The Touched And Untouched {Lumax} COMPLETED

You're Insane

Things were very quiet in the waiting room. The kind of quiet that comes at Thanksgiving when there's a big secret to be shared, but no one really want to own it.

Sue sat with her legs crossed, pretending to care about an out of date magazine. Erica sat by her mother, pretending to only care about whatever was on her phone screen. Lukas sat next to Max, but didn't touch her. He leaned in and put a hand on her leg, but she tensed and subtly brushed him off.

Lukas kept looking over at Erica, wondering if she was going to drop a bomb on him or not. Because Erica does not freak out, so whatever she heard, must've been bomb level crazy.

"Hey, I've got to go to the bathroom." Max finally spoke to Lukas and tapped his leg to get his attention.

"Want me to go with you?" Lukas asked nervously, because he wanted Max close to him. Like how a mother wants to keep a troublesome child close in a supermarket. But instead of stopping Max from grabbing a bag of candy, he wanted to stop her from– whatever it was she did.

"Uh, no?" Max gave him that classic look she does when she thinks he's a dumb little boy again. "I'll be back." She walked off and disappeared into the bathroom.

"I just can't believe this happened. I mean...a baby can't stop breathing for no reason?" Sue said out loud, but she was too easy minded to be suggesting anything inhumane had happened.

"Sylvie is high risk for SIDS...so, I guess I kind of had myself prepared for this." Lukas was speaking to himself, because he needed to be reminded that it was probably a natural occurrence. But why would Erica be so upset? What could she of heard?

"God bless that poor baby girl..." Sue shook her head and put aside her magazine. She seemed to be sad, but not sick like Lukas. She must not have been entertaining the theory that Max might've done something wrong.

"Erica, can you..." Lukas stood up. "Come with me for a walk? I'm stressed."

Erica, who would've naturally rolled her eyes and called him an oversized baby, stood up. She really did want to own the secret, but she didn't want it to be anything other than her misunderstanding.

Erica and Lukas found a quiet place down a hall, next to a vending machine. Lukas pretended to really care about the snacks it had to offer, even though he didn't think he'd every have the appetite to eat again. "Erica...did something happen? Did you hear anything? Anything–"

"I don't want to cause problems–"

"You have to tell me–"

"I'm going to." Erica was suddenly intrigued by the floor tiles. "But look, I just...maybe I'm confused or something."

"Erica, I'm dying here."

She leaned on the wall. "Max was on the phone."

"If it ends here, you're crazy." Lukas knew it didn't end there.

"I don't know who she was on the phone with, but she was panicking. I guess she didn't realize I was in the next room, and she was plenty loud enough for me to hear. She was saying something about the baby choking and not being able to breathe. I thought she was maybe on the phone with 911...I was alert, but waiting in my room. I didn't want to interrupt her call, and frankly, don't want to see a dying baby. Then, nm..." There was hesitation. "She told the person she was going to wait it out. And I was confused what she meant until she said something like, 'Can I go to jail for this?' It's um...I think she was going to let Sylvie die."

Lukas was no longer looking at the vending machine. Or anything else. His vision blurred with tears. Tears from the pain in his chest. "N-no..."

"No? What the hell do you want me to do? Tell you it was all a joke?!" Erica huffed and walked back towards the waiting area.

Lukas walked by the bathrooms to see one was occupied. He figured there was a good enough chance it was occupied by Max. He stood outside of it, and waited. A painful few minutes later, the door swung open. Lukas pushed Max back in, not aggressively. More or less guiding her back in. He locked the door and hoped no one saw. It was a large gender neutral bathroom. Anyone seen going in together, was going to be topic of a sex scandal.

"What?" Max didn't sound too confused. Like she figured this might happen. She didn't know Erica heard, but she assumed karma existed.

"We need to talk." Lukas sounded venomous, but like a little snake you'd like to boop on the top of the head. He was angry, he wanted Max to explain and then he wanted to yell at her. But he still loved her, and his anger wasn't formed in a malicious mind. "What the hell happened with Sylvie?"

"What are you talking about?" Max crossed her arms nervously across her chest.

"Why didn't you come tell us? Why didn't you call 911?" Lukas wasn't yelling, but he was being loud to prove how upset he was. "Did you just want her to die or something?!"

"What?!" Max could only say 'what?' Because she felt any statements she made might ruin the way Lukas sees her.

"Max." For once Lukas spoke her name like it was a threat and not a beautiful word in a poem. "What happened? Were you going to let her die?"

Max stayed quiet for too long. She knew after her silence, she wouldn't be able to say a lie that sounded right. So, she confessed. "I...I tried to help her myself. But, if I couldn't...If I couldn't save her, I wasn't going to...call anyone."

"Max..." Lukas threatened her with her name again. "Are you insane?! You can't just do that! You're acting like the baby was just some bird that hit our window!"

"What makes a human more important than a bird?" Max said in hopes a progressive comment might make him stop to think.

"What happened to you?" Lukas asked, the question was also a threat.

Max held her breath before exhaling out her tears. "I'm sorry...I don't know why I was going to do that."

Lukas turned and left the bathroom. He just didn't know if he could let himself comfort Max. After what she was thinking, maybe she deserved to cry alone in the bathroom.