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In all honesty, Luke hadn't really given it too much thought when he woke up one day and his throat was sore.
Actually, that was a lie. He worried about how it would affect his singing for a good ten minutes before complaining about it to Alex, who probably would've been much more worried if they were actually alive. Instead, he gave him his typical 'you-are-a-dumbass' sigh and muttered something under his breath about how ghosts couldn't get sick.
Well, jokes on him, because Luke's throat was definitely only getting worse, the tea Ray had offered him in the morning doing absolutely nothing to help.
Thankfully, though, his voice was unaffected. He wasn't really sure how that worked, considering it felt as if something was inside of him and trying to claw its way out of his neck, but it did, and really, that was all Luke could ask for.
Well, getting rid of the throat ache would have been a nice touch, but he would take what he could get. Which wasn't much, apparently.
At least he could sing. If he couldn't do that, he was sure that Alex would have strangled him by now, considering he was almost to that point while Luke was only complaining about the pain.
"It hurts," He whined, dragging the word out, and Alex gave him a blank stare, offering none of the sympathy Luke thought he definitely deserved.
"I'm sure it'll feel better tomorrow," Reggie offered up cheerfully from beside him, and he rolled his head back so that he was staring at the ceiling and groaned, begging tomorrow to come sooner.
As though it was specifically going against his wishes, the day seemed to only drag on more slowly after that, taking forever to end. And worse than that, he felt even worse as the next morning came around.
Really, the first thing that should have told him something was really wrong was the fact that he had woken up with a yellow flower petal on his pillow. Instead of questioning it like he should have, he just shrugged it off, dumping it in the trash before going off to complain to the boys some more while Julie was at school.
When she eventually came back later that day, he was still going at it, making her raise an eyebrow at the sight of what was inside the studio.
Luke had been lying on the floor, his eyes squeezed shut while he whined something that Julie couldn't decipher. Alex and Reggie both looked ready to tear their hair out, so she stepped in and tried not to laugh at the way Luke immediately shot up and leaned against the couch.
"What's… going on?" She asked, slightly hesitant, and crossed her arms over her chest.
Alex moved away from his spot behind his drums to collapse onto the couch. "Luke's been whining all day," He, ironically, whined, and Julie just tilted her head questioningly.
"His throat hurts," Reggie said simply, moving to sit on the couch by Alex and jokingly patting Luke's head on the way, "Haven't you heard?"
She uncrossed her arms, a small frown appearing on her face. "But… you're a ghost."
"Yeah," Luke huffed, tilting his head back so it rested on the couch, the perfect image of a sad puppy, "That's the problem."
Alex sighed. "He always got like this when he was sick. He'll be okay in a few days or so."
"I feel like I'm dying," Luke responded flatly from the floor, and Alex sighed again.
"You'll be fine," He said, moving a hand to pet at Luke's hair comfortingly even through his slight annoyance, and Julie's frown turned into a soft smile as she walked forward and sat on the floor next to Luke, pressing her shoulder against his.
Alex was probably right. Luke was going to be fine.
They had all ended up falling asleep there comfortably, but comfortable was definitely nhow a word to describe how Luke woke up.
The second that he had opened his eyes, the first thing he became aware of was how much worse the pain in his throat had gotten. Before he could speak up to complain about it to the asleep bodies next to him, though, an overwhelming urge to cough took over him, and he doubled over, coughing into the sleeve of the flannel that he was wearing.
When he pulled back from his sleeve after his body decided to stop torturing him, his eyes widened at the specks of blood that were now dotted all over his (favorite) flannel. Looking at everyone next to him, he sighed in relief to see that they were all still asleep, and he quickly took the flannel off, turning the sleeve with the blood inside out so that it wouldn't be visible.
"Luke?" Julie's tired voice rang out from beside him, and he jumped in surprise, whipping his head around to see her rubbing at her eyes. "Are you okay?"
He coughed, covering it up by clearing his throat and swallowing the blood that had come up in his mouth. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Did I wake you up?"
She shook her head, stretching her arms with a yawn. "No. Is your throat feeling better?" She asked, and Luke felt his heart warm.
"Uh, yeah," He lied. "It's feeling better than yesterday," He said, thanking whoever was listening that he still sounded normal.
"Good," She said, leaning against his shoulder and closing her eyes. "Maybe Alex will stop looking like he wants to kill you now."
