 9:37 am. The 3 of them got in and all fell asleep immediately. They hadn't gotten much sleep the previous night. Max and Lucas had stayed up till 11 at night and then Max woke up at 1 am. They didn't get to sleep until around 3:45 that morning. Which means they only got two hours and fifteen minutes of sleep. They were exhausted.

Murray had coffee at his house, but Max and Lucas politely declined and instead went to their bedroom to sleep. They slept that whole day basically. Joyce would come in every now and then with water for Max to drink. As soon as Max finished the water she would go back to sleep. 

The doctors never found anything and assumed it must have been a stomach bug or food poisoning. Lucas was praying he didn't get sick. Joyce let them sleep until about 5:30 when she came and woke them up and told them to get ready. They were going to go out to dinner tonight.

Lucas put on a nicer t-shirt he had brough with him and some shorts. Lucas put on some cologne and called it good. I mean, he couldn't really do much else except for that to make himself look fancier than normal with the stuff he had with him.

Max had gone to take a shower and when she got out, she dried her hair in a way she had learned would make her hair wavy. She had brought some jeans with her, so she decided to wear those. She also brought a cute little white blouse that her mom had bought her a while ago, back when Neil still lived with them, and Billy was still alive. But Max hadn't grown much since the start of the summer of '85, which is when her mom took her shopping for some nicer, less tomboyish clothes.

Max walked back into the bedroom to grab her perfume and Lucas's jaw dropped. It was the fanciest he had seen her since the Snowball. She always looked good but god did she look gorgeous right now.

"You're staring, Stalker." Max said as she put on some perfume. "Sorry it's just you look so... you look gorgeous Max." he said. "Dude I'm literally in a shirt and jeans. How can I look that good?" Max said. Lucas just walked up to her and kissed her forehead. "Because you just do." he said.

"You kids look nice!" Joyce said. "Thank you." Max said. "Ok you guys ready to go?" Murray asked. "Yep, let's go kiddos." Joyce said. "We are going to a nice Italian restaurant. It's called Enzo's." Joyce said. She smiled wide.

"They have Enzo's here?" Max said excitedly. Max's mom and Neil would sometimes pick up Enzo's for Max and Billy when they stayed out a little too late and they didn't have time to cook dinner. Even though Neil was an asshole, that was one of her favorite things Neil would do.

"I was so shocked when Murray told me they had it here! It's such a good place!" Joyce said. "Ok guys come on we need to go. It's a 45-minute drive without traffic. And there is always traffic. So, chop chop let's go!" Murray yelled. "Ok jeez let's go I guess." Lucas said. So, they all piled into Murray's car and went on their way to Enzo's for a lovely dinner.