Ending Innocence (boyxboy)

Chapter Twenty Six

Love makes us stronger. 

Caden’s POV.

Luca’s awake! All is right with the world again. Of course I want to hurt Ty and Dante for mentioning Beth. But all of that can wait. I’m just relived to have Luca awake and looking better. He seems to be a lot happier than he was before too. He smiles sometimes and it literally takes my breath away. I’m so fucking in love with him it hurts sometimes. I just want to hold onto him and never let go. But we have some shit to work through first. Like keeping him awake long enough to speak to the doctor. Whenever he’s visited before Luca has been sleeping. That is not how we work on getting Luca physically better. He needs to actually talk to the doc.

“So, Mr. Capaletti. How are you feeling today?” The doctor asks in a no-nonsense tone.

Luca shrugs and fiddles with his hands. “Sometimes I feel like parts of my body have gone numb. I’m finding it hard to move my legs.”

The doctor interrupts him,” Can you feel your legs, son?”

Luca doesn’t answer and I squeeze his hand. My heart seizes when he looks at me through teary eyes. I want to take all the pain away. But I can’t. We already know his legs don’t work. Not like they should anyway. We found out just after everyone left. He woke up and tried to get out of the bed, but he couldn’t. So he ended up falling flat on his face and I had to pick him up. He wasn’t happy about it. But there was nothing I could do. He just couldn’t walk. And as much as it pained me to say, I knew he might have to accept that as being permanent. There isn’t a whole lot I can do. It really hurts, man.

“No… I can’t feel a thing. They’re just numb.”

The doctor looks at him with a frown. Not the kind of I-know-what-you-are-and-I-don’t-like-you type of frown. No. He looks like what Luca is saying is wrong somehow. Like he should be able to feel his legs. That worries me. The fact he can’t feel his legs is bad enough. But to think that it’s worrying the doctor makes me feel uneasy. Luca might not walk again. That’s what he’s worried about, right? All the signs are pointing to something life changing like that. Or maybe it’s just my bad mind running away with me.

No. That’s not it at all. Because the doctor is really worried.

“We will run some tests tomorrow. Try not to worry.”

Luca says nothing but he’s pale. I take his hand in mine and squeeze. Wow. This is all too much. Am I the only person who feels like that? Looking at Luca I think not. He’s just as afraid as I am. Probably more so because, after all, they are his legs. I’m just freaking out in a more obvious way. He glances at me and smiles. It hits me then. He’s trying to protect me. He doesn’t want to worry me. God. I am such a horrible boyfriend. He’s going through all this without me. I should smack myself.

“Don’t worry about anything. We’ll get through this as long as we’re together,” I tell him. “All I want you to worry about is getting yourself better. We can worry about walking and everything else that comes along when you’re stronger.”

I don’t tell him that I’m trying my hardest not to have a full-blown meltdown, right here. It would not be a good thing if I did do that. For one thing, it would send him over the edge.

He smile slightly. The smile doesn’t reach his eyes, though.

“Thank you, Caden,” he says finally.

The doctor looks between us and smiles. There’s a sadness in his eyes that I can only guess is from his own love life. Or maybe it’s his lack of a love life? Could he have lost someone important to him? Whatever the reason, I’m glad it’s not me that’s looking at couples like that’s till. It was hard with my parents and Ty and Leah. But that was only a short time I felt like that. If I still felt like that I don’t know how I would manage to cope.