Loving Toby (Completed)

Chapter 28

"I'm dying Luna,"

Toby's a meanie, she knew it since the first time that she laid her eyes on him. But no matter how cruel he can be, how could he even think about telling such an ominous word?

"Stop joking, I'm not in the mood to go along with your pranks!"

"I'm not lying Luna,"

"No! Y-you're l-lying!" she snapped, Toby just crossed a line that he shouldn't have, how could he act like this when she spent the last three weeks in despair because of him? Her tears started falling again, but this time, she was too tired to wipe it off of her cheeks.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled loud enough for her to hear, what was he apologizing for? Was it because he rejected her? Or was it the fact that he was lying to her again?

Luna felt suffocated, everything was just too much for her to handle right now. She wanted to run away, far from the person that she was desperately looking for weeks yet her body wouldn't even listen to her as she stands frozen in place while she watches the world crumbled in front of her.

"Luna?" She could hear Toby's calling her name, but Luna couldn't find the strength to utter a word.

"Luna? Are you okay?"

"Nurse! Is someone out there?"

"What happened?" Someone asked but she was already losing consciousness to care, shutting the world out of her as she fell into a slumber, escaping the reality that was Tobias Cooper.

She never thought that waking up with Toby's sleeping peacefully on her side would feel like a dream and a nightmare in between. His cold hands on hers, filling the empty spaces that was all meant for him to hold.

"I'm dying,"

Toby's words playing like a broken record on her ears, breaking the trance that she was in. Looking at his sleeping face scared her for the first time, caressing his pale face with her free hand, wondering if everything was real or was it just another cruel dream that she needed to wake up from. Feeling her hands on his face, Toby opened his eyes with a faint smile on his chapped lips.

"You're awake," he mumbled, rubbing his tired eyes hiding underneath the thick lenses. Luna watches him contentedly, his hands not leaving hers and for now, that's enough to calm the storm in her head.

"Are you okay? The doctor said you collapsed due to shock, I'm sorry," worries written on his face that catches her completely off-guard, she could have had enjoyed such attention from him on a normal day, but not today, not when she can barely wrap her head around everything that's been going on.

"Tell me everything," Toby's body visibly stiffen, "—please," she added hoping that Toby will let her in.  Luna needed to know everything, or she'll go crazy for real this time.

With a heavy sigh and shaking hands, Toby looked at her, holding her captive with eyes full of fear and uncertainty. As much as she hated the vulnerability in it, Luna did not dare to look away. Matching his cold blue eyes that give her chills with her brown ones burning with fire, telling him that she was ready to face his reality. Not realizing how much it will break her.

"I have leukemia Luna,"

A single tear fell from her eyes, hands clasped tightly on her mouth, too afraid to let a word out of it. If someone told her that her weekend accompanying her mother to the hospital will end up breaking her world because Toby just told her that he was dying, her Toby, the only guy who made her fall in love and actually believe the concept of it was fighting a disease that he can't win. She has a long list of movie references about a person having leukemia, and all of them died at the end of the movie; Luna was terrified! Because it's Toby, it's not just some Hollywood actor who died in movies, its real, and reality never felt so cruel until now. 

"W-why?" Luna wanted to scream, she wanted to ask the universe why does it have to him? Why does it have to be her Toby? He just turned eighteen a few months back, he's just eighteen! Why him?

"It runs in our genes. My brother has it too,"

"T-Timmy?"

"No, Thomas our older brother," Luna could see the pain swimming in his eyes, wondering how come no one knew the tragic life of the boy named Tobias Cooper for so long. Regret, shame and self-loathing field her head, she was always with him and yet she failed to notice the pain that he's been hiding from the world.

Toby told her everything, and for the first time in four years, the boy let her in. How he was diagnosed of Myeloid Leukemia when he was eight, how he survived the first time, how things went fine and normal for the years that followed, and how it came back with vengeance, ready to make him suffer again. Luna listened intently, not wanting to miss a single word that left his lips.

Silence reigned between them, not knowing how to comfort each other now after everything that was said and done.

"Does anyone know? I mean does France, Lexus, or Athena knows about it?"

"No one knows. You're the first in Sheldon who knew," Toby mumbled softly, his head leaning on her shoulder for support.

"You know you can use the bed, don't you?" Toby looks tired, it was probably the first time that he talks long enough to wear himself out.

"Just stay still for a while Miss Greene," and so she did, how can she even dare to argue with him after everything? 

"Why didn't you tell anyone Cooper?"

"Because it wouldn't change anything," Luna wanted to argue that he was wrong, but it's not her place to tell him that she understands, because she was not on his shoes to begin with.

"You're making me fall harder for you if you won't stop being clingy Cooper," she muttered playfully with a pout, the boy let a soft laugh but did not dare to let go of her. After everything that happened today the memory of Toby rejecting her like that still hurts.

"Are you still hiding something from me Cooper?" she asked anxiously, Luna couldn't handle another revelation for her sanity. But she couldn't risked not knowing if the boy was hiding something as big as his condition again.

"I do," the boy lift his head away from her shoulder, facing her now with eyes that shines brightly against the ceiling lights.

"What? What is it now?" 

"Silly, I think you'll like this one though,"

"Coop-" Toby pulled her closer, resting his forehead on hers, a sigh of relief flooding his features as he closed his eyes with a contented smile on his lips. Luna could barely think straight with her heart beating loudly inside her chest, wondering if Toby knew just how much she wanted to feel his lips on her on that moment.

How can someone as innocent as him can turn her world upside down in a heartbeat? His words kept her hanging by a thread, pulling her deeper into the abyss that was him. She was his from the moment that they're eyes met for the first time. Luna fell first, but she was too blind to see that after all this time, Toby was falling alongside her.

"Miss Greene, do you know the story of how the boy fell in love with the moon?"