He hummed, trying his hardest not to fidget at the way she was pressed close to him, the blood that had been on his sleeve almost completely forgotten.
The blood was decidedly remembered when he ended up bent over the toilet in the studio later that day, coughing up what felt like an entire lung.
Julie went out with Flynn, Alex was somewhere with Willie and Reggie was with Carlos and Ray at a soccer game, so he was left alone in the studio when he started to cough.
Leaning away from the toilet, he wasn't surprised to see swirls of blood slowly mixing in with the water, but what he didn't expect to see was the many yellow flower petals floating inside.
Quickly standing up and backing away from it, he stared with wide eyes as the petals floated around in the water.
There was definitely something wrong with him.
It ended up going on like that for a few days. Luke would pretend to be completely fine during the daytime while his throat and chest hurt like hell and he constantly felt a need to cough, and when it was night or if he was alone he would run to the bathroom, coughing up mostly blood and petals, very rarely ever getting a fully intact daffodil.
And he had to say, he really didn't mind the way things were going. Sure, the pain wasn't great, and the blood and flowers he was coughing up were kind of creepy, but like Alex said before, he would probably be fine, and if he said anything now he would just have two worried ghosts on his hands, and that was probably the last thing he needed.
So, of course, as a testament to his luck, he was found out only three days into his attempt to hide whatever was happening to him.
He had thought he was alone in the studio when Julie walked out after a songwriting session, so he ran quickly to the bathroom to cough up everything that had been begging to come out of him the entire past hour.
When he finished, he sighed as he looked down in the almost completely red water, dotted with a bunch of petals and a few still intact daffodils. He flushed the toilet, and leaned against the back wall of the bathroom, squeezing his eyes shut and willing away the nausea that always came after he thought too long about what was happening to him.
"What the fuck," A voice sounded from the doorway, and Luke shot up from his place on the floor to see Alex, his eyes wide as he stared at him with obvious concern. Shit. "Luke… what the fuck."
"Alex!" He said quickly, huffing a fake laugh, "What are you doing, I thought you were with Willie?"
"I was," He responded, taking a step forward and looking Luke up and down, looking so much like how his mom would when he was sick that he felt a pang hit his heart. "Are you okay? You look exhausted," He said, putting a light hand on his arm, and Luke looked away, shrugging off the hand and crossing his arms.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine," He said, and Alex gave him such an unimpressed look that he would have laughed if they were in any other situation.
"Okay, I just watched you cough up more blood than I thought was possible for a person to cough up along with flowers. People don't cough up flowers Luke," He said, anxiety shining through his fake annoyed tone, and Luke sighed. This is exactly what he didn't want to happen.
"Nah nah nah, I'm fine 'Lex," He said, trying to look confident in his words and completely failing considering the way he doubled over with coughs immediately after, a single yellow petal spotted with blood falling out of his mouth and onto the floor. He took a step back, his back hitting the wall. "I'm sure it's nothing."
Alex, eyes wide, moved to wrap an arm around Luke's shoulders in an attempt to do what, Luke didn't know. But before anything else could be said, Willie poofed into the garage, a wide grin on his face that turned into a frown the moment he took in the image in front of him.
"Luke? Are you okay?" He asked, taking a step forward, and Luke scoffed.
"Psh, why does everyone keep asking me that," He said, trying not to lean too heavily onto Alex. Supporting his entire body weight was starting to get harder and harder. "I'm fine."
Alex moved his concerned gaze off of Luke to turn to Willie. "He coughed up flowers. Like, entire flowers and petals. And blood," He said, and Willie's eyes widened. "Yeah. Any idea what's going on?" He asked, not expecting much, and tried not to look too surprised at the way he nodded and took another step forward, staying silent.
"Okay," Alex spoke up again, doing his best not to just drop Luke on the floor. "Okay. Let's just, let's go lay down," He said, and Luke hummed, going along surprisingly willingly and allowing himself to be dumped on the couch, falling asleep almost instantly. Alex sat next to him, pushing Luke's hair out of his face and looking just like a worried mom would before turning to Willie, who hadn't moved from where he froze as soon as his gaze landed on the petal.
"Willie?" Alex spoke up softly, breaking him out of his trance, and stood up from his spot on the couch to walk towards him and grab his hand. "You okay?"
