Breaking Habits: Redemptions

Chapter 6: Confessions

Lucas just looks aimlessly ahead of him while he sits at the table, the TV still playing on the channel that he turned on but paying absolutely no mind to. His head pounds, his eyes are sore from the constant rubbing he has done with them, knowing they are red from both irritation and his own tears.

He doesn't even remember when the last time was that he cried that hard, probably when he finally got out of coma. He hasn't realized how much he bottled stuff up, because as hard as it was to relive the situation again by telling Max he feels this sense of relief wash over him after telling her, but he still fears the unknown.

But right now he doesn't show any emotion, his face hurts to much too. He only just looks aimlessly ahead of him while he sits leaned back in the chair, his arms around himself in a hugging manner while his legs are spread out, the microwave dinner in front of him already cold from the long amount of hours that he was crying.

With her.

Max opens the door to the hotel room while holding a bag, softly closing the door behind her. She goes to sit across from him, taking out the burgers and the fries, putting a burger and fries in front of him, putting the microwave dinner to the side. She gives some packets of ketchup in front of him as well, her having her burger and fries in front of her, her looking up at Lucas, seeing him still look aimlessly ahead of him.

"You still have to eat Lucas." Max tells him softly. "It doesn't have to be all of it but...you don't want to starve yourself."

Lucas eyes turn to her, him going to look back at his food before he opens the wrapper of the burger, him taking a bite out of it. As soon as he does he begins to chow down on the burger, him putting the ketchup on the fries and beginning to eat it too.

Max looks at Lucas while she chews lightly on her burger, watching Lucas eat. "How much do you eat a day Lucas?"

Lucas looks up at Max a little, him still chewing. "Once."

Max sighs a little. "That's not good Lucas."

Lucas looks down a little, him chewing slowly. "I know."

"Don't...punish yourself Lucas." Max tells him. "You've already been through so much you....you don't want to put more on yourself. You need to maintain a good amount of food in a day and exercise...which I already know you do."

Lucas closes his eyes slowly a little bit, him going to eat the rest of his burger and fries. He decides that this is it, since she finally knows the main part of everything he had to suffer he will slowly begin to open up to her, about things he can for the moment.

"It was eight months." Lucas admits. "Eight months three days and six hours that....I was trapped."

Max nods a little. "When...you were in coma?"

Lucas nods. "Yeah." He admits. "I counted the seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, and months like clockwork, it's not like I had anything else to do anyways."

"Can I ask you a question?" Max says. Lucas nods his head. "Why did you still talk to Jason....after what he did to Erica?"

Lucas clenches his jaw a little, him swallowing. "He apologized for what he did. After finding out Eddie wasn't the killer, and the men that made us sign those dumb contracts pinned it on someone else...he apologized to us. Me, Mike, Dustin...and Erica too." Lucas says. "I'm not condoning what he did to my sister but...he lost his girlfriend that he loved and he was desperate to avenge her, he thought he was doing things right, he was being loyal towards her."

"I could get that in a way but don't you maybe think...that's why you and Erica have so much....tension?" Max questions.

"Maybe." Lucas responds. "But we've always argued."