Chapter 8

The next morning Cooper slowly woke up to find his arm wrapped protectively around Maxie as she stayed snuggled close to him with her head rested on his chest. He watched her sleep until she stirred and slowly opened her eyes. Maxie lifted her head and a stray piece of hair from her ponytail fell in her face.

"Good morning," Cooper said pushing the stray piece of hair out of Maxie's eyes.

Maxie smiled and leaned forward to kiss Cooper.

After a few minutes they pulled away and Cooper spoke up.

"Don't you have a morning class at PCU?"

Maxie sighed, she thought about fibbing and saying she didn't but she knew Cooper knew her well enough to know she was lying.

"I'll just skip it today, no big deal," Maxie said shrugging it off as nothing.

"No, you're not going to let what's going on here stop you from going to school. You worked way too hard to get caught up,"

"But---" Maxie was cut off by Cooper.

"I'll be fine if you leave for a few hours okay?"

Maxie nodded and reluctantly started to get cleaned up.

"This is stupid," Chasity said keeping her eyes on the video game that was playing on the T.V.

She had come over to Spencer's house because her room could get pretty cramped sometimes. Kristina said she had other plans and would meet them at the Pizza Shack later.

"It's not stupid; you get your license in a month right?"

Chasity nodded.

"I'm supposed to but since I didn't get all the driving practice time with my temps thanks to my mom not wanting to tale time out of her busy schedule to get in the car with me so I could drive. What's does that have to do with playing a racecar video game anyway?"

"Driving practice," Spencer answered.

Chasity just shook her head.

"I'll make you a deal; if you play this we'll play the Greys Anatomy board game even though you'll probably beat me because you'll know every answer,"

"I'm good but not that good,"

Spencer just shook his head.

Chasity continued to play the video game and wondered how things could still be so easy after everything that happened---not that she was complaining.

Maxie sat in one of the classrooms at PCU only half listening to what the professor was saying. Normally she would be paying more attention to what was being said but she couldn't concentrate. She didn't know whether it was her lack of sleep or her being so worried about Cooper. The truth was it was probably both. She had pretty much given up on trying to pay attention until she heard one word the professor said that caught her attention:

Maxie now listened closely to what was being said.

"Like the last time you have to write a paper like a magazine article except this time you don't have as much choice. It has to be a review on current fashions whether that be bathing suits or something else. But there's something different about this project, instead of getting a letter grade for it the five best articles will get published in couture magazine those writers will get an internship with Kate Howard as their mentor," The professor explained.

At first Maxie was so excited she couldn't even see straight but then reality set in, she couldn't do it for more than one reason. Reason number on being with everything going on she wouldn't be able to concentrate, reason number two being even if her writing skills had improved they still weren't good enough to get her an internship at couture magazine.

"The project is due next Friday, you're dismissed," the professor announced.

Maxie sighed, how was she going to pull this off?

Maxie stood up and she felt her cell phone vibrate.

Later that afternoon Kristina, Chasity and Spencer were sitting at a table at the Pizza Shack. Spencer and Chasity looked at each other and then at Kristina who barely noticed their presence because she was busy looking at the girl Cameron was dancing with.

"Are you going to actually acknowledge the fact Chasity and I are here or are you just going to pay attention to him?" Spencer asked pointing in Cameron's direction.

"Huh? What?" Kristina asked snapping back to reality.

Chasity rolled her eyes.

"You so like him,"

Kristina narrowed her eyes.

"I do not, he just flirts with girls so they'll make out with him and then he moves on to the next girl,"

Spencer and Chasity just nodded seeing who was standing right behind Kristina.

"I'm glad you think so highly of me,"

Kristina cringed slightly and turned to face Cameron.

"Yeah well if you didn't act like a jerk all the time I might actually like you,"

Cameron nodded unconvinced.

"You saw me dancing with that girl and you got jealous,"

"I did not!" Kristina exclaimed narrowing her eyes.

Chasity and Spencer exchanged glances both thinking the same thing.

This could get interesting.

Kristina glared at Cameron and then looked over at Spencer and Chasity who were sharing knowing looks.

"Excuse us," Kristina said as she started to grab Cameron's hand but she caught herself and just pushed him to the other side of the Pizza Shack.

"She so likes him," Chasity said.

Spencer nodded in agreement.

"It's the kindergarten method,"

Chasity gave a confused look.

"Explain that,"

"You know when you were in kindergarten and the boys chase the girls and pull their hair?"

"I know of that method but not personally,"

Spencer cocked his head to the side.

"You never had a guy do the whole "chase you around the playground to get your attention" thing? I'm surprised usually boys do that when they really like you,"

Chasity smiled at the subtle comment.

"I didn't say ever, yes there were some guys in my class that were jerks but, most of my friends were guys and they were pretty protective of me. But back on topic, how does thing relate to Kristina and Cameron?" Chasity asked changing the subject when she saw Spencer give a look that resembled slight jealousy.

"Well think about it, he's chasing after her but she's acting like she can't stand him. If you want to go by the hair pulling analogy, he gets enjoyment out of annoying her and seeing how long it takes her to go off on him,"

Chasity nodded.

"That makes sense, you seem like you know a lot about this,"

Spencer laughed.

"Yeah well they couldn't stand each other in eighth grade but they've been going at it like this since the middle of the school year. So I've kind of been Kristina's sounding board I guess,"

"Yeah well I could see why, you're a good listener,"

Spencer smiled.

"Yeah well I sometimes learned stuff I really didn't want to know,"

Chasity laughed and was about to say something when her cell phone rang.

