Sit on that plastic blue chair, I feel my eyelids getting heavier and for a moment I fall asleep. I hear a gentle voice talking to me while my sight is still blurred.
«You should rest», says the nurse by my side. «Your friend will be alright, but you got hurt too».
I broke an arm, that's true, but I won't leave Max for it. I can't. After all that happened, I can't rest, I can't relax. Every time I stop thinking about her, horrible images of the storm keep coming to my mind. I see Arcadia Bay being wiped out, my house getting destroyed, my mom dying.
I can't think about what happened. It would hurt too much. It hurts so much.
«Can I see her?», I babble trying to stand up. The doctor said I should wait until she wakes up, but it's been hours since we arrived and nobody let me knew anything.
The nurse slowly opens Max's door. That opening that used to be a chink starts getting bigger and bigger. Laid in a hospital bed, surrounded by beeping machines, I see her. She used to be my best friend, then my traitor, now I don't know what she is to me. I don't know if she's just an acquaintance, my friend or something more. When we were up there, at the lighthouse, and she was deathly scared, I wanted to kiss her so bad. I wanted to let her know that I was with her, whatever she would have chosen to do. After Rachel, I've never kissed someone. At least, not someone I loved.
I sit by her side, on a chair that, although uncomfortable, was still better than the one I set on for hours. I take her hand between mines. I feel the blood flowing in her veins, the heart beating in her wrist. I wasn't sure she would have done it.
After she chose me over Arcadia Bay, for a while we stared at our city destruction. We knew our world would have never been the same. Then the storm started getting closer and closer and the lighthouse hill wasn't a safe place anymore. We jumped on my pickup and I started driving as fast as I could, as far as I could. The streets were covered in woods, house pieces and bodies. Death bodies. We both would have vomited at that sight, but we couldn't, we had to save our lives. I kept driving and we reached a roadblock. The police, the firefighters, the foresters, the paramedics were all there. They knew what happened. But I saw them and I felt safe, after hours I felt safe. My body felt safe and I started loosing control. We hit a wall, that's how I broke my arm. Then a policeman came to us and asked where we were coming from. Arcadia Bay, answered Max. He was confused, they were said there were no survivors. We survived, she told him. He asked how. That's when Max's nose started bleeding, and she fainted.
I feel her body quietly moving, I see her eyes opening.
«Chloe…», she mumbles. Knowing she's alright, she's here by my side, is like a lifebuoy in this stormy sea.
«I'm here, Max. It's all okay, your parents are coming».