Faulty---> mgc

dix-huit

"-and this stupid Matt guy, goddamn it, why can't he just leave?" I whine, bringing my knees up to my chest and digging my heels into the--now familiar--plastic chair in the waiting room. Luke sighs sadly and rubs the side of his nose.

"Yeah, I know how you feel. My family, who know hate me as you know, keep coming to visit him and it always seems to be when I am there in his room!" He slaps his hands over his eyes and breathes deeply, "They try to start up a fight in the fucking room. He is a dying man in his bed, can't do anything, and they think it's smart to start up a fight while he's laying in his fucking hospital bed." Luke shakes his head.

With nothing else to reply with, I shake my head with him.

"You know," Luke speaks up again, "I haven't been home in three days. I've just realized this."

"You should probably go home."

"But I feel guilty once I get home."

I narrow my eyes at him and ask, "Are you...are you trying to share his pain?"

He shrugs his shoulders, but I can tell he knows.

"Luke, just because he is in pain and he can't go home, doesn't mean you shouldn't either. Take a break for a day-" I try to continue, but I am cut off.

"What about you and Jade?! Huh?!" he snaps, sitting forward to get closer when other people stare over at us and whispers, "If the same thing was happening to her, she's on her last month of living and you care about her oh so much, you would be here twenty-four-seven. On second thought, you are! When have you gone home this past week, Michael?"

I stay silent and look down, remembering that I actually have been.

"Exactly." Luke sits up straight and looks at me, his eyes softening a little bit. "How about we keep each other company and get ourselves out of hospital?" He smiles a little bit, but it quickly disappears as he sneezes the second after. "The disinfectant is really getting to me."

I scoff at his statement, but smile afterward and we stand up and leave.

___________

"So, this Matt guy," Luke says as we sit down after we get our coffee, "what exactly is he doing that annoys you so much?"

"I-" I start speaking, but try and think of what he actually has been doing. I see Luke's smirk growing and widening as time ticks on. "Shut up, Luke!"

"I haven't said anything."

I sink down in my seat and pout, Luke just laughs at me.

"So, by your silence, you're basically telling me he has done absolutely nothing, but you hate him?" Luke asks, sounding sincere but is actually teasing me. And I, since I've sat in the waiting room area and talked to him for so long, know what he is doing.

"Pft," I blow through my teeth before answering quietly, "Yeah."

Luke just grins as wide as the Cheshire Cat and rubs his hands together. For the second time today, I narrow my eyes at him as he picks up his coffee and takes a sip of it.

"What?"

"Dude, you love her so much and you don't even see it."

I suddenly sit up straight in my chair and throw my hands in the air, "Why does everyone say that? I only love her in a friendly way!"

"Everyone says it because it's true. Just think about it: You get jealous over a guy that spends time with her, when she fainted you ran like lightning to the hospital, and you took her in your house even though you didn't know her. It's basically love at first sight." Luke gestures wildly throughout his speech as I sit across from him.

I circle my finger around the lid of my cup and I mumble, "I just care for her a lot, okay?"

Luke looks at me like I was a kicked puppy or something and sighs. "Please, just think about it. Think about what you've done for her and how you feel. You'll see it sometime. Hopefully in the next few minutes." He shrugs his shoulders before continuing, "I'll leave you to it," and tilts back in his chair.

What has been so evident that shows that I love her so much? Calix has said that I've stared at her, but I thought he was just being a little shit. I do treat her like a girlfriend a bit, with all of the hugging and kissing, but I usually do that out of fondness. And there is also the list of things Luke said.

Oh.

Maybe I do.

"Yeah, you do, stupid." Luke laughs lightly and shakes his head.

"Did I say that out loud?"

"You've been mumbling to yourself this whole time."

Out of nervousness, I scratch the back of my neck and look at Luke.

Luke raises his eyebrows, "Have you come to your senses yet?"

"I think-I don't know."

"Oh my fucking god, Michael." He stand up and stands right in front of me. I raise my eyebrows like he did just a couple seconds before, waiting for his next move. Apparently, that was whacking me in the back of the head.

"Ow!" I rub my scalp and scowl back up at him. Luke gets to his knees and takes my shoulders and starts shaking me as he talks.

"Repeat what you just said to yourself aloud," his words are broken up from him shaking me, which rocks his own body back and forth. He stops and waits for me to talk. I sigh.

"Calix says I stare at her a lot, I hug her and kiss her cheek and hand out of fondness, and everything you said." Everything was starting to click.

"Which was?"

"I took her in when she had no where to go, when she fainted I ran to the hospital with her in my arms, and I get jealous over a guy that hangs out with her."

My eyes widen in realization of what I just said and look at Luke's blue eyes, and he nods crazily, repeating 'yes' over and over again.

"Oh."

"Yeah. 'Oh'."

_____________

Luke ships it