I was back in the hospital. Lucas was kneeling next to me, my blindfold in his hand. I felt like screaming at him for bringing me back, but something stopped me. Lucas looked scared, like he had just seen his worst fear.
"What's... Wrong?" I tried to ask in a kind way, but I had exhausted myself too much for that.
"I- I was scared, you were shaking like how Max did when she... you know... And I-"
"And you thought I was cursed too." Lucas nodded, gesturing towards a small pile of cassette tapes. He must have taken the blindfold off to put headphones on me. I didn't think he cared that much. No time to think about that. "I found her."
"What?"
"Max. I found her." Lucas' eyes lit up as I said that. He smiled genuinely for the first time in months and hugged me. I hadn't ever had this much affection given to me in one day. It was overwhelming. I started to feel dizzy and tried to balance myself on Max's bed (they are standing now, there just wasn't a spot to fit it in). Lucas noticed immediately and pulled a chocolate bar out of his pocket.
"Here. I knew you'd be exhausted," I took the chocolate bar and ate it in under 10 seconds. After I steadied myself, Lucas started asking a bunch of questions about my visit with Max. I told him most of what we talked about, and could visibly see the joy come back into his eyes. While we were talking, I happened to glance at the clock on the wall.
"Shit!" I can't believe it didn't check earlier! "Lucas, I'm so sorry, but I have to go see Susan." I waved Lucas a quick goodbye and sprinted full speed to the Mayfield house.
"Sorry I'm late, Susan. I really didn't mean to be," I wanted to wait to explain that I had found her daughter until she was sitting down.
"It's alright, Jane! You've been such a big help, I think you deserve some free time!" Susan was so much different from when I first met her. She was always drunk, or high, or doing something else to forget about her life. Then Max wrote that letter to her and it flipped a switch. She started trying to fix the things that she had done to let her daughter get hurt.
-Time Skip, again-
"So, how are you? How was school?" Susan had asked me to come over early today, but she hadn't told me why. She was acting strange, like she was hiding something.
"I'm alright. School was... Ok," I paused before continuing. "I need to tell you something."
"Can you wait for just a second honey? I have to grab something. Be right back!" I opened my mouth to tell her that no, this couldn't wait, but she had already rushed out of the room. While I waited, I glanced around the room. It seemed like she had managed to stay sober, there wasn't any alcohol nearby. Max's hoodie was hanging on a coat rack by the door right next to Susan's coat. I heard footsteps and turned around to see Susan holding a gift bag and a small cake.
"I wanted to thank you for helping me in the past few months!" She said with a smile.
"But... isn't it too expensive?" I asked, worried that Susan had wasted her money on me.
"It wasn't horrible," That was good, but she didn't need to thank me for caring about her. As if she could read my mind, Susan remarked, "It's the least I could do anyways, you saved my daughter for Christ's sake!"
"... Thank you." I finally said, taking the gift bag from her. Inside was an orange teddy bear, a blue, pink and purple handmade bracelet, and a small book. Opening the book, I realized that it was filled with pictures of Max and I. The photos from the mall, separate pictures of us with Susan, and small sketches of us together that Susan had made.
"Hey, are you ok? Don't cry!" Susan kneeled down, wiping tears from my eyes. "I'm sorry, I thought-" I cut her off.
"They're pretty." I said, sniffing. "Thank you."
"I'm glad you like them. Now what was it you wanted to tell me, sweetie?"
"I found Max."
Author's Note- I hope you liked this! I'm not great with dialogue, so this chapter is a bit of a downgrade from the last one. How do you like Susan so far? I really appreciate feedback and/or critiques of my writing, so feel free to comment if you want something specific to change! See you (hopefully) tomorrow!