Back on the other side of the Pizza Shack Cameron and Kristina were still arguing.

"I'm not jealous of you and that girl!" Kristina protested for the millionth time.

"Sure you weren't Cameron replied sarcastically.

"Even if I was which I'm not, I wouldn't have to worry because she'd be an afterthought in at least three weeks because you don't have girlfriends you have conquests remember?" Kristina said making quotation marks with her hands.

Cameron leaned back slightly and crossed his arms over his toned chest.

"You like me; you just don't want to admit it,"

Kristina sighed in anger and sheer frustration.

"I don't like you, you annoy the crap out of me and you're self absorbed, cocky---" Kristina's rant was cut short by Cameron's lips crashing into hers.

At first she fought it by pounding her fist into Cameron's shoulder until she slowly stopped fighting it and wrapped her arms around his neck. After a few minutes they pulled away.

"Why did you do that?" Kristina asked smacking Cameron again.

Cameron grabbed Kristina's wrist to make her stop smacking him.

"I did it to shut you up and prove a point,"

Kristina sighed.

"What would that point be?"

"That you like me and you're just stubborn and don't want to admit it,"

Before Kristina could respond Chasity walked up to them.

"I hate to interrupt yet another argument you guys are having but, I wanted to tell you I'm going to GH and Spencer's coming with me,"

"What happened?" Kristina asked her concern evident.

"I don't know yet, Maxie didn't really give much detail over the phone,"

"I'm going with you," Kristina said pulling her wrist out of Cameron's grasp.

As they walked out of the Pizza Shack Kristina glanced in Cameron's direction and thought

Cameron watched as the three left and the looked over on the other side of the Pizza Shack where he and Kristina had previously just been and saw the girls he had been dancing with looking at him. Then he thought

As they walked into GH Chasity spotted Maxie in the lobby.

"What happened? You didn't give me much detail over the phone,"

Maxie sighed.

"Monica said Cooper developed a high fever on top of the pneumonia and that's putting extra strain on his heart and causing him to go into heart failure,"

"Can we go in and see him?" Chasity asked blinking back tears.

"Not yet they're checking him over,"

Chasity nodded but before she could say anything Monica came into the waiting room.

Spencer could see Chasity had tensed up so he slipped his hand in hers and gave it a light squeeze.

"How is he?" Maxie asked the concern evident in her voice.

"We stabilized him but he's still pretty weak. We're going to put him on new meds to see if that works," Monica explained.

"What if it doesn't work?" Chasity asked.

"We'll deal with that if we have to,"

Chasity nodded in understanding.

"Can we go in and see him now?" Maxie asked.

"You can go in one at a time,"

Maxie nodded and motioned for Chasity to go in first.

Chasity reluctantly let go of Spencer's hand and walked to Cooper's room.

Chasity walked into Cooper's room and sat on the edge of the bed.

"Hey,"

"Hey," Cooper replied weakly.

Unlike a day earlier when she'd seen him Chasity could see Cooper had taken on a paler complexion and had dark circles under his eyes.

"Tired?"

"Nah," Cooper said waving his hand dismissively trying to hide the fact that he was exhausted.

Chasity smiled slightly, she could tell he was trying to hide exactly how tired he was from her.

"You know I'm not six years old anymore you don't have to hide everything from me in order to protect me,"

"I know that, but you're still as stubborn as when you were younger,"

"I wasn't that stubborn when I was little," Chasity protested.

Cooper gave her an unconvinced look.

"Yeah right, if you weren't that stubborn why I the only one who could get you to go into the stadium when me and mom took you to see NSYNC for your sixth birthday?"

"Okay, maybe I was a little bit stubborn when I was younger. As for the NSYNC concert thing she got mad at me and you didn't. Plus, I've always listened to you a lot more than I ever have mom,"

Cooper sighed.

"What would you do if you ended up having to live with mom?"

Chasity was taken aback for a second.

"I won't have to live with mom because nothing's going to happen to you,"

"You don't know that Chas, Monica said I'm going into heart failure. I just want to know incase something does," Cooper said gently.

Chasity gave a deep sigh and felt a tear slip down her cheek. She silently scolded herself for letting herself cry.

"Well mom hasn't bothered to come looking for me and I've been here a month already so I don't think she'll come looking for me. But if she did I wouldn't be able to go with her, I wouldn't be able to go back to dealing with what I was having to before,"

Cooper started to say something but stopped when he saw Maxie in the doorway. Chasity glanced in Maxie's direction.

"I'll let you guys talk," Chasity said getting up and leaving the room.

Chasity walked out in the waiting room to find Spencer sitting in one of the waiting room chairs.

"Where's Kristina?" Chasity asked.

"She had to go home since it was so late,"

Chasity nodded and plopped down in the chair next to Spencer.

"So what happened?"

Chasity sighed.

"Can we discuss it later, please?"

"Sure,"

Chasity rested her head on Spencer's shoulder and felt him wrap his arm protectively around her. She loved how comforting it felt.

Back in Cooper's room Maxie was lying on the bed snuggled up close to him. A comfortable silence fell over them. Maxie thought about what Cooper told her earlier that morning when he made her go to PCU. He swore to her he'd be okay for a few hours and it ended up he wasn't. There was no way she was going to take that internship at couture if she was one of the five students that got picked. Cooper was a lot more important than any internship at a fashion magazine.

"You promised me you'd be okay," Maxie said quietly breaking the silence.

"I know," Cooper replied softly letting them fall into another comfortable silence.

He could tell something besides all the stuff going on with him was bothering Maxie he just wasn't sure what it was. He decided he'd ask her later.