REVIVING ➳ LUCAYA

▹ f o u r

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LUCAS GASPED AS he woke up up from his nightmare. He ran a hand through his hair and looked around to find himself safe and sound. He picked up the glass of water that his mom left for him on his side table. Lucas took a big gulp of water from the glass, setting it back down on the table.

He laid back down and tried to calm down his rapidly beating heart. Lucas didn't feel like going back to sleep now. His nightmares about Maya being gone were coming back. In his nightmare he found Maya on the ground, unmoving, this time, she had no pulse and was really dead.

He hated that nightmare and tried his best not to think about it. Lucas looked up at his ceiling and began thinking. Thinking about everything. Thinking about his life. Thinking about how his life had come to this. Thinking about how Maya's life had come to this. Thinking about how Farkle's life had come to this. Farkle!

He then suddenly remembered Farkle and his drinking problem. Lucas only hoped that the next time he went to his room he wouldn't find beer bottles everywhere. That made him think more, and Lucas went back to his thinking and thinking.

But soon he got tired of thinking. He was tired, but he didn't want to go to sleep. This turned into a problem for Lucas and he found himself trying his best to stay awake.

The tiredness kept coming back to him determined for him to fall asleep. But Lucas didn't want to experience Maya dying in front him, again.

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The next day at school, a tired Lucas walked the halls with the other students who had a good night sleep. He opened his locker and again rubbed his eyes. He drank at least two cups of coffee and the caffeine still had not kicked in. In the end he found that sleep was getting back at him for not showing some care to it.

But unlike Lucas, Farkle did go to sleep. After he drank a bottle or two at 10:00 at night. Farkle walked up to Lucas and hoped he would not smell the alcohol on him. "Hey dude, what's up?"

"The sky." Lucas mumbled and shut his locker. He walked past his best friend and Farkle then noticed the redness in Lucas's eyes. "Did you get any sleep last night?"

Lucas stopped walking and faced Farkle to explain his fear of sleeping last night when he smelled something. Lucas sniffed his nose some more and found that it was coming from Farkle. At first he thought that Farkle had farted, but then when he sniffed his nose again he found out that it was alcohol. His best friend was drinking again.

"Have you been drinking?" He looked at Farkle with a raised eyebrow. Farkle looked away from Lucas's gaze, not wanting to answer.

"Farkle, if your drinking again you can tell me-"

"No I can't you idiot!" Farkle interrupted him, "Because all your gonna do is show me some rehab places where they fix people up like me to be like you. The perfect, popular, Texan boy. You wouldn't understand Lucas. You wouldn't even understand at all what I went through when Riley die."

Farkle took a step closer to Lucas, "Because unlike you, I actually loved her. I loved Riley and I always will. She was the best thing to ever happen in your life and you just threw that away." Farkle walked away leaving Lucas in shock. Now Lucas stood there taking in Farkle's outburst. But then he clenched his fists and walked away from everyone who wouldn't be too happy to see a Texas Lucas.

He opened the door to the art room and then his aggressive demeanor turned off. Lucas found himself looking at an artwork of Maya's. He guessed that the teacher put it there to show some respect. It was a mural, with the word hope in the middle of it.

And then the hot tears ran down his face. He sat down on the stools. The empty room in darkness as he sat there alone. But he wasn't alone, Maya hopped off one of the counters and walked toward Lucas. If only he could see her. If only he could feel her touch. If only he knew that she was alive and well. But he couldn't, and that was the cold hard truth.

Maya did nothing but sit there next to Lucas. "I'm right here." But of course, he didn't hear that.

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