"Oh, uh, yeah," He said, huffing a fake laugh. "Yeah I'm fine."
Alex looked at him disbelievingly, but shrugged it off, squeezing his hand. "You said you know what's up with Luke?" He asked, slightly nervously, and Willie bit his lip.
"Yeah, yeah. I just, I don't want you to worry-"
"Willie," Alex cut him off, looking at him seriously. "I really think that we're past that point."
"-But I think he has hanahaki," He finished, looking at the floor, and Alex had decidedly never been more confused in his entire life.
He squeezed Willie's hand again, making him look up and meet his eyes, but before he could say anything, footsteps sounded from behind them as someone walked inside through the garage doors, and they both turned around to see Reggie.
"What's going on?" He asked after looking around the room, eyes landing on where Luke was asleep on the couch and staying there.
"He has hanahaki, apparently," Alex said, reluctantly letting go of Willie's hand to stand next to Reggie.
"Hana-what-i?"
"Hanahaki," Willie repeated for Alex, moving to sit on the arm of the couch next to Luke. "It's when flowers grow in your lungs because of unrequited feelings, usually romantic."
Alex and Reggie just stared at him in silent horror, and he sighed, crossing his legs and squeezing his eyes shut.
"I uh, I saw Caleb curse someone with it before," He said, moving a hand to push his hair behind his ear. "The flowers that they coughed up were pink, but everything else was the same. He probably cursed Luke."
"What happened to the person Caleb cursed?" Reggie asked hesitantly, taking a step closer to the couch, and Willie sighed.
"She uh, she died," He whispered under his breath, and both Alex and Reggie froze where they were standing.
"Okay, well, is there a cure? Or a solution or something? Something that will fix him?" Alex asked quickly, trying to stay quiet so that Luke wouldn't wake up, and Willie nodded again, opening his eyes and looking up at Alex who quickly gestured for him to continue.
"He has to either confess the feelings to the person they're for, or just… wait for the feelings to go away. But that's what the girl I was talking about did, she waited, and…" He trailed off, letting the boys fill in the gaps for themselves.
The silence was pressing as they all glanced between each other and Luke until Willie spoke up again.
"How long has he been like this?" He asked, and Alex and Reggie shared a look, guilt in each of their expressions when they turned back towards Willie.
"He was complaining about his throat a week or so ago," Reggie said, and Alex tried not to panic at how Willie's expression changed to be even more concerned. "But he said that it was starting to feel better a few days ago."
"I thought ghosts couldn't get sick," Alex whispered, and Reggie stepped closer to him, putting a comforting hand on his arm.
"You couldn't have known," Willie said, sensing what was going on. "And, I uh," He looked down at the floor. "I'm sorry. About Caleb. Again."
"No, Willie," Alex started, stepping into his space and brushing his hair behind his ear before placing a hand on his cheek. "It's not your fault. You know that, okay? We don't blame you, and Luke won't either."
Alex almost melted at the way Willie practically nuzzled into his hand before he jumped in surprise at the sound of Luke's voice.
"Why're you guys being sappy," He mumbled sleepily and rubbed at his eyes. "'S gross."
He ended the sentence with a couple of light coughs, and Alex stepped away from Willie and closer to Luke, attempting to keep his tone light as he joked. "You're just jealous, Patterson."
"Reg, stop," Luke whined, and Alex turned to see Reggie practically in tears as he stared at him. "You're looking at me like I'm dying," Alex and Reggie shared a look, "And 'm fine."
The way he curled into himself after his words and coughed up an entire flower soaked in blood definitely did not help his statement, though, and Alex and Reggie ran to his side, one of them patting his back and the other brushing hair out of his face. If he had the energy, he would have pushed them away and insisted he was fine again, but instead he just layed there, allowing his friends to worry over him. And if Alex brought up the way he almost purred under their affections later, he would vehemently deny it.
Eventually, though, the once comfortable silence started to become pressing through their concerned gazes, and Luke spoke up. "So? Anyone gonna tell me how I'm dying? Because honestly, I'd love to know," He joked, but immediately regretted it at Reggie's sharp breath and the way Alex's hand started to shake as he carded his fingers through Luke's hair. "Guys, what's wrong?" He asked, voice small, and Alex sighed.
"You're gonna be fine, okay?" He said, and Luke squeezed his eyes shut at the way he sounded so unsure. "You just need to tell Julie how you feel."
