78- Friends and Therapy
Summary: During a hospital visit, Mike comforts Lucas about Max.
Requested by: katrinfarmersdaughter
Lucas should be at school right now.
Instead, he was sitting in an uncomfortable, plastic chair the hospital provided. Waiting for the girl he loved to wake up.
It'd been three weeks since spring break and even though school started, Lucas found himself spending most of his time right here.
His parents had not been happy to get so many calls from school saying that her son was skipping school. They'd let it slide the first couple of times, but now it was looking like this would be the last time he skipped school.
There wasn't much to do in the small room, he had already read a couple chapters of his book.
Normally he would be talking, telling Max about his day, how everyone was doing, just anything that would come to his mind.
But right now, Lucas didn't feel like talking. He didn't know what good it was doing.
So, he waited.
Waited for Max to wake up. To call him 'stalker'. To complain about being stuck in a hospital bed instead of skating around and doing cool trick. To...
"Lucas?"
Lucas jumped, during his spiral, he hadn't notice Mike standing in the doorway.
"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you." he spoke quietly.
"It's fine, just didn't see you there." Lucas gave him a small smile.
The two hadn't really gotten to talk since Mike came back from California. With Lucas always being at the hospital and Mike... well Lucas didn't really know what Mike had been up to lately.
Mike walked over to Max's bed, looking awkward standing there. So, Lucas took the chair that Erica usually sat in and placed it next to him, signaling Mike to sit down.
The two sat in somewhat awkward silence. Lucas missed when they were younger, when this wouldn't even remotely be a problem. He decided to fix it.
"So, what have you been up to?" he asked.
Mike shrugged. "Just school, mostly. What about you?"
Lucas gestured around the room. "This."
Mike nodded. "Cool."
Lucas smirked.
"So, me and Dustin have noticed that you haven't been at school lately." Mike started.
"I showed up for like 5 days!" Lucas defended.
"Lucas," Mike said carefully. "School has been going on for 3 weeks now."
Lucas looked down at his hands.
"We've missed you and just want to know how you're doing." Mike went on.
"I'm fine. Besides, this is probably the last day I'm skipping." Lucas grumbled.
Mike smiled. "Parents finally saying no, huh?"
"Yeah," he chuckled, then realized something. "Wait, how did you know that?"
"Because that's what happened to me when El disappeared." Mike told him. "You lasted longer than me, I skipped only a couple days before my mom forced me to go back."
Lucas remembered that. Mike had skipped the first few days back. He'd always assumed that it was because he was visiting Will or something.
Guess not.
"You remember that year, when I became..."
"A pain?" Lucas asked.
Mike huffed out a laugh. "Yeah. I just don't want you to become that. Or, someone who hides away in this tiny hospital room, wasting away."
Lucas sat in thought for a moment.
"You're right." he finally concluded, stealing a glance at Max. "It's just hard, not doing anything, simply waiting."
Mike nodded. "I get it. But Max is tough. She'll get through it."
"Thanks Mike." Lucas said. "And I'm sorry I wasn't there much that year."
Mike shrugged. "It's fine. I'm sorry that I didn't accept Max at the beginning."
Both boys looked at the girl.
"Did your parents have a reason for forcing you back or was it just..."
"The fact that, 'it's not healthy.'" Mike finished. "Yeah it was mostly that. What about you?"
"Same." Lucas told him. "But also that it was a bad influence on Erica."
"Oh, yeah. I heard she's been joining you."
Lucas nodded, then had his second realization of the day.
"Wait, aren't you skipping right now?" he asked.
Mike grinned at him. "Talk about bad influences."
The two boys laughed.
"Well, bad influence or not, I'm glad you came." Lucas spoke. "Thanks Mike."
"Anytime, Lucas. Now come on. Let's go rent a movie or something."
And with that, Mike dragged Lucas out of the dingy hospital room.
AN: Hope you liked it, katrinfarmersdaughter! Requests are open!