Ashly is sitting next to Lucas, and she looks up back to Lucas. She can see he is opening his eyes, Ashly stays silent as she waits for Lucas to say something.
"Hey, why do you look so sad Ashly?" Lucas asks her as he adjusts himself in the bed, he can see the bandages on his body. "Did you think I was dead or something?"
Ashly looks down. "Listen I'm sorry for causing all this trouble, I'm sorry you were dragged into this when you had no part in it." Ashly says as she sighed. "The day you told me about your dream I insulted you. When you cried I was this close to saying something to your face, but I held it in until much later."
She looks at Lucas, and closes her eyes. "I really thought that I should leave you alone for a while. I wanted to ignore everything you said, and pretend like I never knew you." Ashly says is a more lower tone.
Lucas looks at his own hands, and then at Ashly, he didn't know what to say so he looked down back to his hand.
…
Lucas ain't smiling. "Ashly I…I don't accept your apology." Lucas says after a few seconds of silence, Ashly looks at Lucas with a bit of shock, but she understands.
"You're right Ashly, every bad thing that has happened was because of you. All the selfish and wrong choices you did came back to bite us, which is why I'm not forgiving you." Lucas closes his hands into fists, and he takes a deep breath.
"I've turned a blind eye to a lot of things you have done in the past, and everytime I would tell myself that something would change within you. I told myself time and time again that you are different, and that you just need time, you can change if I'm patient enough." Lucas says as Ashly looks away from him.
"I'm also a bad person as I didn't try to stop you at all. I don't put my foot down, and all of this happened. Ashly I don't hate you as I've accepted the fact that you grew up in a terrible environment. That doesn't mean I'll accept you apology, not everything can be forgiven." He says.
Ashly doesn't attempt to argue or defend herself as he is right. "I agree with everything you just said." Ashly then stands up from the chair. "I don't know what's wrong with me, but it took me almost losing you to understand something. I'm a very selfish and reckless person who just happened to have someone like you to cover for me." She says.
"I won't accept mere words as a sign of apology, anyone can claim that without truth behind those words. I will judge you based on your actions to see if you do deserve forgiveness." Lucas says as he turns to his left side on the bed.
"Ashly you will have to work hard this time if you want to be my friend. I mean as my actual friend not any manipulative bullshit." Lucas says as he holds his hands together.
"I'll do my best, and I thinks it's best if I just leave already." Ashly says as she is about to leave, but Lucas grabs her hand. Ashly looks at him, and he doesn't seem to want her to leave so Ashly sits back down.
Lucas looks at Ashly with sadness, and he clears his throat. Ashly waits silently as he seems to want to say something important to her.
"Ashly at first I just wanted to be a kind and careful person. I wanted to live like that for the rest of my life. I've always dreamed of a future where every good thing happened to every good person." He pulls his blanket much closer to his face covering it.
"I always wanted you in this dream of mines to be a nice person. I wanted you to prove that even in a bad environment people aren't bad, and just misunderstood. It's my fault as I ignored a lot of your flaws because I was focusing on the fake greatness I thought you had." He begins to blush a bit as he was admitting to being a stupid person.
"I should of been mad at you for manipulating me, but I am reasonable. By staying open minded I can understand why you did that, I do Ashly. You are in a bad situation, and I was your easiest means for survival, I mean I was also your only option. I accepted the fact that most people would of done what you did, but in a more lesser circumstance." Lucas says and he hears Ashly sigh.
For some reason she feels relieved that he understood why she did it, but she also feels a bit worried. Why is he saying that now, and why is he acting a bit off? Did the injuries affect his brain and mess it up.
"Ashly I know that you're thinking about what I'm saying, and how it's not right. I know that I'm acting differently, but it's because I remember something. My eyes have been opened, I tried to avoid violence as much as I could. I always thought it was barbaric, but by denying it I let many bad things happen as a result. I couldn't bare the fact that I did have to kill, but I was acting stupid." Lucas says as he clutches the sheet, he looks back at Ashly.
Lucas then touches his face, and it hurts, he moves his hands away fast. His face feels like it's broke. "Are you alright Lucas? Do you still want to vent more? I won't make fun of you." Ashly says as she looks at him with a much less lively expression.
"Ashly that's not the point I'm trying to make, this affected me in a way you might not understand. I've realized that violence is a part of nature, I hate it, but as I saw that it won't go away if I ignored it." Lucas says with a bit of frustration in his voice.