Luke's eyes shot open. "What."
Reggie was the one to sigh this time as he picked up Luke's hand and fidgeted with his fingers. "Willie says you have hanahaki," He said, and Luke glanced over to see him looking at his feet before looking back at Reggie. "The cure is confessing your unrequited romantic feelings."
Luke blinked slowly, starting to shake his head. "But I don't… I don't have feelings for Julie?" He said, slightly confused, and Alex huffed a laugh.
"Dude," Reggie started, a small smile starting to appear on his face. Luke would've been happy at the thought that he put it there if it wasn't for the fact he was the reason there wasn't one there in the first place. "We've had this conversation before."
"Yeah, and I said I have chemistry with everyone that I sing with. I even proved it!" He said, somewhat defensively, and Reggie just shook his head.
"Guys," He whined, feebly pushing their hands away with no real intention of wanting them to leave, "I'm serious."
And he was. He hadn't ever really felt romantic feelings towards anyone at all, so even if he was for Julie, how was he supposed to know? He knew that he felt differently about her than he did about other people, as if there was a different kind of love, a different kind of closeness there. Maybe it was romantic and he just didn't realize it because it was something he never had before.
Luke huffed from his spot on the couch. "What even happens if I don't? I mean, the symptoms have to go away eventually, right?" He questioned, and Reggie and Alex shared another look over his shoulder that he couldn't quite decipher. "Stop doing that! You know I can't read your looks. It's like a different language," He said, crossing his arms and pouting.
The pout immediately fell away and turned into a frown at the way they just shared another concerned look instead of teasing him like they usually would, and he tried not to let it show how scared he was when he let out a quiet, "Guys?"
Obviously he had failed, considering the way Alex immediately plastered a fake reassuring expression over his worried face at the tone in Luke's voice.
"Hey, you're going to be fine okay? You're gonna be okay," He said, and Luke sighed. There was clearly something they weren't telling him, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to find out what it was.
"Guys," He huffed again, moving around on the couch so that his knees were pulled to his chest. "It hurts."
"What hurts?" Alex asked, and the seriousness in his voice was so different than the teasing the week before, scaring Luke far more than Alex actually intended.
"My throat," He said, squeezing his eyes shut. "And my uh, my chest."
He heard Reggie sigh, and felt the way he dropped his hand, putting his arm around Luke in a side hug made uncomfortable from the awkward angle. "Alex is right okay? You're gonna be fine, man," He said, and Luke didn't have the heart to tell him how much he didn't believe them. "Julie's going to get home from school any second now okay? Then it'll stop hurting."
"Okay," He whispered, and willed himself to believe his friends.
Everything would be okay. It had to be.
To give Julie credit, she actually didn't freak out too much when she came home to Luke's 'confession.'
But then again, it was probably because they didn't tell her about the whole coughing-up-blood-and-flowers deal, per Luke's stupid and idiotic request.
He just hadn't wanted her to worry or feel guilty about the situation, so an hour before she was supposed to get back from school, he somehow convinced both the guys and Willie to help him get rid of anything that could show that something was wrong.
They ended up helping him find every petal to throw away, and patted his back and held back his hair whenever he felt the sudden urge to cough up the flowers that were- according to Willie- growing in his lungs. And by the time Julie had come back from school, everything was clean, and all the boys- including Willie- were sitting on the pullout couch as they waited for her to walk through the door.
When she did, she jumped in surprise at the sight of all of them, frowning at the solemn looks on their faces and the exhaustion in Luke's eyes. "Guys? What's wrong?"
Reggie elbowed Luke in the side from the couch, and he huffed, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting, not saying anything.
Alex sighed, "Luke has something he wants to tell you," He looked at him pointedly, and he rolled his eyes before turning his gaze back to Julie, looking slightly sheepish.
"I uh, I like you," He said, voice almost a whisper, and Julie raised her eyebrows jokingly.
"Well, I'd hope so," She said, crossing her own arms, "I mean, you literally live in my garage."
He huffed a small laugh, and Julie grinned before it fell off her face at his next words. "No, I mean. I like like you. Like, romantically. Apparently," He muttered the last word under his breath, making Alex hit him over the head. "Ow!"
