All To Well

4. "If I don't tell you enough, I love you with everything I am, shortstack."

Four months of pure happiness. That's what the past four months have been like for Maya and I. Just pure happiness. I've never seen Maya this happy since Katy and Shawn got married and Shawn adopted her. On the nights that Katy works late I sleep at Maya's apartment to keep her company and because Katy trusts us enough to know we're not going to do anything. And tonight is one of those nights, a night reserved for laying in the couch and watching T.V. and eating way too many snacks and cuddling.

"Hey babe," I called from the bathroom, washing my hands, "have you made the popcorn yet?" I asked as I walked out of the bathroom and into the living room

"In the microwave now." she replied as we both plopped down next to each other on the couch. We looked at each other and pecked the other on the lips and the microwave went off signaling that the popcorn was popped. I hopped off the couch and headed to the kitchen to grab it. Also grabbing two waters on the way back to the living room.

"So what's tonight's show schedule?" I asked Maya as she looked at me. "I'm not sure. Let's just see what's on?" she questioned and I nodded grabbing the remote. We ended up watching reruns of Friends, laughing at the stupidity of the characters and the situations they were in and how unrealistic they all were. We put our bowl in the sink and took our water bottles and moved to her bed so we could begin the nightly ritual of cuddling until we fall asleep. It always takes me longer to fall asleep because I always make sure Maya is comfortable and asleep before I fall asleep in case she needs me. She truly is my whole world.

I woke up to my phone ringing in the middle of the night. Luckily it didn't wake Maya up because, although she was a heavy sleeper, I always turn down the volume a little before we get in bed so just in case it rings, it doesn't wake anyone. When I took my phone off the charge I was extremely confused as to why my mom was calling me at 1 am. I answered the phone as slid out of Maya's bed and headed to the bathroom so I didn't wake anyone from talking.

"Hey mom, is everything okay?" I quietly said into the phone shutting the bathroom door.

"No, baby, everything is not okay." She said clearly crying

"What's wrong? What happened?" my voice already quivering knowing something horrible had happened.

"Um I'm not really so sure how to tell you this," she started trying to comfort herself in whatever situation this was, "Pappy Joe and Cletis got into a really bad car accident." my heart instantly stopped at the news

"And they're okay right? They're fine, they have to be..." my voice breaking, betraying me

"Baby. Pappy Joe had a heart attack while they were driving home and he lost control of the car and crashed into a tree. His heart couldn't take the heart attack and the pressure when he slammed into the dashboard and he passed away instantly." she said with a shakey voice, now sobbing, "I'm sorry baby, Cletis is in a coma right now, the hospital called me, I would have let you known in the morning but I know you were really close to your Pappy Joe so I wanted to let you know now. We have to fly to Austin on Monday for his funeral so you need to be packed for a week by Sunday, okay? I'm really sorry baby, I love you, try and get some rest because it's gonna be a long next week for us all." I nodded forgetting she couldn't see me, "Okay, love you too mom." I replied hitting the 'end call' button on my phone.

I tried to keep quite knowing Shawn, Katy and Maya were sleeping and I didn't want to be rude and wake them up since I was the one staying at their house but I couldn't hold back. Heartbreaking sobs wrecked my body as I slide myself down to wall to sit on the floor, not being able to hold myself up any longer. Suddenly losing all my body strength.

My head was spinning and I could no longer breathe. My entire world was crashing down onto me. I had lost one of the most important people I've ever had in my life. I suddenly heard foot steps over my loud sobbing and then I heard a knock on the door.

"Luc? Babe, are you are okay?" I heard Maya's voice speak to me through the door. She knew it was because Katy and Shawn have their own bathroom in their bedroom so it had to be me unless someone randomly broke into her apartment to sit in her bathroom and cry. I was too tramatized to answer and simply only sobbed harder. When she heard my cried getting louder she imediately pushed the door open and rushed to my side.

"Hey, hey what's wrong? What happened?" she tried to coax me as I clutched to her side, whimpering as my body didn't have to strength to so voilently sob anymore. She started whiping at the tears streaming down my face.

"You're gonna be really upset too," I started as she urged me to continue, "Pappy Joe and Cletis got in a car accident, Pappy Joe had a heart attack while driving them home and he lost control of the car and ran into a tree and the tree fell on top of the truck. His heart couldn't take the heart attack and the pressure of the tree and he passed away pretty much as soon as it happened and Cletis is in a coma on life support so I don't think he has as much of a chnace as I would like him too." I finally got the words out I looked up to see Maya also crying now. "I'm sorry Luc, that's terrible, but he was a great person and he had such a wonderful soul and now he gets to share his wisdom and chare with all the people up there with him. We'll all miss him so much, that trip to Texas was one of the best times of my life. We'll be okay, you're going to get through this and I'll be right there with you the entire time." she reassured me, still crying as well.

We both slowly got up after a few more minutes of laying in each other's arms trying to find some sort of comfort out of the tragedy that had just struck. We walked back to her room and got and bed and held each other so tight as if the other was going to disappear. "If I don't tell you enough, I love you with everything I am, shortstack. And I'm so incredibly in love with you that it hurts." I managed to say through tears

"I'm so in love with you too, Lucas." she replied and kissed me and continued to hold my hand in comfort.

That was the longest, most painful night of my life. I got no sleep and we both stayed up until the sun rose, casting our tear stained faces in red pinks and oranges. This was worse than the time my horse died when I was seven. This was much worse, it felt like I had been struck in the head and completely deserted to be left on my own to fend for myself, no one caring if I made it out alive or not.