"I've accepted it, but that doesn't mean I will use it every second like an idiot. Things are different now as I would use it as my final resort Ashly. Im not happy about that realization, but if it's necessary I'll kill without hesitation. I'm glad you aren't completely heartless, I'm so darn glad that you aren't." Lucas the gives her a slight smile.
Ashly smiles back. "I'm glad that you're not mad at me, and I'm surprised by what you said. The problem I have is that maybe you're rushing things, you need to rest, and think more about it. I want you to be careful with what you said as it was kind of awesome." Ashly says as she looks away.
"Well I'm glad that you understand me as well Ashly, I think we should leave soon." Lucas says as he moves his body a bit to see if it hurts too much to move.
"Well I'm mostly fine, but it took me a bunch of effort to enter this room a few times." She says, and Lucas looks a bit confused. "Oh the doctor didn't like it when I would try to move here when I was supposed to rest. He didn't like that an injured patient was visiting another one when I wasn't a direct relative."
Lucas looks at Ashly more throughly, and notices she looks mostly fine. "May I ask for how long have you been visiting me? I'm surprised you woke up earlier than me as you sustained serious damage back there." Lucas then examines himself as well to compare their recovery.
"Well I don't know how I've recovered faster, but my body is tough. My body has adapted to harsh conditions, and treatment so it just resisted I guess." Ashly then lifts her shirt to check on her body, it does seem like she hasn't sustained damages on the surface, but it does hurt.
Thinking about it, the many injuries she sustained over the years made her more durable. She was at one point noticing how she was waking up faster after being knocked out. Ashly then notices Lucas had turned around as she lifted her shirt, and he isn't trying to peek at all.
"When I was up much earlier than you, I've only thought about wanting to switch positions with you. I didn't want you to be near death while I wasn't when the entire problem was caused by me. I didn't know how to apologize, and even now when I did, it felt underwhelming." Ashly says frantically as she lowed her shirt.
——
It's been a few weeks since Lucas first woke up, and they are both mostly healed up. Lucas ended up paying a huge sum of money for their treatment which Ashly doesn't know the exact amount. She knows it was a lot as when she tried to ask him about it, he would try to change the subject and look away.
Lucas takes a deep breath. "Ashly there is something I want to tell you, I wanted to be your friend for selfish reasons." Ashly is silent and looks at him with all her attention. "I was taught that to show kindness I needed to help others, and when we first meet I wanted to prove that I was kind. Deep down for some reason I had a feeling that if I did help you I would be a good person."
"I am not a good person as I was using you to prove a point. I had no reason to as what I wanted to prove needed no proof." Lucas seems like he is very disappointed in himself as he said those words.
"Lucas you are not a bad person as you're young and plain out confused. I know you aren't that type of person to believe in that as you're not telling the full truth." Ashly leans in, and puts her hand on his shoulder.
"Thanks Ashly, I don't know what I'm saying, and I'm not completely alright." he says.
….
For a moment Lucas is silent and he looks at Ashly, and he begins to look more sad now. What's up with him and sadness all of the sudden? Ashly asks herself.
"Ashly today is my birthday…I'm turning 17 and I thought it wasn't important to say, but I just wanted to mention it." Lucas says which Ashly doesn't know what to say about it.
"I'm just glad that you're here with me at least, there nothing much for me to ask other than that." Lucas says and they prepare to leave.
"Lucas with a lot of people leaving the district I believe your parents have also left. I'm sorry that I messed it up for you since they were no more than a few miles away from where we were." She says as they walk outside the hospital.
"It's fine Ashly, I now have more time to gain back the money…" Ashly looks at him, and Lucas stays silent for the rest of their walk.
Ashly knows it's useless to pester him about it and she understands. As they approach the gates they can hear a voice behind them, they turn, and it's the father of that girl.
"I'm very grateful that you both saved my daughter that day, I'm indebted to you two." He says and Lucas tries to tell him it's fine, but he isn't listening. "I'm working under the SDA, and I should of done something, it's shameful I didn't." The man says.
"It's alright everyone was scared for their own lives, you have to prioritize your life, and your daughters." Lucas says, but he is then interrupted.
"I won't be scared anymore, I'll do my best to help others. I'll try to surpass my current limits as you two showed me what it means to save people… Also my name is Edwin by the way."