Julie bit her lip nervously as all the boys on the couch stared at her. She felt like there was more to what was going on than what they were saying, considering the way Luke was seemingly holding back coughs and Willie was looking so incredibly guilty, but she decided not to push at that, dropping her arms back down by her sides.
"You don't sound too sure," She said, and really, if she was alone she would've slapped herself. Out of every possible sentence she could have said, that was the one she picked.
Luke just shrugged, seemingly incapable of speaking as he bit his own lip hard enough for blood to start to well up from the pressure. He moved one of his hands to clutch at his chest, and Julie watched as the other boys shared worried looks.
"Guys, really, what's going on?" She asked, and Alex whispered something to Willie who walked over to her, grabbing her hand and pulling her out of the garage while Reggie, Alex, and Luke poofed to the bathroom.
"Willie," Julie started, pulling her hand away, "Tell me what's happening. What's wrong with Luke."
He stayed silent, not sure how much he was allowed to say, and Julie huffed.
"Is he… is he gonna be okay?" She asked hesitantly, and Willie looked up to her, nodding quickly.
"Yeah, yeah don't worry Jules. He's gonna be fine," He said, trying to convince both her and himself, and she gave him a small smile, stepping forward and grabbing his hand again as they waited for the boys to come back.
Said boys had been in the garage bathroom, one of them coughing out what felt like the entirety of both of his lungs into the toilet while the other two patted his back, trying not to look too grossed out at the blood-soaked daffodils that made their way out of their friends mouth.
"It's okay," Alex started when Luke seemed to be finished, "Willie said this would happen. I feel like he over exaggerated though," He said, frowning, "He said there would be a lot of flowers and petals, like it would be your lungs clearing it out after the confession, but," He gestured towards the few petals and one flower in the toilet, "There really isn't that many."
Luke huffed, leaning against Reggie's legs from where he stood behind him and closing his eyes. "Still hurts," He mumbled, and Alex and Reggie sighed.
"Yeah, we know," Alex said softly, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Willie said it might take a while for the throat ache to go away."
Luke just hummed, leaning into his family's hands and trying not to think too much about what had just happened.
Even if Julie reacted badly, at least the symptoms would be gone, and that was worth a few days of awkwardness. As long as things returned back to normal, everything would be okay.
When Julie eventually broke the news to him, telling him that she didn't like him in the way he said that he liked her, it wasn't really unexpected, and he found that he wasn't upset by it, and that he was actually relieved.
What was unexpected, though, and was absolutely not relieving, was the way his chest started to ache more than ever later in the day, coupled with the fact that the urge to cough during practice had been so strong that he missed his cue a few times in a row.
Luke had gotten a few looks, but his bandmates decided not to push and instead decided to end the practice thirty minutes earlier than usual. He would've been upset if not for the fact that he ran to the bathroom the second after the rest of them had left the studio, coughing up so much blood and petals that he felt like he was going to pass out.
He didn't understand. The symptoms were supposed to stop after feelings were confessed, so why was he there? Leaning over the toilet in the studio bathroom and willing the ache in his chest to go away?
Did he do something wrong? There was something in the back of the smarter area of his mind, screaming yes, yes he did something wrong. But what was that something?
And in the darker parts of his head, a voice creeped close, whispering a quiet what if. What if the flowers being yellow instead of pink actually meant something? What if the type of hanahaki he had was incurable and it was just his fate to die like this, coughing up his flower filled lungs?
He tried to shake the thoughts off, moving so his head hit the cool tile of the bathroom wall, and tried not to jump too much when Willie poofed in, looking wildly around the studio before spotting him and running up to him, an old looking book in his hands.
"Luke!" He yelled, walking into the bathroom, the concern only growing on his face at the sight of both how awful Luke looked and the blood and petals in the toilet. "Shit, okay okay okay."
He flipped through the book in his hands, anxiously looking for a specific page while Luke looked up silently at him, too exhausted to waste the small amount of energy he did have on speaking.
When Willie found the page, he quickly kneeled down next to Luke, and held the book in front of him as he paraphrased what it said out loud.
"I was wrong," He started, "Okay? The yellow flowers do mean something. Look here," He pointed to a specific area of the page, "I took this from the HGC. It says that pink flowers are specifically romantic. The yellow flowers are platonic Luke."
All he could do in response to that was look at Willie, confusion written all over his face as he blinked up at him. It felt as if his thoughts were swirling around in his mind, and he couldn't make sense of even the simplest things, let alone something as complicated as this.
