Just A Smile

Chapter 8 : A Smile

The next days, Max came every day to continue the book they began, but especially to spend some time with Jane the most possible. The brunette was continuing her exercises with more and more motivation; it was tiring her a lot, but Max didn't care, she was proud of her, she was giving all of herself to feel better, it was all that mattered.

But there was another good thing, Boris recorded Alban and Julia and made listen it to their boss who fired them. It wasn't a big waste, but now they had more patients to take care of. They decided to do more session in groups to be more to look after them.

Today, Boris and Max mixed their groups, which meant that Jane was there, and the butterflies in Max's belly never stopped flying since the beginning of the session. Jane was working her legs today on a machine where she had to push weights. This exercise was good too for her back, but it was hurting a lot the brunette. Max could keep an eye on her as next to her was Gary, her patient. But when Max was with another patient, Gary wasn't missing a second to provoke Jane.

- "I think I've my chance with my therapist. She doesn't wanna admit it, but she is crazy about me," the boy smirked. "What do you think?"

- "I don't care," Jane mumbled, feeling a painful electricity in her back.

- "I mean, she is hot and very funny! She thinks she has feelings for you, but we both know it's not true. She will understand that. You will make her waste her time anyway. I mean, just look at you, you're weak, you can't even completely stretch your legs whereas you've been doing this exercise for two weeks now!"

- "Shut up."

- "Oh, I'm sorry, did I upset you? I'm not really surprised, just breathing upset you because you know there is nothing for you in this world. Maybe you should have cut your wrist deeper."

- "Shut up!"

- "You're pathetic, she just has pity for you."

Jane had enough. She stopped pushing the weights and began to take support on her arms to sit. Boris saw her and ran to her to help her.

- "What's wrong?" Boris asked.

- "Nothing. I'm done."

- "We will do something else, okay?"

- "I need a break. Please."

- "Sure, come here."

The man put his arms under her knees and back and helped her to sit on her wheelchair. When he began to walk away with her, he gave a look to Max who understood quickly that something was wrong. She went to Gary, hoping it wasn't his fault.

- "What happened?" she asked.

- "I don't know. I was trying to motivate her, but she began to become angry!"

Max nodded. She wasn't completely believing Gary, but she gave him the benefit of the doubt. She didn't insist and preferred focusing on her work for now.

After the session, Max decided to talk to Boris to know if Jane told him something.

- "Do you know what happened with Jane?"

- "Not really, it's not because of the pain, but when I asked if it was because of Gary, she didn't say anything which, in my opinion, meant everything."

- "Oh, okay. I'll talk to her to, at least, know if she is okay."

Boris nodded. Max waited for the end of the day to see Jane. She wanted to let her take some rest as she did a lot today. And she did right, when she arrived in the brunette's room, Jane was asleep, she even seemed a bit less tired than usual. Jane opened her eyes, and Max warmly smiled to her before sitting on her bed.

- "How are you?" Max asked.

Jane shrugged.

- "Is it because of this morning? What happened?"

- "Nothing."

- "Don't say nothing. Gary told me that he tried to motivate you—"

- "Liar," Jane angrily mumbled.

- "Yeah, Boris told me that Gary certainly said something wrong. What was it?"

- "Things like, I'm too weak and pathetic, and that you have pity for me."

- "Oh my god! What the hell!? This is so wrong!" Max got angry. "Why did he tell you that!? Nothing of these is right!"

- "I think he really likes you."

- "Did he say something about that?"

- "Um, I'm not sure, but he thinks he has a chance and that you'll fall for him."

Max sighed with her nose and shook her head of disbelief. Why did he have to say that!? And to Jane!? She had nothing to do with their relationship which was just professional! Well, for Max it was just professional, apparently not for Gary. She would talk to him to make him understand there was no chance for them to date.

- "Did you believe him?" Max asked.

- "About you and him?"

- "Oh no, not that, I won't date him, there is no chance. But about you being weak and pathetic."

- "Um...I don't know."

- "Don't believe him, okay? You're not weak or pathetic!"

- "But I can't stretch my legs!"

- "Yes, you can! Your legs are stretched right now, you just need more muscles, that's all, but it's just a matter of time. Don't listen to him, he just wanted to upset you."

- "Okay. You...you don't have pity for me, right?" Jane asked with a small voice.

- "No, of course not. I never had before, so why now?"

Jane pursed her lips and nodded. Max softly caressed Jane's cheek with her right hand. She had a warm sensation when she saw the brunette's cheeks becoming pink. Jane used her right hand to put it on Max's and caressed it with a small smile on her lips. The redhead almost dropped her jaw; she hadn't seen her smile for so long now, and she thought it would take Jane so much more time before smiling again.

- "What?" Jane frowned, her smile still on her face.

- "Oh, nothing, you seem to feel better."

- "I think I do."

- "Great, I'm so happy for you," Max said.

Jane nodded.

- "You know you can hang out of the center if you want, you just need to ask."

- "To do what?"

- "I don't know, to hang with me?"

- "Is it a proposition?" Jane asked with a smile a bit wider.

- "Um, yeah. I saw that tomorrow is not a big day for you, maybe we could take some air together in the park after your last session. What do you think?"

- "It sounds good for me."

- "Cool, I'll talk about that with Boris, but he should be okay with that."

Max laid down next to Jane and proposed her to continue the book about fish, which Jane accepted. While they were reading it, the redhead was already seeing them the day after, together in the park, seeing another landscape than the wall in front of them. It would be amazing, she knew it.