Lumax - STAY

5

Lucas's POV
I surprisingly managed to doze off. The position I fell asleep in wasn't very comfortable, I sat on the chair while my head lay on Max's bed and my hand still held onto hers. I slept for not even half an hour before I woke up sweaty and confused.

That's what I get for trying to sleep.

"Damn," I groan my voice deep with sleep, and wipe my sweaty hands over my face.

Disgusting. I want a shower.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Max flinch my mind immediately stopped thinking and just focused on Max.

She slowly opened her eyes "Hey, Max? How are you feeling?" she doesn't answer however she does seem much calmer but who knows what's going on inside her head.

"Max? Can you hear me?" I ask her. Her eyes flutter for a moment before nodding.

"Okay, that's great the doctors will be here in a sec. Just hang on." I stroke her cheek to provide any type of comfort. "Lucas" she mumbles out "Yes, yes, it's me. I'm here"

"I- uh" she tries to talk but it's pointless "It's okay"

The door creaked open and two doctors walked in. I recognized Lauren who was the doctor that helped Max earlier, the second doctor was familiar but I couldn't quite place where I had seen him before.

"Hello, sweetheart, how are you feeling?" 

Max looks around the room before her eyes land on Lauren. Her head bobs back, and she flutters her eyes. "Dizzy," she whispers so quietly that I had to lean in closer to hear what she was saying.

"She's struggling with talking" I whispered to one of the doctors so they wouldn't pressure her into talking, and they nodded in response.

"Sweetie this might seem a little difficult or even painful but we need you to try and move" Max nods and takes a deep breath before squeezing my hand "Alright good," the doctor encourages her before grabbing her arm.

"Do you feel my touch?" Lauren, the doctor asks her. Max nods, and the doctors exchange glances, ready to carefully bend her arm.

Max gasps and then gulps in pain. I squeeze her hand tighter to tell her it's okay. The doctors do the same with her other hand and then bent her leg, Max almost threw up from the pain so they let her be "Good sweetie. You are doing an amazing job"

Lauren then shone a light in her eye to see if she was sensitive, and in response, Max quickly shot her eyes closed.

Shortly thereafter, the doctors stood up to leave and said, "We need a parent or a guardian." I bite my bottom lip and nod.

I call Steve, and he immediately answers and asks, "Hey, is everything okay? I should be there soon." His soft voice was full of worry. I didn't want to say anything sensitive since Max was right by me. "Everything is okay, but the doctors need you here."

"I'll be there in a minute," he says, and we exchange goodbyes before hanging up the phone.

I turn my attention back to Max, she is staring at me blankly "How are you feeling? Can I get you anything?" I softly smile at her and she weakly smiles in return.

Wait

My eyes widened. She just smiled. Oh my fucking God.

A big smile formed on my lips, and tears burned my eyes. She smiled.

She fucking smiled. She gave me a smile that I thought I'd never see again.

I'm taken out of my thoughts by Max's cough. "Shhh" I rub her back. I want to kiss the side of her head so badly but I don't know how she'll react "H-How long?" a tear escapes my eye.

"Five months" my voice almost breaks.

When a few tears spill from her eyes, she tries to restrain them but is powerless to do so. "I'm so sorry Max, I'm so sorry" I can't help myself but wrap my arms around her "It-Its fine nah your fault," she says, clearly struggling.

God, she is so pretty even while she's struggling.

She scans the space before pointing to the paintings hanging on the walls. "Oh yeah, those are some paintings that me and the party made for you while you were asleep. The good ones are drawn by Will, he's a really good painter." I remove the paintings off the wall and recline on her bed.

I smile at her as I browse the paintings. She is so pretty.

"Okay, so this one is made by Dustin. It was us when we were trick-or-treating for the first time, do you remember?" she nods weakly but curiously. "Well, I never told you, but we had this silly fight about who's going to win your heart." I chuckle at the memory.

"This one is made by Will. It's really good, he surprised me with this one. Remember that day we tried to prove to you that upside-down is real? Well, we are here." I point in the middle of the photo and say, "We are on the roof of that bus, and everyone else is around us." I smile as I glance down at her.

"Pretty," she whispers, making my heart melt. "How are you feeling? We can take a break if you want to. Get some sleep," I ask her, tightening my grip around her. She shakes her head, and her eyelids drop for a second. "You sure?" She nods, and I give her a skeptical look. I don't want her to waste energy, she's already weak as it is.

"Okay, El painted this one she's quite good at painting too, Will must have taught her. She painted you and her at the mall. Then Mike painted you riding a skateboard, and there's 'zoomer' written along the paper." I grin as I take the one I painted. "This one is my painting, it's really not good but whatever it's us at the snowball dancing to Every Breath You Take."

She flinches, and I watch as she opens her mouth to talk but ends up coughing and gasping. "Hey, take it easy," I say, rubbing her back.

There is also her painting, well it's not really a painting, just a scratch but damn, it means the whole world to me. It's the drawing she made the day she died of us at the movies. I hid it, I'd show it to her eventually, but not right now. I didn't know if she remembered that night, and if she did, I didn't want to remind her of it.

She coughs a bit more before calming down, and I notice she's shivering. "Are you cold?" I asked her, and she shook her head, but I could tell she was lying.

I put her sheets higher and tucked her in, though the sheets were thin.

So I walked over to a table where I kept all the things I brought from home, including her favorite blanket. I snatched the blanket and wrapped her in it.

I watched as she moaned in pain, tears welling up in her eyes. Concerned, I ask "What's wrong?"

"H-Headache," she mumbles. I stroke her cheek and play with her hair. "Try and close your eyes. It will help."

And that's what she did. I watched as she drowsily dozed off.

THE END