Sensing Luke's confusion, Willie continued, "You were right about not liking Julie. Romantically, at least. That's why you still have symptoms, you confessed the wrong feelings," He said, and Luke squeezed his eyes shut, wanting to do nothing more than rip his hair out.
Why couldn't he just be normal? Why couldn't he have had the romantic feelings? Why did everything have to be so complicated?
"Luke," Willie said, somehow sensing his inner turmoil, his face twisted with worry, "Luke, hey man, it's gonna be alright okay? You just gotta do what you did last time, just with different words. It's alright. We just have to…" He trailed off, flipping forward in the book and trailing his eyes over the page before freezing. "We have to go. Now. Where's Julie?"
Luke hummed, attempting to clear the fuzzy-ness in his head to find an answer. He knew that she told him where she was going when she left practice, but he just couldn't think. "Um, I uh, I…" He moved a hand to his head as it started to ache. "I don't remember."
"Okay, okay uh, Alex? Reggie?" He asked quickly, making Luke's head hurt even more.
He groaned, but attempted to sift through his thoughts anyway, grabbing on to the least hazy one. "Uh, I think Reggie is, uh, with Ray? He's usually with Ray," He said, squeezing his eyes shut, and Willie sighed in relief.
"Okay. Okay. I'll be right back. You can stay here. Don't move," He said, putting the book down and poofing to where Luke assumed Reggie was. He moved his palms to his eyes, pushing against them and trying to combat the headache that just continued to get worse.
Sitting on the bathroom floor, he tried not to jump when Willie, Alex and Reggie poofed in, the last two moving quickly to sit next to him while Willie spoke.
"Julie's gonna be here any second okay?" He attempted to reassure, but all Luke could feel was panic at his words as he quickly sat up from where he was slumped against the wall.
"You didn't tell her-"
"We did," Alex cut him off, and Luke slumped back against the wall. "We had to. It was the only way she was going to leave the movies," Luke fought away the guilt rising in his chest at the words, "Flynn is coming too."
He closed his eyes, but immediately opened them at the feeling of a finger poking into his cheek. He swatted away Reggie's hand, muttering a quiet, "Stop."
"You can't fall asleep dude," He responded, bumping his shoulder against Luke's, and Luke just huffed, not having the energy to do much else.
It was probably a good thing that Flynn and Julie had run in when they did, considering the way Luke couldn't stop coughing, and the scary thing was- nothing was coming up this time.
"Luke!" Julie called out his name, much like Willie did some time before, and ran forward, cupping his face with her hands. "Hey, you're gonna be alright okay? You just have to say it," She said, and Luke had to search through the fuzzy-ness in his head to find out what it was before he realized.
He opened his mouth to speak, but the words got caught in his throat. God, his throat hurt so much and his head and chest ached and he just wanted it to be over but he couldn't get the words out. His mouth felt just as heavy as his eyelids.
He was so tired.
"Luke," A voice that sounded kind of like Alex said, cutting through the fog and somehow making it a little easier to think which made it easier to breathe.
He hummed, slumping further against the wall despite Julie's hands on his face attempting to hold him up and shut his eyes again only to immediately be poked- this time in the stomach- by Reggie.
"Luke, come on," Julie spoke up again, panic written all over her face, and Luke let a noise of discomfort slip past his lips before biting his bottom one in frustration. Why was it so hard to talk?
"Love you guys," He finally managed to say, eyes falling closed again, "Love you Julie. But like, platonically, y'know?" He attempted to joke, not expecting the way he immediately doubled over, his body shaking with the force of his coughs as his friends pushed him towards the toilet.
It felt as if his lungs were being clawed out of his chest as he coughed, the hands of his friends patting his back lightly and resting on his shoulders and arms as he hunched over the toilet. He wasn't sure how long he was in that position, all he knew was that when he eventually leaned back against the wall, his chest ached, but his lungs felt hollow, empty.
When Luke opened his eyes again, he couldn't see much other than his friends- his family- hovering over him, but when his eyes finally managed to focus on the space between and behind Reggie and Flynn, he saw the toilet, full of blood and now-red daffodils, the roots and stems completely attached to the flowers, and he smiled.
His chest and throat and head still ached, but somehow, he knew it was over, and with his family by his side, that was enough.